Abstract: The influence of physical (external added weight) and
neurophysiological (fatigue) factors on static and dynamic balance in
sport related activities was typified statically by the Romberg test
(one foot flat, eyes open) and dynamically by jumping and hopping
in both horizontal and vertical directions. Twenty healthy males were
participated in this study. In Static condition, added weight increased
body-s inertia and therefore decreased body sway in AP direction
though not significantly. Dynamically, added weight significantly
increased body sway in both ML and AP directions, indicating
instability, and the use of the counter rotating segments mechanism to
maintain balance was demonstrated. Fatigue on the other hand
significantly increased body sway during static balance as a
neurophysiological adaptation primarily to the inverted pendulum
mechanism. Dynamically, fatigue significantly increased body sway
in both ML and AP directions again indicating instability but with a
greater use of counter rotating segments mechanism. Differential
adaptations for each of the two balance mechanisms (inverted
pendulum and counter rotating segments) were found between one
foot flat and two feet flat dynamic conditions, as participants relied
more heavily on the first in the one foot flat conditions and relied
more on the second in the two feet flat conditions.
Abstract: An experimental study is realized in order to verify the
Mini Heat Pipe (MHP) concept for cooling high power dissipation
electronic components and determines the potential advantages of
constructing mini channels as an integrated part of a flat heat pipe. A
Flat Mini Heat Pipe (FMHP) prototype including a capillary structure
composed of parallel rectangular microchannels is manufactured and
a filling apparatus is developed in order to charge the FMHP. The
heat transfer improvement obtained by comparing the heat pipe
thermal resistance to the heat conduction thermal resistance of a
copper plate having the same dimensions as the tested FMHP is
demonstrated for different heat input flux rates. Moreover, the heat
transfer in the evaporator and condenser sections are analyzed, and
heat transfer laws are proposed. In the theoretical part of this work, a
detailed mathematical model of a FMHP with axial microchannels is
developed in which the fluid flow is considered along with the heat
and mass transfer processes during evaporation and condensation.
The model is based on the equations for the mass, momentum and
energy conservation, which are written for the evaporator, adiabatic,
and condenser zones. The model, which permits to simulate several
shapes of microchannels, can predict the maximum heat transfer
capacity of FMHP, the optimal fluid mass, and the flow and thermal
parameters along the FMHP. The comparison between experimental
and model results shows the good ability of the numerical model to
predict the axial temperature distribution along the FMHP.
Abstract: This study investigated the use of modified
atmosphere packaging (MAP) and different packaging to extend the
shelf life of Barbari flat bread. Three atmospheres including 70%CO2
and 30%N2, 50% CO2 and 50%N2 and a normal air as control were
used. The bread samples were packaged in three type pouches. The
shelf life was determined by appearance of mold and yeast (M +Y) in
Barbari bread samples stored at 25 ± 1°C and 38 ± 2% relative
humidity. The results showed that it is possible to prolong the shelf
life of Barbari bread from four days to about 21 days by using
modified atmosphere packaging with high carbon dioxide
concentration and high-barrier laminated and vacuum bags packages.
However, the hardness of samples kept in MAP increase significantly
by increase of carbon dioxide concentration. The correlation
coefficient (r) between headspace CO2 concentration and hardness
was 0.997, 0.997 and 0.599 for A, B and C packaging respectively.
High negative correlation coefficients were found between the crumb
moisture and the hardness values in various packaging. There were
significant negative correlation coefficients between sensory
parameters and hardness of texture.
Abstract: The fabrication of porous NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs) from elemental powder compacts was conducted by selfpropagating high temperature synthesis (SHS). Effects of the preheating temperature and the chamber pressure on the combustion characteristics as well as the final morphology and the composition of products were studied. The samples with porosity between 56.4 and 59.0% under preheating temperature in the range of 200-300°C and Ar-gas chamber pressure of 138 and 201 kPa were obtained. The pore structures were found to be dissimilar only in the samples processed with different preheating temperature. The major phase in the porous product is NiTi with small amounts of secondary phases, NiTi2 and Ni4Ti3. The preheating temperature and the chamber pressure have very little effect on the phase constituent. While the combustion temperature of the sample was notably increased by increasing the preheating temperature, they were slightly changed by varying the chamber pressure.
Abstract: The paper describes design of an ontology in the
financial domain for mutual funds. The design of this ontology
consists of four steps, namely, specification, knowledge acquisition,
implementation and semantic query. Specification includes a
description of the taxonomy and different types mutual funds and
their scope. Knowledge acquisition involves the information
extraction from heterogeneous resources. Implementation describes
the conceptualization and encoding of this data. Finally, semantic
query permits complex queries to integrated data, mapping of these
database entities to ontological concepts.
Abstract: New generalization of the new class matrix polynomial set have been obtained. An explicit representation and an expansion of the matrix exponential in a series of these matrix are given for these matrix polynomials.
Abstract: Water quality and freshwater fish diversity from nine
waterfalls at Khao Luang National Park, Thailand was examined.
Streams were shallow, fast flowing with clear water and rocky and
sandy substrate. The mean water quality of waterfalls at Khao Luang
National Park were as following pH 7.50, air temperature 24.27 °C,
water temperature 26.37 °C, dissolved oxygen 7.88 mg/l, hardness
4.44-21.33 mg/l, alkalinity 3.55-11.88 mg/(as CaCO3). Twenty fish
species were found at Khao Luang National Park belonging to nine
families. A cluster analysis of water quality at Khao Luang National
Park revealed that waterfalls at Khao Luang National Park were
divided into two groups: A and B. Group A composed of two
waterfalls (i.e. Aie Kaew and Wangmaipak) that flew to the Gulf of
Thailand side. Group B composed of seven waterfalls (i.e. Promlok,
Kalom, Nuafa, Suankun, Soidaw, Suanhai, and Thapae) that flew to
the Andaman Sea side (Fig. 2) .The Cyprinids represented the major
species in all the waterfalls comprising of 45%.
Abstract: Elastic light single-scattering spectroscopy system
with a single optical fiber probe was employed to differentiate cancerous prostate tissue from non-cancerous prostate tissue ex-vivo just after radical prostatectomy. First, ELSSS spectra were acquired
from cancerous prostate tissue to define its spectral features. Then,
spectra were acquired from normal prostate tissue to define difference in spectral features between the cancerous and normal
prostate tissues. Of the total 66 tissue samples were evaluated from
nine patients by ELSSS system. Comparing of histopathology results
and ELSSS measurements revealed that sign of the spectral slopes of
cancerous prostate tissue is negative and non-cancerous tissue is positive in the wavelength range from 450 to 750 nm. Based on the
correlation between histopathology results and sign of the spectral
slopes, ELSSS system differentiates cancerous prostate tissue from
non- cancerous with a sensitivity of 0.95 and a specificity of 0.94.
Abstract: Ionanofluids are a new and innovative class of heat transfer fluids which exhibit fascinating thermophysical properties compared to their base ionic liquids. This paper deals with the findings of thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of ionanofluids as a function of a temperature and concentration of nanotubes. Simulation results using ionanofluids as coolants in heat exchanger are also used to access their feasibility and performance in heat transfer devices. Results on thermal conductivity and heat capacity of ionanofluids as well as the estimation of heat transfer areas for ionanofluids and ionic liquids in a model shell and tube heat exchanger reveal that ionanofluids possess superior thermal conductivity and heat capacity and require considerably less heat transfer areas as compared to those of their base ionic liquids. This novel class of fluids shows great potential for advanced heat transfer applications.
Abstract: There is a growing interest in the food industry and in preventive health care for the development and evaluation of natural antioxidants from medicinal plant materials. In the present work, extracts of three medicinal plants (Tilia argentea, Crataegi folium leaves and Polygonum bistorta roots) used in Turkish phytotheraphy were screened for their phenolic profiles and antioxidant properties. Crude extracts were obtained from different parts of plants, by solidliquid extraction with pure water, 70% acetone and 70% methanol aqueous solvents. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined by ABTS.+ radical cation scavenging activity. The Folin Ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic concentrations of the extracts as gallic acid equivalents. A modified liquid chromatography-electro spray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) was used to obtain chromatographic profiles of the phenolic compounds in the medicinal plants. The predominant phenolic compounds detected in different extracts of the plants were catechin, protocatechuic and chlorogenic acids. The highest phenolic contents were obtained by using 70% acetone as aqueous solvent, whereas the lowest phenolic contents were obtained by water extraction due to Folin Ciocalteu results. The results indicate that acetone extracts of Tilia argentea had the highest antioxidant capacity as free ABTS radical scavengers. The lowest phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities were obtained from Polygonum bistorta root extracts.
Abstract: Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is currently
being widely investigated because of its potential to produce ultrafine
grained microstructures in metals and alloys. A sound
knowledge of the plastic deformation and strain distribution is
necessary for understanding the relationships between strain
inhomogeneity and die geometry. Considerable research has been
reported on finite element analysis of this process, assuming threedimensional
plane strain condition. However, the two-dimensional
models are not suitable due to the geometry of the dies, especially in
cylindrical ones. In the present work, three-dimensional simulation of
ECAP process was carried out for six outer corner radii (sharp to 10
mm in steps of 2 mm), with channel angle 105¶Çü▒, for strain hardening
aluminium alloy (AA 6101) using ABAQUS/Standard software.
Strain inhomogeneity is presented and discussed for all cases. Pattern
of strain variation along selected radial lines in the body of the workpiece
is presented. It is found from the results that the outer corner
has a significant influence on the strain distribution in the body of
work-piece. Based on inhomogeneity and average strain criteria,
there is an optimum outer corner radius.
Abstract: An algorithm for learning an overcomplete dictionary
using a Cauchy mixture model for sparse decomposition of an underdetermined
mixing system is introduced. The mixture density
function is derived from a ratio sample of the observed mixture
signals where 1) there are at least two but not necessarily more
mixture signals observed, 2) the source signals are statistically
independent and 3) the sources are sparse. The basis vectors of the
dictionary are learned via the optimization of the location parameters
of the Cauchy mixture components, which is shown to be more
accurate and robust than the conventional data mining methods
usually employed for this task. Using a well known sparse
decomposition algorithm, we extract three speech signals from two
mixtures based on the estimated dictionary. Further tests with
additive Gaussian noise are used to demonstrate the proposed
algorithm-s robustness to outliers.
Abstract: This paper aims to fabricated high quality anodic
aluminum oxide (AAO) film by anodization method. AAO pore size,
pore density, and film thickness can be controlled in 10~500 nm,
108~1011 pore．cm-2, and 1~100 μm. AAO volume and surface area can
be computed based on structural parameters such as thickness, pore
size, pore density, and sample size. Base on the thetorical calculation,
AAO has 100 μm thickness with 15 nm, 60 nm, and 500 nm pore
diameters AAO surface areas are 1225.2 cm2, 3204.4 cm2, and 549.7
cm2, respectively. The large unit surface area which is useful for
adsorption application. When AAO adsorbed pH indictor of
bromphenol blue presented a sensitive pH detection of solution
change. This testing method can further be used for the precise
measurement of biotechnology, convenience measurement of
industrial engineering.
Abstract: This paper proposes an application of the differential
evolution (DE) algorithm for solving the economic dispatch problem
(ED). Furthermore, the regenerating population procedure added to
the conventional DE in order to improve escaping the local minimum
solution. To test performance of DE algorithm, three thermal
generating units with valve-point loading effects is used for testing.
Moreover, investigating the DE parameters is presented. The
simulation results show that the DE algorithm, which had been
adjusted parameters, is better convergent time than other optimization
methods.
Abstract: To simulate heating systems in buildings, a research oriented computer code has been developed in Sharif University of Technology in Iran where the climate, existing heating equipment in buildings, consumer behavior and their interactions are considered for simulating energy consumption in conventional systems such as heaters, radiators and fan-coils. In order to validate the computer code, the available data of five buildings was used and the computed consumed energy was compared with the estimated energy extracted from monthly bills. The initial heating system was replaced by the alternative system and the effect of this change was observed on the energy consumption. As a result, the effect of changing heating equipment on energy consumption was investigated in different climates. Changing heater to radiator renders energy conservation up to 50% in all climates and changing radiator to fan-coil decreases energy consumption in climates with cold and dry winter.
Abstract: Accumulation of dust from the outdoor environment
on the panels of solar photovoltaic (PV) system is natural. There
were studies that showed that the accumulated dust can reduce the
performance of solar panels, but the results were not clearly
quantified. The objective of this research was to study the effects of
dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels.
Experiments were conducted using dust particles on solar panels with
a constant-power light source, to determine the resulting electrical
power generated and efficiency. It was found from the study that the
accumulated dust on the surface of photovoltaic solar panel can
reduce the system-s efficiency by up to 50%.
Abstract: In this study, the kinetic of biogas production was studied by performing a series laboratory experiment using rumen fluid of animal ruminant as inoculums. Cattle manure as substrate was inoculated by rumen fluid to the anaerobic biodigester. Laboratory experiments using 400 ml biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 grams of fresh cattle manure was fed to each biodigester and mixed with rumen fluid by manure : rumen weight ratio of 1:1 (MR11). The operating temperatures were varied at room temperature and 38.5 oC. The cumulative volume of biogas produced was used to measure the biodigester performance. The research showed that the rumen fluid inoculated to biodigester gave significant effect to biogas production (P
Abstract: The neurogenic potential of many herbal extracts used
in Indian medicine is hitherto unknown. Extracts derived from
Clitoria ternatea Linn have been used in Indian Ayurvedic system of
medicine as an ingredient of “Medhya rasayana", consumed for
improving memory and longevity in humans and also in treatment of
various neurological disorders. Our earlier experimental studies with
oral intubation of Clitoria ternatea aqueous root extract (CTR) had
shown significant enhancement of learning and memory in postnatal
and young adult Wistar rats. The present study was designed to
elucidate the in vitro effects of 200ng/ml of CTR on proliferation,
differentiation and growth of anterior subventricular zone neural
stem cells (aSVZ NSC-s) derived from prenatal and postnatal rat
pups. Results show significant increase in proliferation and growth of
neurospheres and increase in the yield of differentiated neurons of
aSVZ neural precursor cells (aSVZNPC-s) at 7 days in vitro when
treated with 200ng/ml of CTR as compared to age matched control.
Results indicate that CTR has growth promoting neurogenic effect on
aSVZ neural stem cells and their survival similar to neurotrophic
factors like Survivin, Neuregulin 1, FGF-2, BDNF possibly the basis
for enhanced learning and memory.
Abstract: This study retrospectively investigated the significance of whole body CT (WCT) for patients with sepsis. A medical chart review was retrospectively performed for all patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome that were treated initially between April 2011 and March 2012. The subjects were divided into a WCT group that underwent WCT on arrival and a control group. Results of this study suggested that WCT for sepsis was useful for elderly patients whose chief complaint or physiological findings could not suggest the anatomical site of infection, to determine the infectious focus and indications/method for surgery, to diagnose the basic diseases associated with opportunistic infections and to evaluate complicated diseases
Abstract: Landfill gas, particularly methane is one of the
greenhouse gases which contributes to global warming. This paper presents the findings of a study on methane gas production from
simulated landfill reactor under saturated conditions. A reactor was constructed to represent a landfill cell of 2.5 m thickness on sandy
soil. The reactor was 0.2 m in diameter and 4 m in height. One meter of sand and pebble layer was packed at the bottom of the reactor
followed by 2.5 m of solid waste layer and 0.4 m of sand layer as the cover soil. Degradation of waste in the solid waste layer was at
acidification stage as indicated by the leachate quality with COD as
high as 55,511 mg/L and pH as low as 5.1. However, methanogenic
environment was established at the bottom sand layer after one year of operation indicated by pH of 7.2 and methane gas generation.
Leachate degradation took place as the leachate moved through the
sand layer at an infiltration of rate 0.7 cm/day. This resulted in landfill gas production of 77 mL/day/kg containing 55 to 65% methane. The application of sand layer contributed to the gas
production from landfill by an in-situ degradation of leachate in the
sand at the bottom of the landfill.