Abstract: this study was carried out to investigate the changes in
quality parameters of rye bread packaged in different polymer films
during convection air-flow thermal treatment process. Whole loafs of
bread were placed in polymer pouches, which were sealed in reduced
pressure air ambiance, bread was thermally treated in
at temperature +(130; 140; and 150) ± 5 ºC within 40min, as long as
the core temperature of the samples have reached accordingly
+80±1 ºC. For bread packaging pouches were used: anti-fog
Mylar®OL12AF and thermo resistant combined polymer material.
Main quality parameters was analysed using standard methods:
temperature in bread core, bread crumb and crust firmness value,
starch granules volume and microflora. In the current research it was
proved, that polymer films significantly influence rye bread quality
parameters changes during thermal treatment. Thermo resistant
combined polymer material film could be recommendable for
packaged rye bread pasteurization, for maximal bread quality
parameter keeping.
Abstract: Rule Discovery is an important technique for mining
knowledge from large databases. Use of objective measures for
discovering interesting rules leads to another data mining problem,
although of reduced complexity. Data mining researchers have
studied subjective measures of interestingness to reduce the volume
of discovered rules to ultimately improve the overall efficiency of
KDD process.
In this paper we study novelty of the discovered rules as a
subjective measure of interestingness. We propose a hybrid approach
based on both objective and subjective measures to quantify novelty
of the discovered rules in terms of their deviations from the known
rules (knowledge). We analyze the types of deviation that can arise
between two rules and categorize the discovered rules according to
the user specified threshold. We implement the proposed framework
and experiment with some public datasets. The experimental results
are promising.
Abstract: Sesame is one of the oldest and most important oil
crops as main crop and second crop agriculture. This study was
carried out to determine the effects of different inter- and intra-row
spacings on the yield and yield components on second crop sesame;
was set up in Antalya West Mediterranean Agricultural Research
Institue in 2009. Muganlı 57 sesame cultivar was used as plant
material. The field experiment was set up in a split plot design and
row spacings (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 cm) were assigned to the main
plots and and intra-row spacings (5, 10, 20 and 30 cm) were assigned
to the subplots. Seed yield, oil ratio, oil yield, protein ratio and
protein yield were investigated. In general, wided inter row spacings
and intra-row spacings, resulted in decreased seed yield, oil yield and
protein yield. The highest seed yield, oil yield and protein yield
(respectively, 1115.0 kg ha-1, 551.3 kg ha-1, 224.7 kg ha-1) were
obtained from 30x5 cm plant density while the lowest seed yield, oil
yield and protein yield (respectively, 677.0 kg ha-1, 327.0 kg ha-1,
130.0 kg ha-1) were recorded from 70x30 cm plant density. As a
result, in terms of oil yield for second crop sesame agriculture, 30 cm
row spacing, and 5 cm intra row spacing are the most suitable plant
densities.
Abstract: Aldehydes as secondary lipid oxidation products are highly specific to the oxidative degradation of particular polyunsaturated fatty acids present in foods. Gas chromatographic analysis of those volatile compounds has been widely used for monitoring of the deterioration of food products. Developed static headspace gas chromatography method using flame ionization detector (SHS GC FID) was applied to monitor the aldehydes present in processed foods such as bakery, meat and confectionary products.
Five selected aldehydes were determined in samples without any sample preparation, except grinding for bakery and meat products. SHS–GC analysis allows the separation of propanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal and octanal, within 15min. Aldehydes were quantified in fresh and stored samples, and the obtained range of aldehydes in crackers was 1.62±0.05 – 9.95±0.05mg/kg, in sausages 6.62±0.46 – 39.16±0.39mg/kg; and in cocoa spread cream 0.48±0.01 – 1.13±0.02mg/kg. Referring to the obtained results, the following can be concluded, proposed method is suitable for different types of samples, content of aldehydes varies depending on the type of a sample, and differs in fresh and stored samples of the same type.
Abstract: In Algeria, now, the oil pumping plants are fed with electric power by independent local sources. This type of feeding has many advantages (little climatic influence, independent operation). However it requires a qualified maintenance staff, a rather high frequency of maintenance and repair and additional fuel costs. Taking into account the increasing development of the national electric supply network (Sonelgaz), a real possibility of transfer of the local sources towards centralized sources appears.These latter cannot only be more economic but more reliable than the independent local sources as well. In order to carry out this transfer, it is necessary to work out an optimal strategy to rebuilding these networks taking in account the economic parameters and the indices of reliability.
Abstract: The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with double populations is applied to solve the steady-state laminar natural convective heat transfer in a triangular cavity filled with water. The bottom wall is heated, the vertical wall is cooled, and the inclined wall is kept adiabatic. The buoyancy effect was modeled by applying the Boussinesq approximation to the momentum equation. The fluid velocity is determined by D2Q9 LBM and the energy equation is discritized by D2Q4 LBM to compute the temperature field. Comparisons with previously published work are performed and found to be in excellent agreement. Numerical results are obtained for a wide range of parameters: the Rayleigh number from to and the inclination angle from 0° to 360°. Flow and thermal fields were exhibited by means of streamlines and isotherms. It is observed that inclination angle can be used as a relevant parameter to control heat transfer in right-angled triangular enclosures.
Abstract: Mechanical and water transport properties of high
performance concrete (HPC) containing natural zeolite as partial
replacement of Portland cement are studied. Experimental results
show that in the investigated mixes the use of natural zeolite leads to
an increase of porosity, decrease of compressive strength and
increase of moisture diffusivity and water vapor diffusion coefficient,
as compared with the reference HPC. However, for the replacement
level up to 20% of the mass of Portland cement the concretes still
maintain their high performance character and exhibit acceptable
water transport properties. Therefore, natural zeolite can be
considered an environmental friendly binder with a potential to
replace a part of Portland cement in concrete in building industry.
Abstract: The 'wind-rain' house has a courtyard with glazed
roof, which allows more direct sunlight to come into indoor spaces
during the winter. The glazed roof can be partially opened or closed
and automatically controlled to provide natural ventilation in order to
adjust for indoor thermal conditions and the roof area can be shaded
by reflective insulation materials during the summer. Two field
studies for evaluating indoor thermal conditions of the two 'windrain'
houses have been carried out by author in 2009 and 2010.
Indoor and outdoor air temperature and relative humidity adjacent to
floor and ceiling of the two sample houses were continuously tested
at 15-minute intervals, 24 hours a day during the winter months.
Based on field study data, this study investigates relationships
between building design and indoor thermal condition of the 'windrain'
house to improve the future house design for building thermal
comfort and energy efficiency
Abstract: A theoretical study is conducted to design and explore
the effect of different parameters such as heat loads, the tube size of
piping system, wick thickness, porosity and hole size on the
performance and capability of a Loop Heat Pipe(LHP). This paper
presents a steady state model that describes the different phenomena
inside a LHP. Loop Heat Pipes(LHPs) are two-phase heat transfer
devices with capillary pumping of a working fluid. By their original
design comparing with heat pipes and special properties of the
capillary structure, they-re capable of transferring heat efficiency for
distances up to several meters at any orientation in the gravity field,
or to several meters in a horizontal position. This theoretical model is
described by different relations to satisfy important limits such as
capillary and nucleate boiling. An algorithm is developed to predict
the size of the LHP satisfying the limitations mentioned above for a
wide range of applied loads. Finally, to assess and evaluate the
algorithm and all the relations considered, we have used to design a
new kind of LHP to recover the heat from the exhaust of an actual
Gas Turbine. By finding the results, it showed that we can use the
LHP as a very high efficient device to recover the heat even in high
amount of loads(exhaust of a gas turbine). The sizes of all parts of the
LHP were obtained using the developed algorithm.
Abstract: Switched-mode converters play now a significant role in
modern society. Their operation are often crucial in various electrical
applications affecting the every day life. Therefore, the quality of
the converters needs to be reliably verified. Recent studies have
shown that the converters can be fully characterized by a set of
frequency responses which can be efficiently used to validate the
proper operation of the converters. Consequently, several methods
have been proposed to measure the frequency responses fast and
accurately. Most often correlation-based techniques have been applied.
The presented measurement methods are highly sensitive to
external errors and system nonlinearities. This fact has been often
forgotten and the necessary uncertainty analysis of the measured
responses has been neglected. This paper presents a simple approach
to analyze the noise and nonlinearities in the frequency-response
measurements of switched-mode converters. Coherence analysis is
applied to form a confidence interval characterizing the noise and
nonlinearities involved in the measurements. The presented method is
verified by practical measurements from a high-frequency switchedmode
converter.
Abstract: The growth of open networks created the interest to commercialise it. The establishment of an electronic business mechanism must be accompanied by a digital-electronic payment system to transfer the value of transactions. Financial organizations are requested to offer a secure e-payment synthesis with equivalent levels of trust and security served in conventional paper-based payment transactions. The paper addresses the challenge of the first trade problem in e-commerce, provides a brief literature review on electronic payment and attempts to explain the underlying concept and method of trust in relevance to electronic payment.
Abstract: Numerous experimental tests for post-installed anchor systems drilled in hardened concrete were conducted in order to estimate pull-out and shear strength accounting for uncertainties such as torque ratios, embedment depths and different diameters in demands. In this study, the strength of the systems was significantly changed by the effect of those three uncertainties during pull-out experimental tests, whereas the shear strength of the systems was not affected by torque ratios. It was also shown that concrete cone failure or damage mechanism was generally investigated during and after pull-out tests and in shear strength tests, mostly the anchor systems were failed prior to failure of primary structural system. Furthermore, 3D finite element model for the anchor systems was created by ABAQUS for the numerical analysis. The verification of finite element model was identical till the failure points to the load-displacement relationship specified by the experimental tests.
Abstract: In Lebanon, public construction projects are awarded
to the contractor submitting the lowest bid price based on a
competitive bidding process. The contractor has to make a strategic
decision in choosing the appropriate bid price that will offer a
satisfactory profit with a greater probability to win. A simulation
model for bid price decision making based on the lowest bid price
evaluation is developed. The model, built using Crystal Ball decisionengineering
software, considers two main factors affecting the
bidding process: the number of qualified bidders and the size of the
project. The validity of the model is tested on twelve separate
projects. The study also shows how to use the model to conduct risk
analysis and help any specific contractor to decide on his bid price
with associated certainty level in a scientific method.
Abstract: Compost manufacturing plants are one of units where
wastewater is produced in significantly large amounts. Wastewater
produced in these plants contains high amounts of substrate (organic
loads) and is classified as stringent waste which creates significant
pollution when discharged into the environment without treatment. A
compost production plant in the one of the Iran-s province treating
200 tons/day of waste is one of the most important environmental
pollutant operations in this zone. The main objectives of this paper
are to investigate the compost wastewater treatability in hybrid
anaerobic reactors with an upflow-downflow arrangement, to
determine the kinetic constants, and eventually to obtain an
appropriate mathematical model. After starting the hybrid anaerobic
reactor of the compost production plant, the average COD removal
rate efficiency was 95%.
Abstract: Segmentation in ultrasound images is challenging due to the interference from speckle noise and fuzziness of boundaries. In this paper, a segmentation scheme using fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering incorporating both intensity and texture information of images is proposed to extract breast lesions in ultrasound images. Firstly, the nonlinear structure tensor, which can facilitate to refine the edges detected by intensity, is used to extract speckle texture. And then, a spatial FCM clustering is applied on the image feature space for segmentation. In the experiments with simulated and clinical ultrasound images, the spatial FCM clustering with both intensity and texture information gets more accurate results than the conventional FCM or spatial FCM without texture information.
Abstract: We studied the selection of nest sites by Persian
ground Jay (Podoces pleskei), in a semi -desert central Iran. Habitat
variables such as plant species number, height of plant species,
vegetation percent and distance to water sources of nest sites were
compared with randomly selected non- used sites. The results showed that the most important factors influencing nesting site selection were total vegetation percent and number of shrubs
(Zgophyllum eurypterum and Atraphaxis spinosa). The mean vegetation percent of 20 area selected by Persian Ground Jay was
(4.41+ 0.17), which was significantly larger than that of the non –
selected area (2.08 + 0.06). The number of Zygophyllum eurypterum (1.13+ 0.01) and Atraphaxis spinosa (1.36+ 0.10) were also significantly higher compared with the control area (0.43+ 0.07)
and (0.58+ 0.9) respectively.
Abstract: A numerical investigation has carried out to understand the melting characteristics of phase change material (PCM) in a fin type latent heat storage with the addition of embedded aluminum spiral fillers. It is known that melting performance of PCM can be significantly improved by increasing the number of embedded metallic fins in the latent heat storage system but to certain values where only lead to small improvement in heat transfer rate. Hence, adding aluminum spiral fillers within the fin gap can be an option to improve heat transfer internally. This paper presents extensive computational visualizations on the PCM melting patterns of the proposed fin-spiral fillers configuration. The aim of this investigation is to understand the PCM-s melting behaviors by observing the natural convection currents movement and melting fronts formation. Fluent 6.3 simulation software was utilized in producing twodimensional visualizations of melting fractions, temperature distributions and flow fields to illustrate the melting process internally. The results show that adding aluminum spiral fillers in Fin type latent heat storage can promoted small but more active natural convection currents and improve melting of PCM.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to develop a fast and
reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant
(PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect
moving objects which is already available in personal computers.
Secondly, to compare the performance between Background
subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques
for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. In order to reduce
noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part,
each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then
smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object
detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. The
background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response
(IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying
illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the
effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing
morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this
research, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for
motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average
TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique
Abstract: Twenty - nine Holstein cows were used to evaluate the effects of different dry period (DP) lengths on milk yield and composition, some blood metabolites, and complete blood count (CBC). Cows were assigned to one of 2 treatments: 1) 60-d dry period, 2) 35-d DP. Milk yield, from calving to 60 days, was not different for cows on the treatments (p =0.130). Cows in the 35-d DP produced more milk protein and SNF compare with cows in treatment 1 (p ≤ 0.05). Serum glucose, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), beta hydroxyl butyrate acid (BHBA), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), urea, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) were all similar among the treatments. Body condition score (BCS), body weight (BW), complete blood count (CBC) and health problems were similar between the treatments. The results of this study demonstrated we can reduce the dry period length to 35 days with no problems.
Abstract: Brain Computer Interface (BCI) has been recently
increased in research. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscope (fNIRs)
is one the latest technologies which utilize light in the near-infrared
range to determine brain activities. Because near infrared technology
allows design of safe, portable, wearable, non-invasive and wireless
qualities monitoring systems, fNIRs monitoring of brain
hemodynamics can be value in helping to understand brain tasks. In
this paper, we present results of fNIRs signal analysis indicating that
there exist distinct patterns of hemodynamic responses which
recognize brain tasks toward developing a BCI. We applied two
different mathematics tools separately, Wavelets analysis for
preprocessing as signal filters and feature extractions and Neural
networks for cognition brain tasks as a classification module. We
also discuss and compare with other methods while our proposals
perform better with an average accuracy of 99.9% for classification.