Abstract: Malathion (ML) is a well known pesticide commonly
used in many agricultural and non-agricultural processes. Its toxicity
has been attributed primarily to the accumulation of acetylcholine
(Ach) at nerve junctions, due to the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase
(AChE). The aim of the current research was to study the protective
effect of the melissa plant extract against reproductive impairment
induced by malathion in 32 male albino rats, and the biological
experiment was divided into four groups (8 in each) that given
malathion (27 mg/kg; 1/50 of the LD50 for an oral dose) and/or
Melissa officinalis (MO) extract (200mg/kg/day) by gavages
technique. The sperm counts, sperm motility, sperm morphology,
FSH, LH, and testosterone levels had been determined in testes
homogenate at the end of the experiment. It is worthy to report that,
rats treated with melissa extract did not show a significant difference
when compared with the control group, while rats given malathion
alone had significantly lower sperm count, sperm motility, and
significantly higher abnormal sperm numbers, than the untreated
control rats as well as having significantly lower serum FSH, LH, and
testosterone levels compared with the control group. Administrations
of melissa extract restore all mentioned histological parameters
towards the control group and the melissa extract had a strong
positive protective effect against malathion toxicity. Results the of
biological parameters were confirmed by the histological
examination of rat testes and indicated that, both control and melissa
groups showing normal seminiferous tubules, while malathion group
testicular tissues had necrosis, edema in the seminiferous tubules and
degeneration of spermatogonial cells lining the seminiferous tubules
with incomplete spermatogenesis. The use of melissa against
malathion improved the histological picture and showing normal
seminiferous tubules with complete spermatogenesis and almost there
was no histopathological changes could be noted.
Abstract: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) allows modeling of dynamic interaction between incongruous providers, which enables governing the development of complex applications. However, implementation of SOA comes with some challenges, including its adaptability and robustness. Dynamism is inherent to the nature of service based applications and of their running environment. These factors lead to necessity for dynamic adaptation. In this paper we try to describe basics and main structure of SOA adaptation process with a conceptual view to this issue. In this survey we will review the relevant adaptation approaches. This paper allows studying how different approaches deal with service oriented architecture adaptation life-cycle and provides basic guidelines for their analysis, evaluation and comparison.
Abstract: The most important problem occurs on oil spills in sea
water is to reduce the oil spills size. This study deals with the
development of high pressurized nozzle using dispersion method for
oil leakage in offshore. 3D numerical simulation results were
obtained using ANSYS Fluent 13.0 code and correlate with the
experimental data for validation. This paper studies the contribution
of the process on flow speed and pressure of the flow from two
different geometrical designs of nozzles and to generate a spray
pattern suitable for dispersant application. Factor of size distribution
of droplets generated by the nozzle is calculated using pressures
ranging from 2 to 6 bars. Results obtain from both analyses shows a
significant spray pattern and flow distribution as well as distance.
Results also show a significant contribution on the effect of oil
leakage in terms of the diameter of the oil spills break up.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of software quality assurance approaches of Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations, and to propose a framework which could be used across all offshore software development organizations.
An empirical study was conducted using derived framework from popular software quality evaluation models. The research instrument employed was a questionnaire survey among thirty seven Sri Lankan registered offshore software development organizations.
The findings demonstrate a positive view of Effectiveness of Software Quality Assurance – the stronger predictors of Stability, Installability, Correctness, Testability and Changeability. The present study’s recommendations indicate a need for much emphasis on software quality assurance for the Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations.
Abstract: The main purpose of this work is to experimentally investigate the effect of pipe orientation on two phase flow phenomenon. Flow pattern, void fraction and two phase pressure drop is measured in a polycarbonate pipe with an inside diameter of 12.7mm for inclination angles ranging from -20o to +20o using air-water fluid combination. The experimental data covers all flow patterns and the entire range of void fraction typically observed in two phase flow. The effect of pipe orientation on void fraction and two phase pressure drop is justified with reference to the change in flow structure and two phase flow behavior. In addition to this, the top performing void fraction and two phase pressure drop correlations available in the literature are presented and their performance is assessed against the experimental data in the present study and that available in the literature.
Abstract: Nowadays, flexibility introduced as a modern technology in furniture systems especially in interior planning design. According to results, the most important impact of these systems can be seen on open plan design that makes workspaces comfortable and increases the productivity of employees besides making good relationship between them. Briefly, there are some factors along with new systems in furniture design help create inappropriate space to make working better and easier while it has modular planning organization. It brings about some approaches to have a successful space for open offices with modular design and flexible furniture systems. These approaches have been investigated in open and close offices at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in Famagusta, Cyprus, using information extracted from questionnaires.
Abstract: In economical evaluation literature, although the combination of some variables such as repair and maintenance costs and accumulated use hours has been widely considered in determining of optimum life for tractor, no investigation has indicated the influence of failure rate on repair and maintenance costs. In this study, the owners of three hundred tractors, which include Massey Ferguson, John Deere and Universal, were interviewed, from five regions of Khouzestan Province. A regression model was used to predict the tractors annual repair and maintenance costs based on failure rate. Results showed that the maximum percentage of annual repair and maintenance costs occurred in engine parts for MF285, JD3140 and U650 tractors while these costs for tire, ring, ball bearing and operator seat were higher compared to other MF399 tractor systems. According to the results of the regression, the failure rate increase would lead to annual repair and maintenance costs increase for all tractors. But, of all the tractors, repair and maintenance costs of JD3140 tractors extremely affected by the failure rate increase.
Abstract: Carbon capture, transport and underground storage have become a major solution to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants and other large CO2 sources. A big part of this captured CO2 stream is transported at high pressure dense phase conditions and stored in offshore underground depleted oil and gas fields. CO2 is also transported in offshore pipelines to be used for enhanced oil and gas recovery. The captured CO2 stream with impurities may contain water that causes severe corrosion problems, flow assurance failure and might damage valves and instrumentations. Thus, free water formation should be strictly prevented. The purpose of this work is to study the solubility of water in pure CO2 and in CO2 mixtures under real pipeline pressure (90-150 bar) and temperature operation conditions (5-35°C). A set up was constructed to generate experimental data. The results show the solubility of water in CO2 mixtures increasing with the increase of the temperature or/and with the increase in pressure. A drop in water solubility in CO2 is observed in the presence of impurities. The data generated were then used to assess the capabilities of two mixture models: the GERG-2008 model and the EOS-CG model. By generating the solubility data, this study contributes to determine the maximum allowable water content in CO2 pipelines.
Abstract: Demanding structural safety under various loading conditions, has focused attention on their variation and structural elements behavior due to these variations. Jacket structures are designed for a specific water level (LAT). One of the important issues about these kinds of structures is the water level rise. For example, the level of water in the Caspian Sea has risen by 2.5m in the last fifteen years and is continuing to rise. In this paper, the structural behavior of one typical shallow or medium water jacket platform (a four-leg steel jacket platform in 55m water depth) under water level rise has been studied. The time history of Von Mises stress and nodal displacement has chosen for evaluating structural behavior. The results show that dependent on previous water depth and structural elements position; different structural elements have different behavior due to water level rise.
Abstract: Bridge piers which are constructed in the track of high water rivers cause some variations in the flow patterns. This variation mostly is a result of the changes in river sections. Decreasing the river section, bridge piers significantly impress the flow patterns. Once the flow approaches the piers, the stream lines change their order, causing the appearance of different flow patterns around the bridge piers. New flow patterns are created following the geometry and the other technical characteristics of the piers. One of the most significant consequences of this event is the scour generated around the bridge piers which threatens the safety of the structure. In order to determine the properties of scour holes, to find maximum depth of the scour is an important factor. In this manuscript a numerical simulation of the scour around Marand-Soofian route bridge piers has been carried out via SSIIM 2.0 Software and the amount of maximum scour has been achieved subsequently. Eventually the methods for retrofitting of bridge piers against scours and also the methods for decreasing the amount of scour have been offered.
Abstract: The object of this study was to investigate several hormones correlated to the reproduction and inhibin A, inhibin B and NO levels in the infertile dairy cows as attempt to illustrate the physiological causes of dairy cows infertility.
40 Holstein cow (21 infertile and 19 fertile) were used at estrous phase of the cycle, Hormones FSH, LH, E2, Testosterone, were measured using ELISA method. inhibin A and B also estimated by ELISA method, Nitric oxide was measured by Greiss reagent method.
The results showed different concentrations of the hormone in which FSH illustrated significantly higher concentration in the infertile cows than fertile cows (P
Abstract: Fishing has always been an essential component of
the Polynesians- life. Fishhooks, mostly in pearl shell, found during
archaeological excavations are the artifacts related to this activity the
most numerous. Thanks to them, we try to reconstruct the ancient
techniques of resources exploitation, inside the lagoons and offshore.
They can also be used as chronological and cultural indicators. The
shapes and dimensions of these artifacts allow comparisons and
classifications used in both functional approach and chrono-cultural
perspective. Hence it is very important for the ethno-archaeologists
to dispose of reliable methods and standardized measurement of
these artifacts. Such a reliable objective and standardized method
have been previously proposed. But this method cannot be envisaged
manually because of the very important time required to measure
each fishhook manually and the quantity of fishhooks to measure
(many hundreds). We propose in this paper a detailed acquisition
protocol of fishhooks and an automation of every step of this method.
We also provide some experimental results obtained on the fishhooks
coming from three archaeological excavations sites.
Abstract: Water level forecasting using records of past time series is of importance in water resources engineering and management. For example, water level affects groundwater tables in low-lying coastal areas, as well as hydrological regimes of some coastal rivers. Then, a reliable prediction of sea-level variations is required in coastal engineering and hydrologic studies. During the past two decades, the approaches based on the Genetic Programming (GP) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were developed. In the present study, the GP is used to forecast daily water level variations for a set of time intervals using observed water levels. The measurements from a single tide gauge at Urmia Lake, Northwest Iran, were used to train and validate the GP approach for the period from January 1997 to July 2008. Statistics, the root mean square error and correlation coefficient, are used to verify model by comparing with a corresponding outputs from Artificial Neural Network model. The results show that both these artificial intelligence methodologies are satisfactory and can be considered as alternatives to the conventional harmonic analysis.
Abstract: In this study, ZnO nano rods and ZnO ultrafine particles were synthesized by Gel-casting method. The synthesized ZnO powder has a hexagonal zincite structure. The ZnO aggregates with rod-like morphology are typically 1.4 μm in length and 120 nm in diameter, which consist of many small nanocrystals with diameters of 10 nm. Longer wires connected by many hexahedral ZnO nanocrystals were obtained after calcinations at the temperature over 600° C.The crystalline structures and morphologies of the powder have been characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Scaning electron microscopy (SEM).The result shows that the different preparation conditions such as concentration H2O, calcinations time and calcinations temperature have a lot of influences upon the properties of nano ZnO powders, an increase in the temperature of the calcinations results in an increase of the grain size and also the increase of the calcinations time in high temperature makes the size of the grains bigger. The existences of extra watter prevent nano grains from improving like rod morphology. We have obtained the smallest grain size of ZnO powder by controlling the process conditions. Finally In a suitable condition, a novel nanostructure, namely bi-rod-like ZnO nano rods was found which is different from known ZnO nanostructures.
Abstract: Fossil fuels are the major source to meet the world
energy requirements but its rapidly diminishing rate and adverse
effects on our ecological system are of major concern. Renewable
energy utilization is the need of time to meet the future challenges.
Ocean energy is the one of these promising energy resources. Threefourths
of the earth-s surface is covered by the oceans. This enormous
energy resource is contained in the oceans- waters, the air above the
oceans, and the land beneath them. The renewable energy source of
ocean mainly is contained in waves, ocean current and offshore solar
energy. Very fewer efforts have been made to harness this reliable
and predictable resource. Harnessing of ocean energy needs detail
knowledge of underlying mathematical governing equation and their
analysis. With the advent of extra ordinary computational resources
it is now possible to predict the wave climatology in lab simulation.
Several techniques have been developed mostly stem from numerical
analysis of Navier Stokes equations. This paper presents a brief over
view of such mathematical model and tools to understand and
analyze the wave climatology. Models of 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations
have been developed to estimate the wave characteristics to assess the
power potential. A brief overview of available wave energy
technologies is also given. A novel concept of on-shore wave energy
extraction method is also presented at the end. The concept is based
upon total energy conservation, where energy of wave is transferred
to the flexible converter to increase its kinetic energy. Squeezing
action by the external pressure on the converter body results in
increase velocities at discharge section. High velocity head then can
be used for energy storage or for direct utility of power generation.
This converter utilizes the both potential and kinetic energy of the
waves and designed for on-shore or near-shore application. Increased
wave height at the shore due to shoaling effects increases the
potential energy of the waves which is converted to renewable
energy. This approach will result in economic wave energy
converter due to near shore installation and more dense waves due to
shoaling. Method will be more efficient because of tapping both
potential and kinetic energy of the waves.
Abstract: CO2 miscible displacement is not feasible in many oil fields due to high reservoir temperature as higher pressure is required to achieve miscibility. The miscibility pressure is far higher than the formation fracture pressure making it impossible to have CO2 miscible displacement. However, by using oleophilic chemicals, minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) could be lowered. The main objective of this research is to find the best oleophilic chemical in MMP reduction using slim-tube test and Vanishing Interfacial Tension (VIT) The chemicals are selected based on the characteristics that it must be oil soluble, low water solubility, have 4 – 8 carbons, semi polar, economical, and safe for human operation. The families of chemicals chosen are carboxylic acid, alcohol, and ketone. The whole experiment would be conducted at 100°C and the best chemical is said to be effective when it is able to lower CO2-crude oil MMP the most. Findings of this research would have great impact to the oil and gas industry in reduction of operation cost for CO2EOR which is applicable to both onshore and offshore operation.
Abstract: In this paper we introduce a new unit test technique
called déjà-vu object. Déjà-vu objects replace real objects used by
classes under test, allowing the execution of isolated unit tests. A
déjà-vu object is able to observe and record the behaviour of a real
object during real sessions, and to replace it during unit tests,
returning previously recorded results. Consequently déjà-vu object
technique can be useful when a bottom-up development and testing
strategy is adopted. In this case déjà-vu objects can increase test
portability and test source code readability. At the same time they
can reduce the time spent by programmers to develop test code and
the risk of incompatibility during the switching between déjà-vu and
production code.
Abstract: Transnational corporations (TNCs) are playing a major role in global R&D, not only through activities in their home countries but also increasingly abroad. However, the process of R&D offshoring is not yet discussed thoroughly. Based on in-depth case study on Agilent China Communications Operation, this paper presents a stage model for theorizing the R&D offshoring process. This stage model outlines 5 maturity levels of organization and the offshoring process: Subsidiary team, Mirror team, Independent team, Mirror sector and the Independent sector (from software engineering point of view, it is similar to the local team's capability level of maturity model). Moreover, the paper gives a detailed discussion on the relevant characteristics, as well as the ability/responsibility of transfer, priorities and the corresponding organization structure. It also gives the characteristics and key points of different level-s R&D offshoring implementation using actual team practice.
Abstract: In this study, lipase production has been investigated
using submerge fermentation by Aspergillus niger in Kilka fish oil as
main substrate. The Taguchi method with an L9 orthogonal array
design was used to investigate the effect of parameters and their
levels on lipase productivity. The optimum conditions for Kilka fish
oil concentration, incubation temperature and pH were obtained 3
gr./ml 35°C and 7, respectively. The amount of lipase activity in
optimum condition was obtained 4.59IU/ml. By comparing this
amount with the amount of productivity in the olive oil medium
based on the cost of each medium, it was that using Kilka fish oil is
84% economical. Therefore Kilka fish oil can be used as an
economical and suitable substrate in the lipase production and
industrial usages.
Abstract: In this article, various models of surface tension force (CSF, CSS and PCIL) for interfacial flows have been applied to dynamic case and the results were compared. We studied the Kelvin- Helmholtz instabilities, which are produced by shear at the interface between two fluids with different physical properties. The velocity inlet is defined as a sinusoidal perturbation. When gravity and surface tension are taking into account, we observe the development of the Instability for a critic value of the difference of velocity of the both fluids. The VOF Model enables to simulate Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability as dynamic case.