Abstract: The need to protect our cultural heritage was stressed
on revitalization of historical city centers in communities. The main
aim of this research is to attract finance and activities to the historical
city centers through the citizens and municipalities participation
while cities expanded their boundaries toward suburban areas. Today
the main problems which facing to the most historical city centers, is
loss of their centrality through effect of urbanization on any point of
the cities which is the most important issue on neglect and
abandonment of the historical central area by decentralizing living,
commerce and public areas. This article evaluate the ways in which
city center revitalization can be effect on vitality and viability of the
central area in case of Naghshe Jahan square which situated at the
center of Isfahan city, Iran. Constructed between 1598 and 1629, it is
now an important historical site, and one of UNESCO's World
Heritage Sites.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze the temporal
and spatial variability of thermal conditions in the Republic of
Armenia. The paper describes annual fluctuations in air temperature.
Research has been focused on case study region of Armenia and
surrounding areas, where long–term measurements and observations
of weather conditions have been performed within the National
Meteorological Service of Armenia and its surrounding areas. The
study contains yearly air temperature data recorded between 1961-
2012. Mann-Kendal test and the autocorrelation function were
applied to detect the change trend of annual mean temperature, as
well as other parametric and non-parametric tests searching to find
the presence of some breaks in the long term evolution of
temperature. The analysis of all records reveals a tendency mostly
towards warmer years, with increased temperatures especially in
valleys and inner basins. The maximum temperature increase is up to
1,5°C. Negative results have not been observed in Armenia. The
patterns of temperature change have been observed since the 1990’s
over much of the Armenian territory. The climate in Armenia was
influenced by global change in the last 2 decades, as results from the
methods employed within the study.
Abstract: This first-attempt study revealed that decolorized
intermediates of azo dyes could act as redox mediators to assist
wastewater (WW) decolorization due to enhancement of
electron-transport phenomena. Electrochemical impedance spectra
indicated that hydroxyl and amino-substituent(s) were functional
group(s) as redox-mediator(s). As azo dyes are usually multiple
benzene-rings structured, their derived decolorized intermediates are
likely to play roles of electron shuttles due to lower barrier of energy
gap for electron shuttling. According to cyclic voltammetric profiles,
redox mediating characteristics of decolorized intermediates of azo
dyes (e.g., RBu171, RR198, RR141, RBk5) were clearly disclosed.
With supplementation of biodecolorized metabolites of RR141 and
198, decolorization performance of could be evidently augmented.
This study also suggested the optimal modes of microbial fuel cell
(MFC)-assisted WW decolorization would be plug-flow or batch
mode of operation with no mix. Single chamber-MFCs would be more
favourable than double chamber MFCs due to non-mixing contacting
reactor scheme for operation.
Abstract: River Hindon is an important river catering the
demand of highly populated rural and industrial cluster of western
Uttar Pradesh, India. Water quality of river Hindon is deteriorating at
an alarming rate due to various industrial, municipal and agricultural
activities. The present study aimed at identifying the pollution
sources and quantifying the degree to which these sources are
responsible for the deteriorating water quality of the river. Various
water quality parameters, like pH, temperature, electrical
conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, calcium, chloride,
nitrate, sulphate, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen
demand, and total alkalinity were assessed. Water quality data
obtained from eight study sites for one year has been subjected to the
two multivariate techniques, namely, principal component analysis
and cluster analysis. Principal component analysis was applied with
the aim to find out spatial variability and to identify the sources
responsible for the water quality of the river. Three Varifactors were
obtained after varimax rotation of initial principal components using
principal component analysis. Cluster analysis was carried out to
classify sampling stations of certain similarity, which grouped eight
different sites into two clusters. The study reveals that the
anthropogenic influence (municipal, industrial, waste water and
agricultural runoff) was the major source of river water pollution.
Thus, this study illustrates the utility of multivariate statistical
techniques for analysis and elucidation of multifaceted data sets,
recognition of pollution sources/factors and understanding
temporal/spatial variations in water quality for effective river water
quality management.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, externally bonded fiber
reinforced polymer (FRP) composites bonded to concrete substrates
has become a popular method for strengthening reinforced concrete
(RC) highway and railway bridges. Such structures are exposed to
severe cyclic loading throughout their lifetime often resulting in
fatigue damage to structural components and a reduction in the
service life of the structure. Since experimental and numerical results
on the fatigue performance of FRP-to-concrete joints are still limited,
the current research focuses on assessing the fatigue performance of
externally bonded FRP-to-concrete joints using a direct shear test.
Some early results indicate that the stress ratio and the applied cyclic
stress level have a direct influence on the fatigue life of the externally
bonded FRP. In addition, a calibrated finite element model is
developed to provide further insight into the influence of certain
parameters such as: concrete strength, FRP thickness, number of
cycles, frequency, and stiffness on the fatigue life of the FRP-toconcrete
joints.
Abstract: This article developed an ion thruster optic system
sputter erosion depth numerical 3D model by IFE-PIC (Immersed
Finite Element-Particle-in-Cell) and Mont Carlo method, and
calculated the downstream surface sputter erosion rate of accelerator
grid; compared with LIPS-200 life test data. The results of the
numerical model are in reasonable agreement with the measured data.
Finally, we predicted the lifetime of the 20cm diameter ion thruster via
the erosion data obtained with the model. The ultimate result
demonstrated that under normal operating condition, the erosion rate
of the grooves wears on the downstream surface of the accelerator grid
is 34.6μm⁄1000h, which means the conservative lifetime until
structural failure occurring on the accelerator grid is 11500 hours.
Abstract: English like any other language is rich by means of arbitrary, conventional, symbols which lend it to lot of inconsistencies in spelling, phonology, syntax, and morphology. The research examines the irregularities prevalent in the structure and meaning of some ‘er’ lexical items in English and its implication to vocabulary acquisition. It centers its investigation on the derivational suffix ‘er’, which changes the grammatical category of word. English language poses many challenges to Second Language Learners because of its irregularities, exceptions, and rules. One of the meaning of –er derivational suffix is someone or somebody who does something. This rule often confuses the learners when they meet with the exceptions in normal discourse. The need to investigate instances of such inconsistencies in the formation of –er words and the meanings given to such words by the students motivated this study. For this purpose, some senior secondary two (SS2) students in six randomly selected schools in the metropolis were provided a large number of alphabetically selected ‘er’ suffix ending words, The researcher opts for a test technique, which requires them to provide the meaning of the selected words with- er. The marking of the test was scored on the scale of 1-0, where correct formation of –er word and meaning is scored one while wrong formation and meaning is scored zero. The number of wrong and correct formations of –er words meaning were calculated using percentage. The result of this research shows that a large number of students made wrong generalization of the meaning of the selected -er ending words. This shows how enormous the inconsistencies are in English language and how are affect the learning of English. Findings from the study revealed that though students mastered the basic morphological rules but the errors are generally committed on those vocabulary items that are not frequently in use. The study arrives at this conclusion from the survey of their textbook and their spoken activities. Therefore, the researcher recommends that there should be effective reappraisal of language teaching through implementation of the designed curriculum to reflect on modern strategies of teaching language, identification, and incorporation of the exceptions in rigorous communicative activities in language teaching, language course books and tutorials, training and retraining of teachers on the strategies that conform to the new pedagogy.
Abstract: In the present research, whole meal barley flour
(WBF) was supplemented with gelatinized corn flour (GCF) in 0 and
30%. Whole meal wheat flour (WWF) was mixed with defatted rice
bran (DRB) to produce 0, 20, 25, and 30% replacement levels.
Rheological properties of dough were studied. Thermal properties
and starch crystallinity of flours were evaluated. Flat bread, balady
bread and pie were prepared from the different flour blends. The
different bakeries were sensory evaluated. Color of raw materials and
crust of bakery products were determined. Nutrients contents of raw
flours and food products were assessed. Results showed that addition
of GCF to WBF increased the viscosity and falling number of the
produced dough. Water absorption, dough development time and
dough stability increased with increasing the level of DRB in dough
while, weakening and mixing tolerance index decreased.
Extensibility and energy decreased, while, resistance to extension
increased as DRB level increased. Gelatinized temperature of WWF,
WBF, GCF, and DRB were 13.26, 35.09, 28.33, and 39.63,
respectively. Starch crystallinity was affected when DRB was added
to WWF. The highest protein content was present in balady bread
made from 70% WWF and 30% DRB. The highest calcium,
phosphorus, and potassium levels were present in products made
from 100% WBF. Sensory attributes of the products were slightly
affected by adding DRB and GCF. Conclusion: Addition of DRB or
GCF to WWF or WBF, respectively affect the physical, chemical,
rheological and sensory properties of balady bread, flat bread, and pie
while improved their nutritive values.
Abstract: By using a fixed point theorem of a sum operator, the
existence and uniqueness of positive solution for a class of
boundary value problem of nonlinear fractional differential equation
is studied. An iterative scheme is constructed to approximate it.
Finally, an example is given to illustrate the main result.
Abstract: A Friction stir welding tool is a critical component to
the success of the process. The tool typically consists of a rotating
round shoulder and a threaded cylindrical pin that heats the work
piece, mostly by friction, and moves the softened alloy around it to
form the joint. In this research work, an attempt has been made to
investigate the relationship between FSW variables mainly tool
profile, rotating speed, welding speed and the mechanical properties
(tensile strength, yield strength, percentage elongation, and micro
hardness) of friction stir welded aluminum alloy 5083 joints. From
the experimental details, it can be assessed that the joint produced by
using Triflute profile tool has contribute superior mechanical and
structural properties as compared to Tapered unthreaded & Threaded
tool for 1000rpm.
Abstract: Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
technology is the most promising technology for the proper
utilization of huge raw bandwidth provided by an optical fiber. One
of the key problems in implementing the all-optical WDM network is
the packet contention. This problem can be solved by several
different techniques. In time domain approach the packet contention
can be reduced by incorporating Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs) as optical
buffer in the switch architecture. Different types of buffering
architectures are reported in literatures. In the present paper a
comparative performance analysis of three most popular FDL
architectures are presented in order to obtain the best contention
resolution performance. The analysis is further extended to consider
the effect of different fiber non-linearities on the network
performance.
Abstract: Online measurement of the product quality is a
challenging task in cement production, especially in the production of
Celitement, a novel environmentally friendly hydraulic binder. The
mineralogy and chemical composition of clinker in ordinary Portland
cement production is measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and
X-ray fluorescence (XRF), where only crystalline constituents can be
detected. But only a small part of the Celitement components can be
measured via XRD, because most constituents have an amorphous
structure. This paper describes the development of algorithms
suitable for an on-line monitoring of the final processing step of
Celitement based on NIR-data. For calibration intermediate products
were dried at different temperatures and ground for variable
durations. The products were analyzed using XRD and
thermogravimetric analyses together with NIR-spectroscopy to
investigate the dependency between the drying and the milling
processes on one and the NIR-signal on the other side. As a result,
different characteristic parameters have been defined. A short
overview of the Celitement process and the challenging tasks of the
online measurement and evaluation of the product quality will be
presented. Subsequently, methods for systematic development of
near-infrared calibration models and the determination of the final
calibration model will be introduced. The application of the model on
experimental data illustrates that NIR-spectroscopy allows for a quick
and sufficiently exact determination of crucial process parameters.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a flexible box erecting
machine (BEM) that swiftly and automatically transforms cardboard
into a three dimensional box. Recently, the parcel service and
home-shopping industries have grown rapidly, and there is an
increasing need for various box types to ship various products.
However, workers cannot fold thousands of boxes manually in a day.
As such, automatic BEMs are garnering greater attention. This study
takes equipment operation into consideration as well as mechanical
improvements in order to design a BEM that is able to outperform its
conventional counterparts. We analyzed six dispatching rules – First In
First Out (FIFO), Shortest Processing Time (SPT), Earliest Due Date
(EDD), Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, and EDD + Setup Avoidance –
to determine which one was most suitable for BEM operation.
Consequently, SPT and Setup Avoidance were found to be the most
critical rules, followed by EDD + Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT,
EDD, and FIFO. This hierarchy was valid for both our conventional
BEM and our new flexible BEM from the viewpoint of processing
time. We believe that this research can contribute to flexible BEM
management, which has the potential to increase productivity and
convenience.
Abstract: Fresh concrete has one of dynamic properties known
as slump. Slump of concrete is design to compatible with placing
method. Due to hydration reaction of cement, the slump of concrete
is loss through time. Therefore, delayed concrete probably get reject
because slump is unacceptable. In order to recover the slump of
delayed concrete the second dose of superplasticizer (naphthalene
based type F) is added into the system, the slump recovery can be
done as long as the concrete is not setting. By adding superplasticizer
as solution for recover unusable slump loss concrete may affects
other concrete properties. Therefore, this paper was observed setting
times and compressive strength of concrete after being re-dose with
chemical admixture type F (superplasticizer, naphthalene based) for
slump recovery. The concrete used in this study was fly ash concrete
with fly ash replacement of 0%, 30% and 50% respectively. Concrete
mix designed for test specimen was prepared with paste content (ratio
of volume of cement to volume of void in the aggregate) of 1.2 and
1.3, water-to-binder ratio (w/b) range of 0.3 to 0.58, initial dose of
superplasticizer (SP) range from 0.5 to 1.6%. The setting times of
concrete were tested both before and after re-dosed with different
amount of second dose and time of dosing. The research was
concluded that addition of second dose of superplasticizer would
increase both initial and final setting times accordingly to dosage of
addition. As for fly ash concrete, the prolongation effect was higher
as the replacement of fly ash increase. The prolongation effect can
reach up to maximum about 4 hours. In case of compressive strength,
the re-dosed concrete has strength fluctuation within acceptable range
of ±10%.
Abstract: This study evaluated to facilitate separation of ABS
plastics from other waste plastics by froth flotation after surface
hydrophilization of ABS with heat treatment. The mild heat treatment
at 100oC for 60s could selectively increase the hydrophilicity of the
ABS plastics surface (i.e., ABS contact angle decreased from 79o to
65.8o) among other plastics mixture. The SEM and XPS results of
plastic samples sufficiently supported the increase in hydrophilic
functional groups and decrease contact angle on ABS surface, after
heat treatment. As a result of the froth flotation (at mixing speed 150
rpm and airflow rate 0.3 L/min) after heat treatment, about 85% of
ABS was selectively separated from other heavy plastics with 100%
of purity. The effect of optimum treatment condition and detailed
mechanism onto separation efficiency in the froth floatation was also
investigated. This research is successful in giving a simple, effective,
and inexpensive method for ABS separation from waste plastics.
Abstract: The research investigates the causes of unemployment
in Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa and the role of Capital
Accumulation in reducing the unemployment profile of these
economies as proposed by the post-Keynesian economics. This is
conducted through extensive review of literature on the NAIRU
models and focused on the post-Keynesian view of unemployment
within the NAIRU framework. The NAIRU (non-accelerating
inflation rate of unemployment) model has become a dominant
framework used in macroeconomic analysis of unemployment. The
study views the post-Keynesian economics arguments that capital
accumulation is a major determinant of unemployment.
Unemployment remains the fundamental socio-economic challenge
facing African economies. It has been a burden to citizens of those
economies. Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa are great African
nations battling with high unemployment rates. The high
unemployment rate in the country led the citizens to chase away
foreigners in the country claiming that they have taken away their
jobs. The study proposes there is a strong relationship between
capital accumulation and unemployment in Namibia, Nigeria, and
South Africa, and capital accumulation is responsible for high
unemployment rates in these countries. For the economies to achieve
steady state level of employment and satisfactory level of economic
growth and development, there is need for capital accumulation to
take place. The countries in the study have been selected after a
critical research and investigations. They are selected based on the
following criteria; African economies with high unemployment rates
above 15% and have about 40% of their workforce unemployed. This
level of unemployment is the critical level of unemployment in
Africa as expressed by International Labour Organization (ILO). And
finally, the African countries experience a slow growth in their Gross
fixed capital formation. Adequate statistical measures have been
employed using a time-series analysis in the study and the results
revealed that capital accumulation is the main driver of
unemployment performance in the chosen African countries. An
increase in the accumulation of capital causes unemployment to
reduce significantly. The results of the research work will be useful
and relevant to federal governments and ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs) of Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa to resolve
the issue of high and persistent unemployment rates in their
economies which are great burden that slows growth and
development of developing economies. Also, the result can be useful
to World Bank, African Development Bank and International Labour
Organization (ILO) in their further research and studies on how to
tackle unemployment in developing and emerging economies.
Abstract: Average temperatures worldwide are expected to
continue to rise. At the same time, major cities in developing
countries are becoming increasingly populated and polluted.
Governments are tasked with the problem of overheating and air
quality in residential buildings. This paper presents the development
of a model, which is able to estimate the occupant exposure
to extreme temperatures and high air pollution within domestic
buildings. Building physics simulations were performed using the
EnergyPlus building physics software. An accurate metamodel is
then formed by randomly sampling building input parameters and
training on the outputs of EnergyPlus simulations. Metamodels are
used to vastly reduce the amount of computation time required when
performing optimisation and sensitivity analyses. Neural Networks
(NNs) have been compared to a Radial Basis Function (RBF)
algorithm when forming a metamodel. These techniques were
implemented using the PyBrain and scikit-learn python libraries,
respectively. NNs are shown to perform around 15% better than RBFs
when estimating overheating and air pollution metrics modelled by
EnergyPlus.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to: 1) investigate
operation conditions of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok
and vicinity and 2) to compare operation problem levels of SME
automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity according to the
sizes of the enterprises. Samples in this study included 196
entrepreneurs of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and
vicinity derived from simple random sampling and calculation from
R. V. Krejcie and D. W. Morgan’s tables. Research statistics included
frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and T-test. The
results revealed that in general the problem levels of SME automotive
part industry in Bangkok and vicinity were high. When considering
in details, it was found that the problem levels were high at every
aspect, i.e. personal, production, export, finance, and marketing
respectively. The comparison of the problem levels according to the
sizes of the enterprises revealed statistically significant differences at
.05. When considering on each aspect, it was found that the aspect
with the statistical difference at .05 included 5 aspects, i.e.
production, marketing, finance, personal, and export. The findings
also showed that small enterprises faced more severe problems than
those of medium enterprises.
Abstract: Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook
attracts over 500 million users across the world, for those users, their
social life, even their practical life, has become interrelated. Their
interaction with social networking has affected their life forever.
Accordingly, social networking sites have become among the main
channels that are responsible for vast dissemination of different kinds
of information during real time events. This popularity in Social
networking has led to different problems including the possibility of
exposing incorrect information to their users through fake accounts
which results to the spread of malicious content during life events.
This situation can result to a huge damage in the real world to the
society in general including citizens, business entities, and others. In this paper, we present a classification method for detecting the
fake accounts on Twitter. The study determines the minimized set of
the main factors that influence the detection of the fake accounts on
Twitter, and then the determined factors are applied using different
classification techniques. A comparison of the results of these
techniques has been performed and the most accurate algorithm is
selected according to the accuracy of the results. The study has been
compared with different recent researches in the same area; this
comparison has proved the accuracy of the proposed study. We claim
that this study can be continuously applied on Twitter social network
to automatically detect the fake accounts; moreover, the study can be
applied on different social network sites such as Facebook with minor
changes according to the nature of the social network which are
discussed in this paper.
Abstract: Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gas
(GHG) contributors. It is an obligation of the industry to reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide emission to the acceptable limits.
Tremendous research and studies are reported in the past and still the
quest to find the suitable and economical solution of this problem
needed to be explored in order to develop the most plausible absorber
for carbon dioxide removal. Amino acids can be potential alternate
solvents for carbon dioxide capture from gaseous streams. This is due
to its ability to resist oxidative degradation, low volatility and its
ionic structure. In addition, the introduction of promoter-like
piperazine to amino acid helps to further enhance the solubility. In
this work, the effect of piperazine on thermo physical properties and
solubility of β-Alanine aqueous solutions were studied for various
concentrations. The measured physicochemical properties data was
correlated as a function of temperature using least-squares method
and the correlation parameters are reported together with it respective
standard deviations. The effect of activator piperazine on the CO2
loading performance of selected amino acid under high-pressure
conditions (1bar to 10bar) at temperature range of (30 to 60)oC was
also studied. Solubility of CO2 decreases with increasing temperature
and increases with increasing pressure. Quadratic representation of
solubility using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) shows that
the most important parameter to optimize solubility is system
pressure. The addition of promoter increases the solubility effect of
the solvent.