Abstract: The purpose of this study is the discrimination of 28
postmenopausal with osteoporotic femoral fractures from an agematched
control group of 28 women using texture analysis based on
fractals. Two pre-processing approaches are applied on radiographic
images; these techniques are compared to highlight the choice of the
pre-processing method. Furthermore, the values of the fractal
dimension are compared to those of the fractal signature in terms of
the classification of the two populations. In a second analysis, the
BMD measure at proximal femur was compared to the fractal
analysis, the latter, which is a non-invasive technique, allowed a
better discrimination; the results confirm that the fractal analysis of
texture on calcaneus radiographs is able to discriminate osteoporotic
patients with femoral fracture from controls. This discrimination was
efficient compared to that obtained by BMD alone. It was also
present in comparing subgroups with overlapping values of BMD.
Abstract: The development of electric vehicle batteries have
resulted in very high energy density lithium-ion batteries. However,
this progress is accompanied by the risk of thermal runaway, which
can result in serious accidents. Heat pipes are heat exchangers that
are suitable to be applied in electric vehicle battery thermal
management for their lightweight, compact size and do not require
external power supply. This paper aims to examine experimentally a
Flat Plate Loop Heat Pipe (FPLHP) performance as a heat exchanger
in thermal management system of lithium-ion battery for electric
vehicle application. The heat generation of the battery was simulated
using a cartridge heater. Stainless steel screen mesh was used as the
capillary wick. Distilled water, alcohol and acetone were used as
working fluids with a filling ratio of 60%. It was found that acetone
gives the best performance that produces thermal resistance of 0.22
W/°C with 50°C evaporator temperature at heat flux load of 1.61
W/cm2.
Abstract: Transparent nickel doped cobalt sulfide was fabricated
on a SnO2:F electrode and tested as an efficient electrocatalyst and as
an alternative to the expensive platinum counter electrode. In order to
investigate how this electrode could affect the electrical
characteristics of a dye-sensitized solar cell, we manufactured cells
with the same TiO2 photoanode sensitized with dye (N719) and
employing the same quasi-solid electrolyte, altering only the counter
electrode used. The cells were electrically and electrochemically
characterized and it was observed that the ones with the Ni doped
CoS2 outperformed the efficiency of the cells with the Pt counter
electrode (3.76% and 3.44% respectively). Particularly, the higher
efficiency of the cells with the Ni doped CoS2 counter electrode (CE)
is mainly because of the enhanced photocurrent density which is
attributed to the enhanced electrocatalytic ability of the CE and the
low charge transfer resistance at the CE/electrolyte interface.
Abstract: In this study, nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy and nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy
parameters of 14N (Nitrogen in imidazole ring) in N–H…O hydrogen
bonding for Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate were calculated via
density functional theory. We considered a five-molecule model
system of Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate. Also we examined
the trends of environmental effect on hydrogen bonds as well as
cooperativity. The functional used in this research is M06-2X which
is a good functional and the obtained results has shown good
agreement with experimental data. This functional was applied to
calculate the NMR and NQR parameters. Some correlations among
NBO parameters, NMR and NQR parameters have been studied
which have shown the existence of strong correlations among them.
Furthermore, the geometry optimization has been performed using
M062X/6-31++G(d,p) method. In addition, in order to study
cooperativity and changes in structural parameters, along with
increase in cluster size, natural bond orbitals have been employed.
Abstract: This paper presents results of compressive strength,
capillary water absorption, and density tests conducted on concrete
containing recycled aggregate (RCA) which is obtained from
structural waste generated by the construction industry in Turkey. In
the experiments, 0%, 15%, 30%, 45% and 60% of the normal
(natural) coarse aggregate was replaced by the recycled aggregate.
Maximum aggregate particle sizes were selected as 16 mm, 22,4 mm
and 31,5 mm; and 0,06%, 0,13% and 0,20% of air-entraining agent
(AEA) were used in mixtures. Fly ash and superplasticizer were used
as a mineral and chemical admixture, respectively. The same type
(CEM I 42.5) and constant dosage of cement were used in the study.
Water/cement ratio was kept constant as 0.53 for all mixture. It was
concluded that capillary water absorption, compressive strength, and
density of concrete decreased with increasing RCA ratio. Increasing
in maximum aggregate particle size and amount of AEA also affect
the properties of concrete significantly.
Abstract: In this study, the feasibility of incorporating ceramic
waste from bricks (perforated brick and double hollow brick) and
extruded polystyrene (XPS) waste, is analysed.
Results show that it is possible to incorporate up to 25% of
ceramic waste and 4% of XPS waste over the weight of gypsum in a
gypsum matrix. Furthermore, with the addition of ceramic waste an
8% of surface hardness increase and a 25% of capillary water
absorption reduction can be obtained. On the other hand, with the
addition of XPS, a 26% reduction of density and a 37% improvement
of thermal conductivity can be obtained.
The obtained results are favorable to use these materials in order to
produce prefabricated gypsum and also as material for interior
cladding walls.
Abstract: A comparison of activity and stability of the as-formed
Pt/C, Pt-Co and Pt-Pd/C electrocatalysts, prepared by a combined
approach of impregnation and seeding, was performed. According to
the activity test in a single Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel
cell, the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) activity of the Pt-M/C
electrocatalyst was slightly lower than that of Pt/C. The j0.9 V and
E10 mA/cm2 of the as-prepared electrocatalysts increased in the order of
Pt/C > Pt-Co/C > Pt-Pd/C. However, in the medium-to-high current
density region, Pt-Pd/C exhibited the best performance. With regard to
their stability in a 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte solution, the
electrochemical surface area decreased as the number of rounds of
repetitive potential cycling increased due to the dissolution of the
metals within the catalyst structure. For long-term measurement, Pt-
Pd/C was the most stable than the other three electrocatalysts.
Abstract: The effect of processing on plasma lipid profile and
atherogenic indices of rats fed Artocarpus heterophyllus seed diets at
different concentrations were investigated. Fifty five rats were used
for this study, they were divided into eleven groups of five rats each
(one control group and ten test groups), the test groups were fed raw,
boiled, roasted, fermented and soaked diets at 10% and 40%
concentrations. The study lasted for thirty five days. The diets led to
significant decrease (p
Abstract: Mustard leaves are rich in folates, vitamin A, K and
B-complex. Mustard greens are low in calories and fats and rich in
dietary fiber. They are rich in potassium, manganese, iron, copper,
calcium, magnesium and low in sodium. It is very rich in antioxidants
and Phytonutrients. For the optimization of process variables
(moisture content and mustard leave powder), the experiments were
conducted according to central composite Face Centered Composite
design of RSM. The mustard leaves powder was replaced with
composite flour (a combination of rice, chickpea and corn in the ratio
of 70:15:15). The extrudate was extruded in a twin screw extruder at
a barrel temperature of 120°C. The independent variables were
mustard leaves powder (2-10 %) and moisture content (12-20 %).
Responses analyzed were bulk density, water solubility index, water
absorption index, lateral expansion, antioxidant activity, total
phenolic content, and overall acceptability. The optimum conditions
obtained were 7.19 g mustard leaves powder in 100g premix having
16.8% moisture content (w.b).
Abstract: Fibre cement plates, often used in construction,
generally are made using quartz as an inert material, cement as a
binder and cellulose as a fibre. This paper, first of all, investigates the
mechanical properties and durability of fibre cement plates when
quartz is both partly and fully replaced with diatomite. Diatomite
does not only have lower density compared to quartz but also has
high pozzolanic activity. The main objective of this paper is the
investigation of the effects of supplementary cementing materials
(SCMs) on the short and long term mechanical properties and
durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using
diatomite. Supplementary cementing materials such as ground
granulated blast furnace slug (GGBS) and fly ash (FA) are used in
this study. Volume proportions of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of GGBS and
FA are used as partial replacement materials to cement. Short and
long term mechanical properties such as compressive and flexural
strengths as well as sorptivity characteristics and mass were
investigated. Consistency and setting time at each replacement levels
of SCMs were also recorded. The effects of using supplementary
cementing materials on the carbonation and sulphate resistance of
fibre cement plates were then experimented. The results, first of all,
show that the use of diatomite as a full or partial replacement to
quartz resulted in a systematic decrease in total mass of the fibre
cement plates. The reduction of mass was largely due to the lower
density and finer particle size of diatomite compared to quartz. The
use of diatomite did not only reduce the mass of these plates but also
increased the compressive strength significantly as a result of its high
pozzolanic activity. The replacement levels of both GGBS and FA
resulted in a systematic decrease in short term compressive strength
with increasing replacement levels. This was essentially expected as
the total rate of hydration is much lower in GGBS and FA than that
of cement. Long term results however, indicated that the compressive
strength of fibre cement plates prepared using both GGBS and FA
increases with time and hence the compressive strength of plates
prepared using SCMs is either equivalent or more than the
compressive strength of plates prepared using cement alone.
Durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using SCMs
were enhanced significantly. Measurements of sopritivty
characteristics were also indicated that the plates prepared using
SCMs has much lower water absorption capacities compared to
plates prepared cement alone. Much higher resistance to carbonation
and sulphate attach were observed with plates prepared using SCMs.
The results presented in this paper show that the use of SCMs does
not only support the production of more sustainable construction
materials but also enhances the mechanical properties and durability
characteristics of fibre cement plates.
Abstract: This paper presents a new automatic vehicle detection
method from very high resolution aerial images to measure traffic
density. The proposed method starts by extracting road regions from
image using road vector data. Then, the road image is divided into
equal sections considering resolution of the images. Gradient vectors
of the road image are computed from edge map of the corresponding
image. Gradient vectors on the each boundary of the sections are
divided where the gradient vectors significantly change their
directions. Finally, number of vehicles in each section is carried out
by calculating the standard deviation of the gradient vectors in each
group and accepting the group as vehicle that has standard deviation
above predefined threshold value. The proposed method was tested in
four very high resolution aerial images acquired from Istanbul,
Turkey which illustrate roads and vehicles with diverse
characteristics. The results show the reliability of the proposed
method in detecting vehicles by producing 86% overall F1 accuracy
value.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigated the athermal pressure
behavior of the structural and elastic properties of scheelite BaWO4
phase up to 7 GPa using the ab initio pseudo-potential method. The
calculated lattice parameters pressure relation have been compared
with the experimental values and found to be in good agreement with
these results. Moreover, we present for the first time the investigation
of the elastic properties of this compound using the density functional
perturbation theory (DFPT). It is shown that this phase is
mechanically stable up to 7 GPa after analyzing the calculated elastic
constants. Other relevant quantities such as bulk modulus, pressure
derivative of bulk modulus, shear modulus; Young’s modulus,
Poisson’s ratio, anisotropy factors, Debye temperature and sound
velocity have been calculated. The obtained results, which are
reported for the first time to the best of the author’s knowledge, can
facilitate assessment of possible applications of the title material.
Abstract: This paper represents the results of experimental work to investigate the suitability of a waste material (WM) for soft soil stabilisation. In addition, the effect of particle size distribution (PSD) of the waste material on its performance as a soil stabiliser was investigated. The WM used in this study is produced from the incineration processes in domestic energy power plant and it is available in two different grades of fineness (coarse waste material (CWM) and fine waste material (FWM)). An intermediate plasticity silty clayey soil with medium organic matter content has been used in this study. The suitability of the CWM and FWM to improve the physical and engineering properties of the selected soil was evaluated dependant on the results obtained from the consistency limits, compaction characteristics (optimum moisture content (OMC) and maximum dry density (MDD)); along with the unconfined compressive strength test (UCS). Different percentages of CWM were added to the soft soil (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15%) to produce various admixtures. Then the UCS test was carried out on specimens under different curing periods (zero, 7, 14, and 28 days) to find the optimum percentage of CWM. The optimum and other two percentages (either side of the optimum content) were used for FWM to evaluate the effect of the fineness of the WM on UCS of the stabilised soil. Results indicated that both types of the WM used in this study improved the physical properties of the soft soil where the index of plasticity (IP) was decreased significantly. IP was decreased from 21 to 13.64 and 13.10 with 12% of CWM and 15% of FWM respectively. The results of the unconfined compressive strength test indicated that 12% of CWM was the optimum and this percentage developed the UCS value from 202kPa to 500kPa for 28 days cured samples, which is equal, approximately 2.5 times the UCS value for untreated soil. Moreover, this percentage provided 1.4 times the value of UCS for stabilized soil-CWA by using FWM which recorded just under 700kPa after 28 days curing.
Abstract: Obesity and osteoporosis are the two diseases whose
increasing prevalence and high impact on the global morbidity and
mortality, during the two recent decades, have gained a status of
major health threats worldwide. Obesity purports to affect the bone
metabolism through complex mechanisms. Debated data on the
connection between the bone mineral density and fracture prevalence
in the obese patients are widely presented in literature. There is
evidence that the correlation of weight and fracture risk is sitespecific.
This study is aimed at determining the connection between
the bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS)
parameters in Ukrainian women suffering from obesity. We
examined 1025 40-89-year-old women, divided them into the groups
according to their body mass index: Group A included 360 women
with obesity whose BMI was ≥30 kg/m2, and Group B – 665 women
with no obesity and BMI of
Abstract: Presently a significant portion of the Earth's
population does not have access to healthy food. Either because they
cannot afford it or because they do not know which one are they. The
aim of the VII th Framework Chance project (Nr. 266331) supported
by the European Union has been to develop relatively cheap food
with favourable nutritional value and it should have acceptable
quality for consumers. As one task of the project we manufactured
bread products as a basic food. We examined the enrichment of bread
products with four kinds of bran, with a special milling product of
grain industry (aleurone-rich flour) and with a soy-based sprouted
additive. The applied concentration of the six mentioned additives
has been optimized and the physical properties of the bread products
were monitored. The weight/density of the enriched breads increased
a bit, however the volume and height decreased slightly compared to
the corresponding data of the control bread. The optimized
composition of the final product is favourably affected by these
additives having highly preferred composition from nutritional point
of view.
Abstract: In the immunologic sense, clinical infection is a state
of failure of the immune system to combat the pathogenic weapon of
the bacteria invading the host. A motile gram negative vibroid
organism associated with marked mono and poly nuclear cell
responses was traced during the examination of a clinical material
from an infected common carp Cyprinus carpio. On primary plate
culture, growth was shown to be pure, dense population of an
Aeromonas-like colony morphotype. The pure isolate was found to
be; Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic, non-halophilic, grew at 0C, and
37C, oxidase positive utilizes glucose through fermentative pathway,
resist 0/129 and novobiocin, produces alanine and lysine
decarboxylases but non-producing ornithine dehydrolases. Tests for
the in vitro determinants of pathogenicity has shown to be; Betahaemolytic
onto blood agar, gelatinase, casienase and amylase
producer. Three in vivo determinants of pathogenicity were tested as,
the lethal dose fifty, the pathogenesis and pathogenicity. It was
evident that 0.1 milliliter of the causal bacterial cell suspension of a
density 1 x 107 CFU/ml injected intramuscularly into an average of
100gms fish toke five days incubation period, then at the day six
morbidity and mortality were initiated. LD50 was recorded at the day
12 post-infection. Use of an LD50 doses to study the pathogenicity,
reveals mononuclear and polynuclear cell responses, on examining
the stained direct films of the clinical materials from the
experimentally infected fish. Re-isolation tests confirm that the reisolant
is same. The course of the infection in natural case was shown
manifestation of; skin ulceration, haemorrhage and descaling. On
evisceration, the internal organs were shown; congestion in the
intestines, spleen and, air sacs. The induced infection showed a
milder form of these manifestations. The grading of the virulence of
this organism was virulent causing chronic course of infections as
indicated from the pathogenesis and pathogenicity studies. Thus the
infectious bacteria were consistent with Aeromonas hydrophila, and
the infection was chronic.
Abstract: Biomass briquette gasification is regarded as a
promising route for efficient briquette use in energy generation, fuels
and other useful chemicals. However, previous research has been
focused on briquette gasification in fixed bed gasifiers such as
updraft and downdraft gasifiers. Fluidised bed gasifier has the
potential to be effectively sized to medium or large scale. This study
investigated the use of fuel briquettes produced from blends of rice
husks and corn cobs biomass, in a bubbling fluidised bed gasifier.
The study adopted a combination of numerical equations and Aspen
Plus simulation software, to predict the product gas (syngas)
composition base on briquette density and biomass composition
(blend ratio of rice husks to corn cobs). The Aspen Plus model was
based on an experimentally validated model from the literature. The
results based on a briquette size 32 mm diameter and relaxed density
range of 500 to 650kg/m3, indicated that fluidisation air required in
the gasifier increased with increase in briquette density, and the
fluidisation air showed to be the controlling factor compared with the
actual air required for gasification of the biomass briquettes. The
mass flowrate of CO2 in the predicted syngas composition increased
with an increase in air flow, in the gasifier, while CO decreased and
H2 was almost constant. The ratio of H2 to CO for various blends of
rice husks and corn cobs did not significantly change at the designed
process air, but a significant difference of 1.0 was observed between
10/90 and 90/10 % blend of rice husks and corn cobs.
Abstract: In the present research work we present the optical
emission studies of the Indium (In) – Tin (Sn) plasma produced by
the first (1064 nm) harmonic of an Nd: YAG nanosecond pulsed
laser. The experimentally observed line profiles of neutral Indium (In
I) and Tin (SnI) are used to extract the electron temperature (Te)
using the Boltzmann plot method. Whereas, the electron number
density (Ne) has been determined from the Stark broadening line
profile method. The Te is calculated by varying the distance from the
target surface along the line of propagation of plasma plume and also
by varying the laser irradiance. Beside we have studied the variation
of Ne as a function of laser irradiance as well as its variation with
distance from the target surface.
Abstract: Five palm oil ether monoesters utilized as novel
biodiesels were synthesized and structurally identified in the paper.
The investigation was made on the effect of ether species on
physicochemical properties of the palm oil ether monoesters. The
results showed that density, kinematic viscosity, smoke point, and
solidifying point increase linearly with their –CH2 group number in
certain relationships. Cetane number is enhanced whereas heat value
decreases linearly with –CH2 group number. In addition, the
influencing regularities of the volumetric content of the palm oil ether
monoesters on the fuel properties were also studied when the ether
monoesters are used as diesel fuel additives.
Abstract: Intermetallic materials are among advanced
technology materials that have outstanding mechanical and physical
properties for high temperature applications. Especially creep
resistance, low density and high hardness properties stand out in such
intermetallics. The microstructure, mechanical properties of %88Ni-
%10Cr and %2Mn powders were investigated using specimens
produced by tube furnace sintering at 900-1300°C temperature. A
composite consisting of ternary additions, a metallic phase, Fe, Cr
and Mn have been prepared under Ar shroud and then tube furnace
sintered. XRD, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), were
investigated to characterize the properties of the specimens.
Experimental results carried out for composition %88Ni-%10Cr and
%2Mn at 1300°C suggest that the best properties as 138,80HV and
6,269/cm3 density were obtained at 1300°C.