Abstract: Diets high in processed foods have been found to lack
essential micro-nutrients for optimum human development and
overall health. Some micro-nutrients such as copper (Cu) have been
found to enhance the inflammatory response through its oxidative
functions, thereby having a role in cardiovascular disease, metabolic
syndrome, diabetes and related complications. This research study
was designed to determine if food crops could be bio-fortified with
micro-nutrients by growing sprouts on mineral fortified fiber mats. In
the feasibility study described in this contribution, recycled cellulose
fibers and clay, saturated with either micro-nutrient copper ions or
copper nanoparticles, were converted to a novel mineral-cellulose
fiber carrier of essential micro-nutrient and of antimicrobial
properties. Seeds of Medicago sativa (alfalfa), purchased from a
commercial, organic supplier were germinated on engineered
cellulose fiber mats. After the appearance of the first leaves, the
sprouts were dehydrated and analyzed for Cu content. Nutrient
analysis showed ~2 increase in Cu of the sprouts grown on the fiber
mats with copper particles, and ~4 increase on mats with ionic copper
as compared to the control samples. This study illustrates the
potential for the use of engineered mats as a viable way to increase
the micro-nutrient composition of locally-grown food crops and the
need for additional research to determine the uptake, nutritional
implications and risks of micro-nutrient bio-fortification.
Abstract: The paper discusses the problem of load transport
using farm tractors and road tractor units. This type of carriage of
goods is often done with farm vehicles. The tests were performed
with the PEMS equipment (Portable Emission Measurement System)
under actual traffic conditions. The vehicles carried a load of 20000
kg. This research method is one of the most desired because it
provides reliable information on the actual vehicle emissions and fuel
consumption (carbon balance method). For the tests, a route was
selected that simulated a trip from a small town to a food-processing
facility located in a city. The analysis of the obtained results gave a
clear answer as to what vehicles need to be used for carriage of this
type of cargo in terms of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to investigate the
marketing mix that is perceived to be important for the small sized
hotels in Pattaya. This research provides insights through a review of
the marketing activities performed by the small sized hotels. Nine
owners & marketing manager of small sized hotels and resorts, all
local Chonburi people, were selected for an in-depth interview. The
research suggests that seven marketing mixes (e.g. Product, Price,
Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process) were
commonly used by these hotels, however, three types – People, Price
and Physical Evidence were considered most important by the
owners.
Abstract: The main cause of Alzheimer disease (AD) was
believed to be mainly due to the accumulation of free radicals owing
to oxidative stress (OS) in brain tissue. The mechanism of the
neurotoxicity of Aluminum chloride (AlCl3) induced AD in
hippocampus Albino wister rat brain tissue, the curative & the
protective effects of Lipidium sativum group (LS) water extract were
assessed after 8 weeks by attenuated total reflection spectroscopy
ATR-IR and histologically by light microscope. ATR-IR results
revealed that the membrane phospholipid undergo free radical
attacks, mediated by AlCl3, primary affects the polyunsaturated fatty
acids indicated by the increased of the olefinic -C=CH sub-band area
around 3012 cm-1 from the curve fitting analysis. The narrowing in
the half band width (HBW) of the sνCH2 sub-band around 2852 cm-1
due to Al intoxication indicates the presence of trans form fatty acids
rather than gauch rotomer. The degradation of hydrocarbon chain to
shorter chain length, increasing in membrane fluidity, disorder, and
decreasing in lipid polarity in AlCl3 group indicated by the detected
changes in certain calculated area ratios compared to the control.
Administration of LS was greatly improved these parameters
compared to the AlCl3 group. Al influences the Aβ aggregation and
plaque formation, which in turn interferes to and disrupts the
membrane structure. The results also showed a marked increase in
the β-parallel and antiparallel structure, that characterize the Aβ
formation in Al-induced AD hippocampal brain tissue, indicated by
the detected increase in both amide I sub-bands around 1674, 1692
cm-1. This drastic increase in Aβ formation was greatly reduced in the
curative and protective groups compared to the AlCl3 group and
approached nearly the control values. These results supported too by
the light microscope. AlCl3 group showed significant marked
degenerative changes in hippocampal neurons. Most cells appeared
small, shrieked and deformed. Interestingly, the administration of LS
in curative and protective groups markedly decreases the amount of
degenerated cells compared to the non-treated group. In addition, the
intensity of congo red stained cells was decreased. Hippocampal
neurons looked more/or less similar to those of control. This study showed a promising therapeutic effect of Lipidium
sativum group (LS) on AD rat model that seriously overcome the
signs of oxidative stress on membrane lipid and restore the protein
misfolding.
Abstract: This study was aimed to measure effective transverse
relaxation rates (R2*) in the liver and muscle of normal New Zealand
White (NZW) rabbits. R2* relaxation rate has been widely used in
various hepatic diseases for iron overload by quantifying iron contents
in liver. R2* relaxation rate is defined as the reciprocal of T2*
relaxation time and mainly depends on the constituents of tissue.
Different tissues would have different R2* relaxation rates. The signal
intensity decay in Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be
characterized by R2* relaxation rates. In this study, a 1.5T GE Signa
HDxt whole body MR scanner equipped with an 8-channel high
resolution knee coil was used to observe R2* values in NZW rabbit’s
liver and muscle. Eight healthy NZW rabbits weighted 2 ~ 2.5 kg were
recruited. After anesthesia using Zoletil 50 and Rompun 2% mixture,
the abdomen of rabbit was landmarked at the center of knee coil to
perform 3-plane localizer scan using fast spoiled gradient echo
(FSPGR) pulse sequence. Afterwards, multi-planar fast gradient echo
(MFGR) scans were performed with 8 various echo times (TEs) to
acquire images for R2* measurements. Regions of interest (ROIs) at
liver and muscle were measured using Advantage workstation.
Finally, the R2* was obtained by a linear regression of ln(sı) on TE.
The results showed that the longer the echo time, the smaller the signal
intensity. The R2* values of liver and muscle were 44.8 ± 10.9 s-1 and
37.4 ± 9.5 s-1, respectively. It implies that the iron concentration of
liver is higher than that of muscle. In conclusion, the more the iron
contents in tissue, the higher the R2*. The correlations between R2*
and iron content in NZW rabbits might be valuable for further
exploration.
Abstract: Various nanomaterials can be used as a drug delivery
vehicles in nanomedicine, called nanocarriers. They can either be
organic or inorganic, synthetic or natural-based. Although synthetic
nanocarriers are easier to produce, they can often be toxic for the
organism and thus not suitable for use in treatment. From naturalbased
nanocarriers, the most commonly used are protein cages or
viral capsids. In this work, virus bacteriophage λ was used for
delivery of different cytotoxic drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin,
oxaliplatin and doxorubicin). Large quantities of phage λ were
obtained from phage λ-producing strain of E. coli cultivated in
medium with 0.2% maltose. After killing of E. coli with chloroform
and its removal by centrifugation, the phage was concentrated by
ultracentrifugation at 130 000×g and 4°C for 3 h. The encapsulation
of the drugs was performed by infusion method and four different
concentrations of the drugs were encapsulated (200; 100; 50; 25
μg·mL-1). Free drug molecules were removed by filtration. The
encapsulation was verified using the absorbance for doxorubicin and
atomic absorption spectrometry for platinum cytostatics. The amount
of encapsulated drug linearly increased with the increasing
concentration of applied drug with the determination coefficient
R2=0.989 for doxorubicin; R2=0.967 for cisplatin; R2=0.989 for
carboplatin and R2=0.996 for oxaliplatin. The overall encapsulation
efficiency was calculated as 50% for doxorubicin; 8% for cisplatin;
6% for carboplatin and 10% for oxaliplatin.
Abstract: Chatter vibrations, occurring during cutting process,
cause vibration between the cutting tool and workpiece, which
deteriorates surface roughness and reduces tool life. The purpose of
this study is to investigate the influence of cutting parameters and
tool construction on surface roughness and vibration in turning of
aluminum alloy AA2024. A new design of cutting tool is proposed,
which is filled up with epoxy granite in order to improve damping
capacity of the tool. Experiments were performed at the lathe using
carbide cutting insert coated with TiC and two different cutting tools
made of AISI 5140 steel. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was applied to
design of experiment and to optimize cutting conditions. By the help
of signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance the optimal cutting
condition and the effect of the cutting parameters on surface
roughness and vibration were determined. Effectiveness of Taguchi
method was verified by confirmation test. It was revealed that new
cutting tool with epoxy granite has reduced vibration and surface
roughness due to high damping properties of epoxy granite in
toolholder.
Abstract: High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
method was developed and validated for simultaneous estimation of
6-Gingerol(6G) and 6-Shogaol(6S) in joint pain relief gel containing
ginger extract. The chromatographic separation was achieved by
using C18 column, 150 x 4.6mm i.d., 5μ Luna, mobile phase
containing acetonitrile and water (gradient elution). The flow rate
was 1.0 ml/min and the absorbance was monitored at 282 nm. The
proposed method was validated in terms of the analytical parameters
such as specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, range, limit of
detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), and determined
based on the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH)
guidelines. The linearity ranges of 6G and 6S were obtained over 20-
60 and 6-18 μg/ml respectively. Good linearity was observed over the
above-mentioned range with linear regression equation Y= 11016x-
23778 for 6G and Y = 19276x-19604 for 6S (x is concentration of
analytes in μg/ml and Y is peak area). The value of correlation
coefficient was found to be 0.9994 for both markers. The limit of
detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for 6G were
0.8567 and 2.8555 μg/ml and for 6S were 0.3672 and 1.2238 μg/ml
respectively. The recovery range for 6G and 6S were found to be
91.57 to 102.36 % and 84.73 to 92.85 % for all three spiked levels.
The RSD values from repeated extractions for 6G and 6S were 3.43
and 3.09% respectively. The validation of developed method on
precision, accuracy, specificity, linearity, and range were also
performed with well-accepted results.
Abstract: The customers use the best compromise criterion
between price and quality of service (QoS) to select or change
their Service Provider (SP). The SPs share the same market and
are competing to attract more customers to gain more profit. Due
to the divergence of SPs interests, we believe that this situation is a
non-cooperative game of price and QoS. The game converges to an
equilibrium position known Nash Equilibrium (NE). In this work, we
formulate a game theoretic framework for the dynamical behaviors
of SPs. We use Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to find the price and
QoS strategies that maximize the profit for each SP and illustrate
the corresponding strategy in NE. In order to quantify how this NE
point is performant, we perform a detailed analysis of the price of
anarchy induced by the NE solution. Finally, we provide an extensive
numerical study to point out the importance of considering price and
QoS as a joint decision parameter.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the questions raised through the
work of Unit 5: ‘In/Out Crisis, emergent and adaptive’; an
architectural research-based studio at [ARC] University of Nicosia. Students were asked to delve into state of Art Technologies in
order to propose sustainable Emergent and Adaptive Architectures
and Urbanities, the resulting unprecedented spatial conditions and
atmospheres of the emergent new ways of living are deemed to be the
ultimate aim of the investigation. Students explored a variety of sites
and crisis conditions seen through their primary ingredient identified
as soil, water and air and their paired combination. Within this
methodology, crisis is seen as a mechanism for allowing an
emergence of new and fascinating ultimate sustainable future cultures
and cities by taking advantage of the primary materiality of the sites.
Abstract: The paper will focus on the strategic development
deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial
organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living.
New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion
of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together
with the bioclimatic behavior will be seen through a series of
experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and
originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of
living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with
architects. Furthermore, the building will be seen not as an object but
rather as a vessel of human activities. This will further enhance the
notion of merging the material and immaterial, the built and unbuilt,
subject-human, and the object-building. This eventually will enable
to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building in
relation to the place and its inhabitants, where the human topography
is more important than the material topography. The specificities of
the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with
the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with
the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering
unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of
living. Opening up a discourse with premises of weather-nature, materialimmaterial,
human-material topographies in relation to the contested
sites of the borders will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a
profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully
yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever
changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia, a
refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already
engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic
architecture. The project focusses on the direct and quite obvious
bioclimatic features such as south orientation and cross ventilation.
Furthermore, it tries to reinvent the adaptation of these parameters in
order to turn the whole house to a contemporary living environment.
In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural
elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not
only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate
and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of
innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house
can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most
part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units,
we will proceed examining the implementation of the same
developed methodology in designing living units and complexes.
Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the
traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the
weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in
both horizontal and vertical developments. Social activities are seen as directly affected and forged by the
weather conditions thus generating a new social identity of people where people are directly involved and interacting with the weather.
The human actions and interaction with the built, material
environment in order to respond to weather will be seen as the result
of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the
immaterial, and the material aspects of the living environment.
Abstract: The fundamental issue in understanding the origin and
growth mechanism of nanomaterials, from a fundamental unit is a big
challenging problem to the scientists. Recently, an immense attention
is generated to the researchers for prediction of exceptionally stable
atomic cluster units as the building units for future smart materials.
The present study is a systematic investigation on the stability and
electronic properties of a series of bimetallic (semiconductor-alkaline
earth) clusters, viz., BxMg3 (x=1-5) is performed, in search for
exceptional and/ or unusual stable motifs. A very popular hybrid
exchange-correlation functional, B3LYP along with a higher basis
set, viz., 6-31+G[d,p] is employed for this purpose under the density
functional formalism. The magic stability among the concerned
clusters is explained using the jellium model. It is evident from the
present study that the magic stability of B4Mg3
cluster arises due to
the jellium shell closure.
Abstract: Direct Torque Control (DTC) is an AC drive control
method especially designed to provide fast and robust responses. In
this paper a progressive algorithm for direct torque control of threephase
induction drive system supplied by photovoltaic arrays using
voltage source inverter to control motor torque and flux with
maximum power point tracking at different level of insolation is
presented. Experimental results of the new DTC method obtained by
an experimental rapid prototype system for drives are presented.
Simulation and experimental results confirm that the proposed system
gives quick, robust torque and speed responses at constant switching
frequencies.
Abstract: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the
most important medical imaging modality. Subjective assessment of
the image quality is regarded as the gold standard to evaluate MR
images. In this study, a database of 210 MR images which contains
ten reference images and 200 distorted images is presented. The
reference images were distorted with four types of distortions: Rician
Noise, Gaussian White Noise, Gaussian Blur and DCT compression.
The 210 images were assessed by ten subjects. The subjective scores
were presented in Difference Mean Opinion Score (DMOS). The
DMOS values were compared with four FR-IQA metrics. We have
used Pearson Linear Coefficient (PLCC) and Spearman Rank Order
Correlation Coefficient (SROCC) to validate the DMOS values. The
high correlation values of PLCC and SROCC shows that the DMOS
values are close to the objective FR-IQA metrics.
Abstract: The liberalisation of the education industry has
exposed the institute of higher learning (IHL) in Malaysia to the
financial challenges. Without good financial standing, public
institution will rely on the government funding. Ostensibly, this
contradicts with the government’s aspiration to make universities
self-sufficient. With stiff competition from private institutes of higher
learning, IHL need to be prepared at the forefront level. The
corporate identity itself is the entrance to the world of higher learning
and it is in this uniqueness, it will be able to distinguish itself from
competitors. This paper examined the perception of the stakeholders
at one of the public universities in the east coast region in Malaysia
on the perceived reputation and how the university communicate its
preparedness for self-sustainability through corporate identity. The
findings indicated while the stakeholders embraced the challenges in
facing the stiff competition and struggling market conditions, most of
them felt the university should put more efforts in mobilising the
corporate identity to its constituencies.
Abstract: Recently, many users have begun to frequently share
their opinions on diverse issues using various social media. Therefore,
numerous governments have attempted to establish or improve
national policies according to the public opinions captured from
various social media. In this paper, we indicate several limitations of
the traditional approaches to analyze public opinion on science and
technology and provide an alternative methodology to overcome these
limitations. First, we distinguish between the science and technology
analysis phase and the social issue analysis phase to reflect the fact that
public opinion can be formed only when a certain science and
technology is applied to a specific social issue. Next, we successively
apply a start list and a stop list to acquire clarified and interesting
results. Finally, to identify the most appropriate documents that fit
with a given subject, we develop a new logical filter concept that
consists of not only mere keywords but also a logical relationship
among the keywords. This study then analyzes the possibilities for the
practical use of the proposed methodology thorough its application to
discover core issues and public opinions from 1,700,886 documents
comprising SNS, blogs, news, and discussions.
Abstract: This article proposes a hybrid algorithm for spectrum
allocation in cognitive radio networks based on the algorithms
Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of
Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to improve the
performance of the spectrum mobility of secondary users in cognitive
radio networks. To calculate the level of performance of the proposed algorithm a
comparative analysis between the proposed AHP-TOPSIS, Grey
Relational Analysis (GRA) and Multiplicative Exponent Weighting
(MEW) algorithm is performed. Four evaluation metrics are used.
These metrics are accumulative average of failed handoffs,
accumulative average of handoffs performed, accumulative average
of transmission bandwidth, and accumulative average of the
transmission delay. The results of the comparison show that AHP-TOPSIS Algorithm
provides 2.4 times better performance compared to a GRA Algorithm
and, 1.5 times better than the MEW Algorithm.
Abstract: Intermediate cities which also called medium size
cities have an important role in the process of globalization. It is
argued that, in some cases this type of cities may be depopulated or in
otherwise may be transformed as the periphery of metropolitans, so
that the personal identity of the city and its local cultural heritage
could suffer from its neighbor metropolitan. Over the last decades,
the role of tourism in the development process and the cultural
heritage has increased. The impact of tourism on socioeconomic
growth makes motivation for the study of tourism development in
regional and urban planning process. There are evidences that
tourism has a positive impact in local development and makes
economic motivations for cultural heritage protection. In this study,
by considering the role of tourism in local development, especially by
its economic and socio-cultural impacts, it is tried to introduce a
strategy for tourism development through a method of urban planning
for intermediate cities called as Base plan. Damavand is an
intermediate city located in Tehran province, Iran with a high
potential in tourism by its local specific characteristic like social
structure, antiquities and natural attractions. It’s selected as a suitable
case study for intended strategy which is a combination of urban
planning and tourism development methods. Focusing on recognition
of the historical and cultural heritage of Damavand, in this paper
through “base plan methodology” a strategy of urban planning
toward tourism development is prepared in order to make tourism
development as a support for cultural heritage of this city.
Abstract: Introduction: Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) uses
high frequency mechanical stimuli generated by a vibration plate and
transmitted through bone, muscle and connective tissues to the whole
body. Research has shown that long-term vibration-plate training
improves neuromuscular facilitation, especially in afferent neural
pathways, responsible for the conduction of vibration and
proprioceptive stimuli, muscle function, balance and proprioception.
Some researchers suggest that the vibration stimulus briefly inhibits
the conduction of afferent signals from proprioceptors and can
interfere with the maintenance of body balance. The aim of this study
was to evaluate the influence of a single set of exercises associated
with whole-body vibration on the joint position sense and body
balance. Material and methods: The study enrolled 55 people aged
19-24 years. These individuals were randomly divided into a test
group (30 persons) and a control group (25 persons). Both groups
performed the same set of exercises on a vibration plate. The
following vibration parameters: frequency of 20Hz and amplitude of
3mm, were used in the test group. The control group performed
exercises on the vibration plate while it was off. All participants were
instructed to perform six dynamic exercises lasting 30 seconds each
with a 60-second period of rest between them. The exercises involved
large muscle groups of the trunk, pelvis and lower limbs.
Measurements were carried out before and immediately after
exercise. Joint position sense (JPS) was measured in the knee joint
for the starting position at 45° in an open kinematic chain. JPS error
was measured using a digital inclinometer. Balance was assessed in a
standing position with both feet on the ground with the eyes open and
closed (each test lasting 30 sec). Balance was assessed using Matscan
with FootMat 7.0 SAM software. The surface of the ellipse of
confidence and front-back as well as right-left swing were measured
to assess balance. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica
10.0 PL software. Results: There were no significant differences
between the groups, both before and after the exercise (p> 0.05). JPS
did not change in both the test (10.7° vs. 8.4°) and control groups
(9.0° vs. 8.4°). No significant differences were shown in any of the
test parameters during balance tests with the eyes open or closed in
both the test and control groups (p> 0.05). Conclusions: 1.
Deterioration in proprioception or balance was not observed
immediately after the vibration stimulus. This suggests that vibrationinduced
blockage of proprioceptive stimuli conduction can have only
a short-lasting effect that occurs only as long as a vibration stimulus
is present. 2. Short-term use of vibration in treatment does not impair
proprioception and seems to be safe for patients with proprioceptive
impairment. 3. These results need to be supplemented with an
assessment of proprioception during the application of vibration
stimuli. Additionally, the impact of vibration parameters used in the
exercises should be evaluated.
Abstract: Foundation differential settlement and supported
structure tilting are an occasionally occurred engineering problem.
This may be caused by overloading, changes in ground soil properties
or unsupported nearby excavations. Engineering thinking points
directly toward the logic solution for such problem by uplifting the
settled side. This can be achieved with deep foundation elements
such as micro-piles and macro-piles™, jacked piers, and helical piers,
jet grouted mortar columns, compaction grout columns, cement
grouting or with chemical grouting, or traditional pit underpinning
with concrete and mortar. Although, some of these techniques offer
economic, fast and low noise solutions, many of them are quite the
contrary. For tilted structures, with the limited inclination, it may be much
easier to cause a balancing settlement on the less-settlement side
which shall be done carefully in a proper rate. This principal has been
applied in Leaning Tower of Pisa stabilization with soil extraction
from the ground surface. In this research, the authors attempt to
introduce a new solution with a different point of view. So, the
micro-tunneling technique is presented in here as an intended ground
deformation cause. In general, micro-tunneling is expected to induce
limited ground deformations. Thus, the researchers propose to apply
the technique to form small size ground unsupported holes to produce
the target deformations. This shall be done in four phases: 1.
Application of one or more micro-tunnels, regarding the existing
differential settlement value, under the raised side of the tilted
structure. 2. For each individual tunnel, the lining shall be pulled out
from both sides (from jacking and receiving shafts) in the slow rate.
3. If required, according to calculations and site records, an additional
surface load can be applied on the raised foundation side. 4. Finally, a
strengthening soil grouting shall be applied for stabilization after
adjustment. A finite element based numerical model is presented to simulate
the proposed construction phases for different tunneling positions and
tunnels group. For each case, the surface settlements are calculated
and induced plasticity points are checked. These results show the
impact of the suggested procedure on the tilted structure and its
feasibility. Comparing results also show the importance of the
position selection and tunnels group gradual effect. Thus, a new
engineering solution is presented to one of the structural and
geotechnical engineering challenges.