Abstract: Enzymatic saccharification of biomass for reducing
sugar production is one of the crucial processes in biofuel production
through biochemical conversion. In this study, enzymatic
saccharification of dilute potassium hydroxide (KOH) pre-treated
Tetraselmis suecica biomass was carried out by using cellulase
enzyme obtained from Trichoderma longibrachiatum. Initially, the
pre-treatment conditions were optimised by changing alkali reagent
concentration, retention time for reaction, and temperature. The T.
suecica biomass after pre-treatment was also characterized using
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectra and Scanning Electron
Microscope. These analyses revealed that the functional group such
as acetyl and hydroxyl groups, structure and surface of T. suecica
biomass were changed through pre-treatment, which is favourable for
enzymatic saccharification process. Comparison of enzymatic
saccharification of untreated and pre-treated microalgal biomass
indicated that higher level of reducing sugar can be obtained from
pre-treated T. suecica. Enzymatic saccharification of pre-treated T.
suecica biomass was optimised by changing temperature, pH, and
enzyme concentration to solid ratio ([E]/[S]). Highest conversion of
carbohydrate into reducing sugar of 95% amounted to reducing sugar
yield of 20 (wt%) from pre-treated T. suecica was obtained from
saccharification, at temperature: 40°C, pH: 4.5 and [E]/[S] of 0.1
after 72 h of incubation. Hydrolysate obtained from enzymatic
saccharification of pretreated T. suecica biomass was further
fermented into biobutanol using Clostridium saccharoperbutyliticum
as biocatalyst. The results from this study demonstrate a positive
prospect of application of dilute alkaline pre-treatment to enhance
enzymatic saccharification and biobutanol production from
microalgal biomass.
Abstract: The Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of self-configuring and rapidly deployed mobile nodes (routers) without any central infrastructure. Routing is one of the potential issues. Many routing protocols are reported but it is difficult to decide which one is best in all scenarios. In this paper on demand routing protocols DSR and DYMO based on IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol are examined and characteristic summary of these routing protocols is presented. Their performance is analyzed and compared on performance measuring metrics throughput, dropped packets due to non availability of routes, duplicate RREQ generated for route discovery and normalized routing load by varying CBR data traffic load using QualNet 5.0.2 network simulator.
Abstract: We present a system that finds road boundaries and
constructs the virtual lane based on fusion data from a laser and a
monocular sensor, and detects forward vehicle position even in no lane
markers or bad environmental conditions. When the road environment
is dark or a lot of vehicles are parked on the both sides of the road, it is
difficult to detect lane and road boundary. For this reason we use
fusion of laser and vision sensor to extract road boundary to acquire
three dimensional data. We use parabolic road model to calculate road
boundaries which is based on vehicle and sensors state parameters and
construct virtual lane. And then we distinguish vehicle position in each
lane.
Abstract: Knowledge sharing in general and the contextual
access to knowledge in particular, still represent a key challenge in
the knowledge management framework. Researchers on semantic
web and human machine interface study techniques to enhance this
access. For instance, in semantic web, the information retrieval is
based on domain ontology. In human machine interface, keeping
track of user's activity provides some elements of the context that can
guide the access to information. We suggest an approach based on
these two key guidelines, whilst avoiding some of their weaknesses.
The approach permits a representation of both the context and the
design rationale of a project for an efficient access to knowledge. In
fact, the method consists of an information retrieval environment
that, in the one hand, can infer knowledge, modeled as a semantic
network, and on the other hand, is based on the context and the
objectives of a specific activity (the design). The environment we
defined can also be used to gather similar project elements in order to
build classifications of tasks, problems, arguments, etc. produced in a
company. These classifications can show the evolution of design
strategies in the company.
Abstract: These days people love to travel around the world.
Regardless of their location and time, they especially Muslims still
need to perform their prayers. Normally for travelers, they need to
bring maps, compass and for Muslim, they even have to bring Qibla
pointer when they travel. It is slightly difficult to determine the Qibla
direction and to know the time for each prayer. As the technology
grows, many PDA equip with maps and GPS to locate their location.
In this paper we present a new electronic device called Mobile Qibla
and Prayer Time Finder to locate the Qibla direction and to
determine each prayer time based on the current user-s location using
PDA. This device use PIC microcontroller equipped with digital
compass where it will communicate with PDA using Bluetooth
technology and display the exact Qibla direction and prayer time
automatically at any place in the world. This device is reliable and
accurate in determining the Qibla direction and prayer time.
Abstract: A ten-year grazing study was conducted at the
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Brandon Research Centre in
Manitoba to study the effect of alfalfa inclusion and fertilizer (N, P,
K, and S) addition on economics and efficiency of non-renewable
energy use in meadow brome grass-based pasture systems for beef
production. Fertilizing grass-only or alfalfa-grass pastures to full soil
test recommendations improved pasture productivity, but did not
improve profitability compared to unfertilized pastures. Fertilizing
grass-only pastures resulted in the highest net loss of any pasture
management strategy in this study. Adding alfalfa at the time of
seeding, with no added fertilizer, was economically the best pasture
improvement strategy in this study. Because of moisture limitations,
adding commercial fertilizer to full soil test recommendations is
probably not economically justifiable in most years, especially with
the rising cost of fertilizer. Improving grass-only pastures by adding
fertilizer and/or alfalfa required additional non-renewable energy
inputs; however, the additional energy required for unfertilized
alfalfa-grass pastures was minimal compared to the fertilized
pastures. Of the four pasture management strategies, adding alfalfa
to grass pastures without adding fertilizer had the highest efficiency
of energy use. Based on energy use and economic performance, the
unfertilized alfalfa-grass pasture was the most efficient and
sustainable pasture system.
Abstract: Nevertheless the widespread application of finite
mixture models in segmentation, finite mixture model selection is
still an important issue. In fact, the selection of an adequate number
of segments is a key issue in deriving latent segments structures and
it is desirable that the selection criteria used for this end are effective.
In order to select among several information criteria, which may
support the selection of the correct number of segments we conduct a
simulation study. In particular, this study is intended to determine
which information criteria are more appropriate for mixture model
selection when considering data sets with only categorical
segmentation base variables. The generation of mixtures of
multinomial data supports the proposed analysis. As a result, we
establish a relationship between the level of measurement of
segmentation variables and some (eleven) information criteria-s
performance. The criterion AIC3 shows better performance (it
indicates the correct number of the simulated segments- structure
more often) when referring to mixtures of multinomial segmentation
base variables.
Abstract: One major issue that is regularly cited as a block to
the widespread use of online assessments in eLearning, is that of the
authentication of the student and the level of confidence that an
assessor can have that the assessment was actually completed by that
student. Currently, this issue is either ignored, in which case
confidence in the assessment and any ensuing qualification is
damaged, or else assessments are conducted at central, controlled
locations at specified times, losing the benefits of the distributed
nature of the learning programme. Particularly as we move towards
constructivist models of learning, with intentions towards achieving
heutagogic learning environments, the benefits of a properly
managed online assessment system are clear. Here we discuss some
of the approaches that could be adopted to address these issues,
looking at the use of existing security and biometric techniques,
combined with some novel behavioural elements. These approaches
offer the opportunity to validate the student on accessing an
assessment, on submission, and also during the actual production of
the assessment. These techniques are currently under development in
the DECADE project, and future work will evaluate and report their
use..
Abstract: In this study, a synthetic pathway was created by
assembling genes from Clostridium butyricum and Escherichia coli
in different combinations. Among the genes were dhaB1 and dhaB2
from C. butyricum VPI1718 coding for glycerol dehydratase (GDHt)
and its activator (GDHtAc), respectively, involved in the conversion
of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA). The yqhD gene
from E.coli BL21 was also included which codes for an NADPHdependent
1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme (PDORI)
reducing 3-HPA to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD). Molecular modeling
analysis indicated that the conformation of fusion protein of YQHD
and DHAB1 was favorable for direct molecular channeling of the
intermediate 3-HPA. According to the simulation results, the yqhD
and dhaB1 gene were assembled in the upstream of dhaB2 to express
a fusion protein, yielding the recombinant strain E. coliBL21
(DE3)//pET22b+::yqhD-dhaB1_dhaB2 (strain BP41Y3). Strain
BP41Y3 gave 10-fold higher 1,3-PD concentration than E. coliBL21
(DE3)//pET22b+::yqhD-dhaB1_dhaB2 (strain BP31Y2) expressing
the recombinant enzymes simultaneously but in a non-fusion mode.
This is the first report using a gene fusion approach to enhance the
biological conversion of glycerol to the value added compound 1,3-
PD.
Abstract: In general, image-based 3D scenes can now be found in many popular vision systems, computer games and virtual reality tours. So, It is important to segment ROI (region of interest) from input scenes as a preprocessing step for geometric stricture detection in 3D scene. In this paper, we propose a method for segmenting ROI based on tensor voting and Dirichlet process mixture model. In particular, to estimate geometric structure information for 3D scene from a single outdoor image, we apply the tensor voting and Dirichlet process mixture model to a image segmentation. The tensor voting is used based on the fact that homogeneous region in an image are usually close together on a smooth region and therefore the tokens corresponding to centers of these regions have high saliency values. The proposed approach is a novel nonparametric Bayesian segmentation method using Gaussian Dirichlet process mixture model to automatically segment various natural scenes. Finally, our method can label regions of the input image into coarse categories: “ground", “sky", and “vertical" for 3D application. The experimental results show that our method successfully segments coarse regions in many complex natural scene images for 3D.
Abstract: The research object was wheat bread. Experiments
were carried out at the Faculty of Food Technology of the Latvia
University of Agriculture. An active packaging in combination with
modified atmosphere (MAP, CO2 60% and N2 40%) was examined
and compared with traditional packaging in air ambiance. Polymer
Multibarrier 60, PP and OPP bags were used. Influence of iron based
oxygen absorber in sachets of 100 cc obtained from Mitsubishi Gas
Chemical Europe Ageless® was tested on the quality during the shelf
of wheat bread. Samples of 40±4 g were packaged in polymer
pouches (110 mm x 120 mm), hermetically sealed by MULTIVAC
C300 vacuum chamber machine, and stored in room temperature
+21.0±0.5 °C. The physiochemical properties – weight losses,
moisture content, hardness, pH, colour, changes of atmosphere
content (CO2 and O2) in headspace of packs, and microbial
conditions were analysed before packaging and in the 7th, 14th, 21st
and 28th days of storage.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationships between and
among the various drivers of climate change that have both climatic
and ecological consequences for vegetation and land cover change in
arctic areas, particularly in arctic Alaska. It discusses the various
processes that have created spatial and climatic structures that have
facilitated observable vegetation and land cover changes in the
Arctic. Also, it indicates that the drivers of both climatic and
ecological changes in the Arctic are multi-faceted and operate in a
system with both positive and negative feedbacks that largely results
in further increases or decreases of the initial drivers of climatic and
vegetation change mainly at the local and regional scales. It
demonstrates that the impact of arctic warming on land cover change
and the Arctic ecosystems is not unidirectional and one dimensional
in nature but it represents a multi-directional and multi-dimensional
forces operating in a feedback system.
Abstract: “Garbage enzyme", a fermentation product of kitchen waste, water and brown sugar, is claimed in the media as a multipurpose solution for household and agricultural uses. This study assesses the effects of dilutions (5% to 75%) of garbage enzyme in reducing pollutants in domestic wastewater. The pH of the garbage enzyme was found to be 3.5, BOD concentration about 150 mg/L. Test results showed that the garbage enzyme raised the wastewater-s BOD in proportion to its dilution due to its high organic content. For mixtures with more than 10% garbage enzyme, its pH remained acidic after the 5-day digestion period. However, it seems that ammonia nitrogen and phosphorus could be removed by the addition of the garbage enzyme. The most economic solution for removal of ammonia nitrogen and phosphorus was found to be 9%. Further tests are required to understand the removal mechanisms of the ammonia nitrogen and phosphorus.
Abstract: This paper shows a simple and effective approach to
the design and implementation of Industrial Information Systems
(IIS) oriented to control the characteristics of each individual product manufactured in a production line and also their manufacturing conditions. The particular products considered in this work are large steel strips that are coiled just after their manufacturing. However, the approach is directly applicable to coiled strips in other industries, like
paper, textile, aluminum, etc. These IIS provide very detailed information of each manufactured product, which complement the general information managed by the ERP system of the production line. In spite of the high importance of this type of IIS to guarantee and improve the quality of the products manufactured in many industries, there are very few works about them in the technical literature. For this reason, this paper represents an important contribution to the development of this type of IIS, providing guidelines for their design, implementation and exploitation.
Abstract: The research objective of the project and article “The impact of Structural Funds on the growth of competitiveness of Polish agriculture" is to assess competitiveness of regions in Poland from the perspective of Polish agriculture by analysing the efficiency of the use of Structural Funds, the economic procedure of their distribution and the regulatory and organisational framework under the Rural Development Programme (RDP). It must be stressed that defining the scope of research in the above manner limits the analysis only to the part of Structural Funds directed to support Polish agriculture.
Abstract: Sickness absence represents a major economic and
social issue. Analysis of sick leave data is a recurrent challenge to analysts because of the complexity of the data structure which is
often time dependent, highly skewed and clumped at zero. Ignoring these features to make statistical inference is likely to be inefficient
and misguided. Traditional approaches do not address these problems. In this study, we discuss model methodologies in terms of statistical techniques for addressing the difficulties with sick leave data. We also introduce and demonstrate a new method by performing a longitudinal assessment of long-term absenteeism using
a large registration dataset as a working example available from the Helsinki Health Study for municipal employees from Finland during the period of 1990-1999. We present a comparative study on model
selection and a critical analysis of the temporal trends, the occurrence
and degree of long-term sickness absences among municipal employees. The strengths of this working example include the large
sample size over a long follow-up period providing strong evidence in supporting of the new model. Our main goal is to propose a way to
select an appropriate model and to introduce a new methodology for analysing sickness absence data as well as to demonstrate model
applicability to complicated longitudinal data.
Abstract: In Peer-to-Peer service networks, where peers offer any kind of publicly available services or applications, intuitive navigation through all services in the network becomes more difficult as the number of services increases. In this article, a concept is discussed that enables users to intuitively browse and use large scale P2P service networks. The concept extends the idea of creating virtual 3D-environments solely based on Peer-to-Peer technologies. Aside from browsing, users shall have the possibility to emphasize services of interest using their own semantic criteria. The appearance of the virtual world shall intuitively reflect network properties that may be of interest for the user. Additionally, the concept comprises options for load- and traffic-balancing. In this article, the requirements concerning the underlying infrastructure and the graphical user interface are defined. First impressions of the appearance of future systems are presented and the next steps towards a prototypical implementation are discussed.
Abstract: The recycling of concrete, bricks and masonry rubble
as concrete aggregates is an important way to contribute to a
sustainable material flow. However, there are still various
uncertainties limiting the widespread use of Recycled Concrete
Aggregates (RCA). The fluctuations in the composition of grade
recycled aggregates and their influence on the properties of fresh and
hardened concrete are of particular concern regarding the use of
RCA. Most of problems occurring while using recycled concrete
aggregates as aggregates are due to higher porosity and hence higher
water absorption, lower mechanical strengths, residual impurities on
the surface of the RCA forming weaker bond between cement paste
and aggregate. So, the reuse of RCA is still limited. Efficient
polymer based treatment is proposed in order to reuse RCA easier.
The silicon-based polymer treatments of RCA were carried out and
were compared. This kind of treatment can improve the properties of
RCA such as the rate of water absorption on treated RCA is
significantly reduced.
Abstract: It is known that the heart interacts with and adapts to
its venous and arterial loading conditions. Various experimental
studies and modeling approaches have been developed to investigate
the underlying mechanisms. This paper presents a model of the left
ventricle derived based on nonlinear stress-length myocardial
characteristics integrated over truncated ellipsoidal geometry, and
second-order dynamic mechanism for the excitation-contraction
coupling system. The results of the model presented here describe the
effects of the viscoelastic damping element of the electromechanical
coupling system on the hemodynamic response. Different heart rates
are considered to study the pacing effects on the performance of the
left-ventricle against constant preload and afterload conditions under
various damping conditions. The results indicate that the pacing
process of the left ventricle has to take into account, among other
things, the viscoelastic damping conditions of the myofilament
excitation-contraction process.
Abstract: Building intelligent traffic guide systems has been an
interesting subject recently. A good system should be able to observe
all important visual information to be able to analyze the context of
the scene. To do so, signs in general, and traffic signs in particular,
are usually taken into account as they contain rich information to
these systems. Therefore, many researchers have put an effort on
sign recognition field. Sign localization or sign detection is the most
important step in the sign recognition process. This step filters out
non informative area in the scene, and locates candidates in later
steps. In this paper, we apply a new approach in detecting sign
locations using a new color invariant model. Experiments are carried
out with different datasets introduced in other works where authors
claimed the difficulty in detecting signs under unfavorable imaging
conditions. Our method is simple, fast and most importantly it gives
a high detection rate in locating signs.