Abstract: This paper employs the Jeffrey's prior technique in the
process of estimating the periodograms and frequency of sinusoidal
model for unknown noisy time variants or oscillating events (data) in
a Bayesian setting. The non-informative Jeffrey's prior was adopted
for the posterior trigonometric function of the sinusoidal model
such that Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) inference was used
in carving-out the minimum variance needed to curb the invariance
structure effect for unknown noisy time observational and repeated
circular patterns. An average monthly oscillating temperature series
measured in degree Celsius (0C) from 1901 to 2014 was subjected to
the posterior solution of the unknown noisy events of the sinusoidal
model via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). It was not only
deduced that two minutes period is required before completing a cycle
of changing temperature from one particular degree Celsius to another
but also that the sinusoidal model via the CRLB-Jeffrey's prior for
unknown noisy events produced a miniature posterior Maximum A
Posteriori (MAP) compare to a known noisy events.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) coated polypropylene (PP) films containing Zataria multiflora (ZEO) essential oils (4%) as an antimicrobial packaging for chicken breast stored at 4 °C. To increase PP film hydrophilicity, it was treated by atmospheric cold plasma prior to coating by CMC. Then, different films including PP, PP/CMC, PP/CMC containing 4% of ZEO were used for the chicken meat packaging in vapor phase. Total viable count and pseudomonads population and oxidative (TBA) changes of the chicken breast were analyzed during shelf life. Results showed that the shelf life of chicken meat kept in films containing ZEO improved from three to nine days compared to the control sample without any direct contact with the film. Study of oxygen barrier properties of bilayer film without essential oils (0.096 cm3 μm/m2 d kPa) in comparison with PP film (416 cm3 μm/m2 d kPa) shows that coating of PP with CMC significantly reduces oxygen permeation of the obtained packaging (P
Abstract: A process corner monitoring circuit (PCMC) is presented in this work. The circuit generates a signal, the logical value of which depends on the process corner only. The signal can be used in both digital and analog circuits for testing and compensation of process variations (PV). The presented circuit uses only metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors, which allow increasing its detection accuracy, decrease power consumption and area. Due to its simplicity the presented circuit can be easily modified to monitor parametrical variations of only n-type and p-type MOS (NMOS and PMOS, respectively) transistors, resistors, as well as their combinations. Post-layout simulation results prove correct functionality of the proposed circuit, i.e. ability to monitor the process corner (equivalently die-to-die variations) even in the presence of within-die variations.
Abstract: This paper aims to explore the role of peer Corrective Feedback (CF) in improving written productions by English-as-a- foreign-language (EFL) learners who work together via Wikispaces. It attempted to determine the effect of peer CF on form accuracy in English, such as grammar and lexis. Thirty-four EFL learners at the tertiary level were randomly assigned into the experimental (with peer feedback) or the control (without peer feedback) group; each group was subdivided into small groups of two or three. This resulted in six and seven small groups in the experimental and control groups, respectively. In the experimental group, each learner played a role as an assessor (providing feedback to others), as well as an assessee (receiving feedback from others). Each participant was asked to compose his/her written work and revise it based on the feedback. In the control group, on the other hand, learners neither provided nor received feedback but composed and revised their written work on their own. Data collected from learners’ compositions and post-task interviews were analyzed and reported in this study. Following the completeness of three writing tasks, 10 participants were selected and interviewed individually regarding their perception of collaborative learning in the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) environment. Language aspects to be analyzed included lexis (e.g., appropriate use of words), verb tenses (e.g., present and past simple), prepositions (e.g., in, on, and between), nouns, and articles (e.g., a/an). Feedback types consisted of CF, affective, suggestive, and didactic. Frequencies of feedback types and the accuracy of the language aspects were calculated. The results first suggested that accurate items were found more in the experimental group than in the control group. Such results entail that those who worked collaboratively outperformed those who worked non-collaboratively on the accuracy of linguistic aspects. Furthermore, the first type of CF (e.g., corrections directly related to linguistic errors) was found to be the most frequently employed type, whereas affective and didactic were the least used by the experimental group. The results further indicated that most participants perceived that peer CF was helpful in improving the language accuracy, and they demonstrated a favorable attitude toward working with others in the CMC environment. Moreover, some participants stated that when they provided feedback to their peers, they tended to pay attention to linguistic errors in their peers’ work but overlook their own errors (e.g., past simple tense) when writing. Finally, L2 or FL teachers or practitioners are encouraged to employ CMC technologies to train their students to give each other feedback in writing to improve the accuracy of the language and to motivate them to attend to the language system.
Abstract: This paper is to compare the parameter estimation of
the mean in normal distribution by Maximum Likelihood (ML),
Bayes, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The ML
estimator is estimated by the average of data, the Bayes method is
considered from the prior distribution to estimate Bayes estimator,
and MCMC estimator is approximated by Gibbs sampling from
posterior distribution. These methods are also to estimate a parameter
then the hypothesis testing is used to check a robustness of the
estimators. Data are simulated from normal distribution with the true
parameter of mean 2, and variance 4, 9, and 16 when the sample
sizes is set as 10, 20, 30, and 50. From the results, it can be seen
that the estimation of MLE, and MCMC are perceivably different
from the true parameter when the sample size is 10 and 20 with
variance 16. Furthermore, the Bayes estimator is estimated from the
prior distribution when mean is 1, and variance is 12 which showed
the significant difference in mean with variance 9 at the sample size
10 and 20.
Abstract: A considerable amount of lignocellulosic by-product could be obtained from olive pulp during olive oil extraction industry. The major constituents of the olive pulp are husks and seeds. The separation of each portion of olive pulp (seeds and husks) was carried out by water flotation where seeds were sediment in the bottom. Both seeds and husks were dignified by 15% NaOH followed by complete lignin removal by using sodium chlorite in acidic medium. The isolated holocellulose, α-cellulose, hydrogel and CMC which prepared from cellulose of both seeds and husk fractions were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The present study focused on the investigation of the chemical components of the lignocellulosic fraction of olive pulp. Biofunctionlization of hydrogel was achieved through loading of silver nanoparticles AgNPs in to the prepared hydrogel. The antimicrobial activity of the loaded silver hydrogel against G-ve, and G+ve, and candida was demonstrated.
Abstract: Piecewise polynomial regression model is very flexible model for modeling the data. If the piecewise polynomial regression model is matched against the data, its parameters are not generally known. This paper studies the parameter estimation problem of piecewise polynomial regression model. The method which is used to estimate the parameters of the piecewise polynomial regression model is Bayesian method. Unfortunately, the Bayes estimator cannot be found analytically. Reversible jump MCMC algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. Reversible jump MCMC algorithm generates the Markov chain that converges to the limit distribution of the posterior distribution of piecewise polynomial regression model parameter. The resulting Markov chain is used to calculate the Bayes estimator for the parameters of piecewise polynomial regression model.
Abstract: A considerable amount of lignocellulosic by-product could be obtained from olive pulp during olive oil extraction industry. The major constituents of the olive pulp are husks and seeds. The separation of each portion of olive pulp (seeds and husks) was carried out by water flotation where seeds were sediment in the bottom. Both seeds and husks were dignified by 15% NaOH followed by complete lignin removal by using sodium chlorite in acidic medium. The isolated holocellulose, α-cellulose, hydrogel and CMC of both seeds and husk fractions were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The present study focused on the investigation of the chemical components of the lignocellulosic fraction of olive pulp and using them in medical application. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is produced and applied in the preparation of antimicrobial hydrogel.
Abstract: A retrospective study conducted at Christian Medical
College (CMC) Teaching Hospital, Vellore, India on 14th August
2014 to assess the accuracy of clinically estimated foetal weight upon
labour admission. Estimating foetal weight is a crucial factor in
assessing maternal and foetal complications during and after labour.
Medical notes of ninety-eight postnatal women who fulfilled the
inclusion criteria were studied to evaluate the correlation between
their recorded Estimated Foetal Weight (EFW) on admission and
actual birth weight (ABW) of the newborn after delivery. Data
concerning maternal and foetal demographics was also noted.
Accuracy was determined by absolute percentage error and
proportion of estimates within 10% of ABW. Actual birth weights
ranged from 950-4080g. A strong positive correlation between EFW
and ABW (r=0.904) was noted. Term deliveries (≥40 weeks) in the
normal weight range (2500-4000g) had a 59.5% estimation accuracy
(n=74) compared to pre-term (4000g) were underestimated by 25% (n=3) and low birthweight
(LBW) babies were overestimated by 12.7% (n=9). Registrars who
estimated foetal weight were accurate in babies within normal weight
ranges. However, there needs to be an improvement in predicting
weight of macrosomic and LBW foetuses. We have suggested the use
of an amended version of the Johnson’s formula for the Indian
population for improvement and a need to re-audit once
implemented.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate the mixing behaviors of
deionized (DI) water and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solutions in
C-shaped serpentine micromixers over a wide range of flow
conditions. The flow of CMC solutions exhibits shear-thinning
behaviors. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the
effects of the mean flow speed, fluid properties and geometry
parameters on flow and mixing in the micromixers with the serpentine
channel of the same overall channel length. From the results, we can
find the following trends. When convection dominates fluid mixing,
the curvature-induced vortices enhance fluid mixing effectively. The
mixing efficiency of a micromixer consisting of semicircular C-shaped
repeating units with a smaller centerline radius is better than that of a
micromixer consisting of major segment repeating units with a larger
centerline radius. The viscosity of DI water is less than the overall
average apparent viscosity of CMC solutions, and so the effect of
curvature-induced vortices on fluid mixing in DI water is larger than
that in CMC solutions for the cases with the same mean flow speed.
Abstract: Although, lanthanum carbonate has not been approved
by the FDA for treatment of hyperphosphatemia, we prospectively
evaluated the efficacy of the combination of Calcium hydroxyapatite
(CHAp) and Lanthanum Carbonate (LaC) for the treatment of
hyperphosphatemia on mice. CHAp was prepared by co-precipitation
method using Ca(OH)2, H3PO4, NH4OH with calcination at 1200ºC.
Lanthanum carbonate was prepared by chemical method using
NaHCO3 and LaCl3 at low pH environment, below 4.0. The
structures were characterized by FTIR spectra and SEM -EDX
analysis. The study group included 16 subjects-mice divided into four
groups according to the administered substance: lanthanum carbonate
(group A), CHAp (group B), lanthanum carbonate + CHAp (group C)
and salt water (group D). The results indicate a phosphate decrease
when subjects (mice) were treated with CHAp and lanthanum
carbonate (0.5% CMC), in a single dose of 1500 mg/kg. Serum
phosphate concentration decreased [(from 4.5 ± 0.8 mg/dL) to
4.05 ± 0.2 mg/dL), P < 0.01] in group A and in group C (to 3.6
± 0.2 mg/dL) at 12 hours from the administration. The combination
of CHAp and lanthanum carbonate is a suitable regimen for
hyperphosphatemia treatment because it avoids both the
hypercalcemia of CaCO3 and the adverse effects of CHAp.
Abstract: The mixed micellization of adiphenine hydrochloride (ADP) with 1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (C10mim.Cl), was investigated at different mole fractions and temperatures by surface tension measurements. The synergistic behavior (i.e., non-ideal behavior) for binary mixtures was explained by the deviation of critical micelle concentration (cmc) from ideal critical micelle concentration (cmc*), micellar mole fraction (Xim) from ideal micellar mole fraction (Xiideal), the values of interaction parameter (β) and activity coefficients (fi) (for both mixed micelles and mixed monolayer). The excess free energy (ΔGex) for the ADP- C10mim.Cl binary mixtures explain the stability of mixed micelles in comparison to micelles of pure ADP and C10mim.Cl. Interfacial parameters, i.e., Gibbs surface excess (Гmax), minimum head group area at air/ water
interface (Amin), and free energy of micellization (ΔG0m) were also evaluated for the systems.
Abstract: Biofuels production has come forth as a future
technology to combat the problem of depleting fossil fuels. Bio-based
ethanol production from enzymatic lignocellulosic biomass
degradation serves an efficient method and catching the eye of
scientific community. High cost of the enzyme is the major obstacle
in preventing the commercialization of this process. Thus main
objective of the present study was to optimize composition of
medium components for enhancing cellulase production by newly
isolated strain of Bacillus tequilensis. Nineteen factors were taken
into account using statistical Plackett-Burman Design. The significant
variables influencing the cellulose production were further employed
in statistical Response Surface Methodology using Central
Composite Design for maximizing cellulase production. The
optimum medium composition for cellulase production was: peptone
(4.94 g/L), ammonium chloride (4.99 g/L), yeast extract (2.00 g/L),
Tween-20 (0.53 g/L), calcium chloride (0.20 g/L) and cobalt chloride
(0.60 g/L) with pH 7, agitation speed 150 rpm and 72 h incubation at
37oC. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed high coefficient of
determination (R2) of 0.99. Maximum cellulase productivity of 11.5
IU/ml was observed against the model predicted value of 13 IU/ml.
This was found to be optimally active at 60oC and pH 5.5.
Abstract: A computational fluid dynamics simulation is done for
non-Newtonian fluid in a baffled stirred tank. The CMC solution is
taken as non-Newtonian shear thinning fluid for simulation. The
Reynolds Average Navier Stocks equation with steady state multi
reference frame approach is used to simulate flow in the stirred tank.
The turbulent flow field is modelled using realizable k-ε turbulence
model. The simulated velocity profiles of Rushton turbine is
validated with literature data. Then, the simulated flow field of CD-6
impeller is compared with the Rushton turbine. The flow field
generated by CD-6 impeller is less in magnitude than the Rushton
turbine. The impeller global parameter, power number and flow
number, and entropy generation due to viscous dissipation rate is also
reported.
Abstract: Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) is
a hybrid e-framework for the development of a web-based instruction
(WBI), which contributes towards instructional design and language
development. WeCWI divides its contribution in instructional design
into macro and micro perspectives. In macro perspective, being a 21st
century educator by disseminating knowledge and sharing ideas with
the in-class and global learners is initiated. By leveraging the virtue
of technology, WeCWI aims to transform an educator into an
aggregator, curator, publisher, social networker and ultimately, a
web-based instructor. Since the most notable contribution of
integrating technology is being a tool of teaching as well as a
stimulus for learning, WeCWI focuses on the use of contemporary
web tools based on the multiple roles played by the 21st century
educator. The micro perspective in instructional design draws
attention to the pedagogical approaches focusing on three main
aspects: reading, discussion, and writing. With the effective use of
pedagogical approaches through free reading and enterprises,
technology adds new dimensions and expands the boundaries of
learning capacity. Lastly, WeCWI also imparts the fundamental
theories and models for web-based instructors’ awareness such as
interactionist theory, cognitive information processing (CIP) theory,
computer-mediated communication (CMC), e-learning interactionalbased
model, inquiry models, sensory mind model, and leaning styles
model.
Abstract: This paper proposes a linear mixed model (LMM) with spatial effects to forecast rice and cassava yields in Thailand at the same time. A multivariate conditional autoregressive (MCAR) model is assumed to present the spatial effects. A Bayesian method is used for parameter estimation via Gibbs sampling Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). The model is applied to the rice and cassava yields monthly data which have been extracted from the Office of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand. The results show that the proposed model has better performance in most provinces in both fitting part and validation part compared to the simple exponential smoothing and conditional auto regressive models (CAR) from our previous study.
Abstract: A forecasting model for steel demand uncertainty in Thailand is proposed. It consists of trend, autocorrelation, and outliers in a hierarchical Bayesian frame work. The proposed model uses a cumulative Weibull distribution function, latent first-order autocorrelation, and binary selection, to account for trend, time-varying autocorrelation, and outliers, respectively. The Gibbs sampling Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is used for parameter estimation. The proposed model is applied to steel demand index data in Thailand. The root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and mean absolute error (MAE) criteria are used for model comparison. The study reveals that the proposed model is more appropriate than the exponential smoothing method.
Abstract: This paper proposes a GLMM with spatial and
temporal effects for malaria data in Thailand. A Bayesian method is
used for parameter estimation via Gibbs sampling MCMC. A
conditional autoregressive (CAR) model is assumed to present the
spatial effects. The temporal correlation is presented through the
covariance matrix of the random effects. The malaria quarterly data
have been extracted from the Bureau of Epidemiology, Ministry of
Public Health of Thailand. The factors considered are rainfall and
temperature. The result shows that rainfall and temperature are
positively related to the malaria morbidity rate. The posterior means
of the estimated morbidity rates are used to construct the malaria
maps. The top 5 highest morbidity rates (per 100,000 population) are
in Trat (Q3, 111.70), Chiang Mai (Q3, 104.70), Narathiwat (Q4,
97.69), Chiang Mai (Q2, 88.51), and Chanthaburi (Q3, 86.82).
According to the DIC criterion, the proposed model has a better
performance than the GLMM with spatial effects but without
temporal terms.
Abstract: The cellulose was extracted from pomelo peel and an
etherification reaction used for converting cellulose to carboxymethyl
cellulose (CMC). The pomelo peel was refluxed with 0.5 M HCl and 1
M NaOH solution at 90°C for 1 h and 2 h, respectively. The cellulose
was bleached with calcium hypochlorite and used as precursor. The
precursor was soaked in mixed solution between isopropyl alcohol and
40%w/v NaOH for 12 h. After that, chloroacetic acid was added and
reacted at 55°C for 6 h. The optimum condition was 5 g of cellulose:
0.25 mole of NaOH : 0.07 mole of ClCH2COOH with 78.00% of yield.
Moreover, the product had 0.54 of degree of substitution (DS).
Abstract: The nanotechnology offers some exciting possibilities in cancer treatment, including the possibility of destroying tumors with minimal damage to healthy tissue and organs by targeted drug delivery systems. Considerable achievements in investigations aimed at the use of ZnO nanoparticles and nanocontainers in diagnostics and antitumor therapy were described. However, there are substantial obstacles to the purposes to be achieved by the use of zinc oxide nanosize materials in antitumor therapy. Among the serious problems are the techniques of obtaining ZnO nanosize materials. The article presents a new vector delivery system for the known antitumor drug, doxorubicin in the form of polymeric (PEO, starch-NaCMC) hydrogels, in which nanosize ZnO film of a certain thickness are deposited directly on the drug surface on glass substrate by DC-magnetron sputtering of a zinc target. Anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo of those nanosize zinc oxide composites is shown.