Abstract: The White Kwao (Pueraria mirifica), a potent phytoestrogenic medicinal plant, has long been use in Thailand as a traditional folkmedicine. However, no scientific information of the direct effect of White Kwao on the development of mammalian embryo was available. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of White Kwao extract on the in vitro development and implantation rate of mouse embryos. This study was designed into two experiments. In the first experiment, the two-cell stage mouse embryos were collected from the oviduct of superovulated mature female mice, and randomly cultured in three different media, the M16, M16 supplemented with 0.52μg esthinylestradiol-17β, and M16 supplemented with 10 mg/ml White Kwao extract. The culture was incubated in CO2 incubator at 37 oC . After the embryos were cultivated, the developments of embryos were observed every 24 hours for 5 days. The development rate of embryos from the two-cell stage to blastocyst stage in the media was with White Kwao was significantly higher (p
Abstract: Coriander is an annual and herbaceous plant, belong to
the apiaceae family. This plant is cultivated world widely. It is well
known for having medicinal properties. The aim of this experiment
was to study seed quality of species grown in Kermanshah
conditions. The experiment was carried out in research farm, Campus
of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah,
Iran. Coriander (local type) was grown in late spring May (5th and
20th) and Jun (4th and 19th), and plant density (10, 30, 50 and 70
plants m-2) in 2009. The experimental plots were laid out in a
factorial according to a randomized complete block design with three
replications. The fruits were harvest between 83.5 – 106.5 days after
sowing. The essential oil and oil content was extracted by Clevenger
and Soxhlet apparatuses, respectively. Results showed that delay at
planting date increased the oil content. Also, with the increase at
plant density was decreased oil content and essential oil.
Abstract: With high speed vessels getting ever more sophisti-cated, travelling at higher and higher speeds and operating in With high speed vessels getting ever more sophisticated,
travelling at higher and higher speeds and operating in areas of
high maritime traffic density, training becomes of the highest priority
to ensure that safety levels are maintained, and risks are adequately
mitigated. Training onboard the actual craft on the actual route still
remains the most effective way for crews to gain experience. However,
operational experience and incidents during the last 10 years
demonstrate the need for supplementary training whether in the area
of simulation or man to man, man/ machine interaction. Training and
familiarisation of the crew is the most important aspect in preventing
incidents. The use of simulator, computer and web based training
systems in conjunction with onboard training focusing on critical
situations will improve the man machine interaction and thereby
reduce the risk of accidents. Today, both ship simulator and bridge
teamwork courses are now becoming the norm in order to improve
further emergency response and crisis management skills. One of the
main causes of accidents is the human factor. An efficient way to
reduce human errors is to provide high-quality training to the personnel
and to select the navigators carefully.areas of high maritime traffic density, training becomes of the highest priority to ensure that safety levels are maintained, and risks are adequately mitigated. Training onboard the actual craft on the actual route still remains the most effective way for crews to gain experience. How-ever, operational experience and incidents during the last 10 years demonstrate the need for supplementary training whether in the area of simulation or man to man, man/ machine interaction. Training and familiarisation of the crew is the most important aspect in preventing incidents. The use of simulator, computer and web based training systems in conjunction with onboard training focusing on critical situations will improve the man machine interaction and thereby reduce the risk of accidents. Today, both ship simulator and bridge teamwork courses are now becoming the norm in order to improve further emergency response and crisis management skills. One of the main causes of accidents is the human factor. An efficient way to reduce human errors is to provide high-quality training to the person-nel and to select the navigators carefully. KeywordsCBT - WBT systems, Human factors.
Abstract: Natural pozzolan (NP) is one of the potential
prehistoric alternative binders in the construction industry. It has
been investigated as cement replacement in ordinary concrete by
several researchers for many purposes. Various supplementary
cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash, limestone dust and
silica fume are widely used in the production of SCC; however,
limited studies to address the effect of NP on the properties of SCC
are documented. The current research is composed of different SCC
paste and concrete mixtures containing different replacement levels
of local NP as an alternative SCM. The effect of volume of paste
containing different amounts of local NP related to W/B ratio and
cement content on SCC fresh properties was assessed. The variations
in the fresh properties of SCC paste and concrete represented by
slump flow (flowability) and the flow rate were determined and
discussed. The results indicated that the flow properties of SCC paste
and concrete mixtures, at their optimized superplasticizer dosages,
were affected by the binder content of local NP and the total volume
fraction of SCC paste.
Abstract: In most wheat growing moderate regions and
especially in the north of Iran climate, is affected grain filling by
several physical and abiotic stresses. In this region, grain filling often
occurs when temperatures are increasing and moisture supply is
decreasing. The experiment was designed in RCBD with split plot
arrangements with four replications. Four irrigation treatments
included (I0) no irrigation (check); (I1) one irrigation (50 mm) at
heading stage; (I2) two irrigation (100 mm) at heading and anthesis
stage; and (I3) three irrigation (150 mm) at heading, anthesis and
early grain filling growth stage, two wheat cultivars (Milan and
Shanghai) were cultured in the experiment. Totally raining was 453
mm during the growth season. The result indicated that biological
yield, grain yield and harvest index were significantly affected by
irrigation levels. I3 treatment produced more tillers number in m2,
fertile tillers number in m2, harvest index and biological yield. Milan
produced more tillers number in m2, fertile tillers in m2, while
Shanghai produced heavier tillers and grain 1000 weight. Plant height
was significant in wheat varieties while were not statistically
significant in irrigation levels. Milan produced more grain yield,
harvest index and biological yield. Grain yield shown that I1, I2, and
I3 produced increasing of 5228 (21%), 5460 (27%) and 5670 (29%)
kg ha-1, respectively. There was an interaction of irrigation and
cultivar on grain yields. In the absence of the irrigation reduced grain
1000 weight from 45 to 40 g. No irrigation reduced soil moisture
extraction during the grain filling stage. Current assimilation as a
source of carbon for grain filling depends on the light intercepting
viable green surfaces of the plant after anthesis that due to natural
senescence and the effect of various stresses. At the same time the
demand by the growing grain is increasing. It is concluded from
research work that wheat crop irrigated Milan cultivar could increase
the grain yield in comparison with Shanghai cultivar. Although, the
grain yield of Shanghai under irrigation was slightly lower than
Milan. This grain yield also was related to weather condition, sowing
date, plant density and location conditions and management of
fertilizers, because there was not significant difference in biological
and straw yield. The best result was produced by I1 treatment. I2 and
I3 treatments were not significantly difference with I1 treatment.
Grain yield of I1 indicated that wheat is under soil moisture
deficiency. Therefore, I1 irrigation was better than I0.
Abstract: New generation mobile communication networks have
the ability of supporting triple play. In order that, Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) access techniques have
been chosen to enlarge the system ability for high data rates
networks. Many of cross-layer modeling and optimization schemes
for Quality of Service (QoS) and capacity of downlink multiuser
OFDM system were proposed. In this paper, the Maximum Weighted
Capacity (MWC) based resource allocation at the Physical (PHY)
layer is used. This resource allocation scheme provides a much better
QoS than the previous resource allocation schemes, while
maintaining the highest or nearly highest capacity and costing similar
complexity. In addition, the Delay Satisfaction (DS) scheduling at the
Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, which allows more than one
connection to be served in each slot is used. This scheduling
technique is more efficient than conventional scheduling to
investigate both of the number of users as well as the number of
subcarriers against system capacity. The system will be optimized for
different operational environments: the outdoor deployment scenarios
as well as the indoor deployment scenarios are investigated and also
for different channel models. In addition, effective capacity approach
[1] is used not only for providing QoS for different mobile users, but
also to increase the total wireless network's throughput.
Abstract: This paper addresses parameter and state estimation problem in the presence of the perturbation of observer gain bounded input disturbances for the Lipschitz systems that are linear in unknown parameters and nonlinear in states. A new nonlinear adaptive resilient observer is designed, and its stability conditions based on Lyapunov technique are derived. The gain for this observer is derived systematically using linear matrix inequality approach. A numerical example is provided in which the nonlinear terms depend on unmeasured states. The simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Abstract: The scalar wave equation for a potential in a curved space time, i.e., the Laplace-Beltrami equation has been studied in this work. An action principle is used to derive a finite element algorithm for determining the modes of propagation inside a waveguide of arbitrary shape. Generalizing this idea, the Maxwell theory in a curved space time determines a set of linear partial differential equations for the four electromagnetic potentials given by the metric of space-time. Similar to the Einstein-s formulation of the field equations of gravitation, these equations are also derived from an action principle. In this paper, the expressions for the action functional of the electromagnetic field have been derived in the presence of gravitational field.
Abstract: The pollution of sediments sampled from the North
Port by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated.
Concentrations of PAHs estimated in the port sediments ranged from
199 to 2851.2 μg/kg dw. The highest concentration was found which
is closed to the Berth line, this locations affected by intensive
shipping activities and Land based runoff and they were dominated
by the high molecular weight PAHs (4–6- rings). Source
identification showed that PAHs originated mostly from the
pyrogenic source either from the combustion of fossil fuels, grass,
wood and coal (majority of the samples). Ecological Risk Assessment
on the port sediments presented that slightly adverse ecological
effects to biological community are expected to occur at the vicinity
of the stations 1 and 4. Thus PAHs are not considered as pollutants of
concern in the North Port.
Abstract: Genetic Folding (GF) a new class of EA named as is
introduced for the first time. It is based on chromosomes composed
of floating genes structurally organized in a parent form and
separated by dots. Although, the genotype/phenotype system of GF
generates a kernel expression, which is the objective function of
superior classifier. In this work the question of the satisfying
mapping-s rules in evolving populations is addressed by analyzing
populations undergoing either Mercer-s or none Mercer-s rule. The
results presented here show that populations undergoing Mercer-s
rules improve practically models selection of Support Vector
Machine (SVM). The experiment is trained multi-classification
problem and tested on nonlinear Ionosphere dataset. The target of this
paper is to answer the question of evolving Mercer-s rule in SVM
addressed using either genetic folding satisfied kernel-s rules or not
applied to complicated domains and problems.
Abstract: In the frame of the European Union project entitled EU-Families and Adolescents Quit Tobacco (www.eufaqt.eu) focus group analysis has been carried out in Hungary to acquire qualitative information on attitudes towards smoking in groups of adolescents, parents and educators, respectively. It rendered to identify methods for smoking prevention/ intervention with family approach. The results explored the role of the family in smoking behaviour. Teachers do not feel responsibility in prevention or cessation of smoking. Adolescents are not aware of the addictive effect of the cigarette. Water pipe is popular among adolescent, therefore spreading of more information needed on the harmful effects of water pipe. We outlined the requirement for professionals to provide interventions. Partnership of EU-FAQT project has worked out antismoking interventions for adolescents and their families conducted by psychologists to ensure skill development to prevent and quit tobacco.
Abstract: Thin linear-elastic cylindrical circular shells having a
micro-periodic structure along two directions tangent to the shell
midsurface (biperiodic shells) are object of considerations. The aim
of this paper is twofold. First, we formulate an averaged nonasymptotic
model for the analysis of parametric vibrations or dynamical
stability of periodic shells under consideration, which has constant
coefficients and takes into account the effect of a cell size on the
overall shell behavior (a length-scale effect). This model is derived
employing the tolerance modeling procedure. Second we apply the
obtained model to derivation of frequency equation being a starting
point in the analysis of parametric vibrations. The effect of the microstructure
length oh this frequency equation is discussed.
Abstract: Because of the reservoir effect, dynamic analysis of concrete dams is more involved than other common structures. This problem is mostly sourced by the differences between reservoir water, dam body and foundation material behaviors. To account for the reservoir effect in dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams, two methods are generally employed. Eulerian method in reservoir modeling gives rise to a set of coupled equations, whereas in Lagrangian method, the same equations for dam and foundation structure are used. The Purpose of this paper is to evaluate and study possible advantages and disadvantages of both methods. Specifically, application of the above methods in the analysis of dam-foundationreservoir systems is leveraged to calculate the hydrodynamic pressure on dam faces. Within the frame work of dam- foundationreservoir systems, dam displacement under earthquake for various dimensions and characteristics are also studied. The results of both Lagrangian and Eulerian methods in effects of loading frequency, boundary condition and foundation elasticity modulus are quantitatively evaluated and compared. Our analyses show that each method has individual advantages and disadvantages. As such, in any particular case, one of the two methods may prove more suitable as presented in the results section of this study.
Abstract: Chemical reaction and diffusion are important phenomena in quantitative neurobiology and biophysics. The knowledge of the dynamics of calcium Ca2+ is very important in cellular physiology because Ca2+ binds to many proteins and regulates their activity and interactions Calcium waves propagate inside cells due to a regenerative mechanism known as calcium-induced calcium release. Buffer-mediated calcium diffusion in the cytosol plays a crucial role in the process. A mathematical model has been developed for calcium waves by assuming the buffers are in equilibrium with calcium i.e., the rapid buffering approximation for a one dimensional unsteady state case. This model incorporates important physical and physiological parameters like dissociation rate, diffusion rate, total buffer concentration and influx. The finite difference method has been employed to predict [Ca2+] and buffer concentration time course regardless of the calcium influx. The comparative studies of the effect of the rapid buffered diffusion and kinetic parameters of the model on the concentration time course have been performed.
Abstract: Square pipes (pipes with square cross sections) are
being used for various industrial objectives, such as machine
structure components and housing/building elements. The utilization
of them is extending rapidly and widely. Hence, the out-put of those
pipes is increasing and new application fields are continually
developing.
Due to various demands in recent time, the products have to
satisfy difficult specifications with high accuracy in dimensions. The
reshaping process design of pipes with square cross sections;
however, is performed by trial and error and based on expert-s
experience.
In this paper, a computer-aided simulation is developed based on
the 2-D elastic-plastic method with consideration of the shear
deformation to analyze the reshaping process. Effect of various
parameters such as diameter of the circular pipe and mechanical
properties of metal on product dimension and quality can be
evaluated by using this simulation. Moreover, design of reshaping
process include determination of shrinkage of cross section,
necessary number of stands, radius of rolls and height of pipe at each
stand, are investigated. Further, it is shown that there are good
agreements between the results of the design method and the
experimental results.
Abstract: Infrastructure investments are important in developing
countries, it will not only help to foster the economic growth of a
nation, but it will also act as a platform in which new forms of
partnership and collaboration can be developed mainly in East Asian
countries. Since the last two decades, many infrastructure projects
had been completed through build-operate-transfer (BOT) type of
procurement. The developments of BOT have attracted participation
of local and foreign private sector investor to secure funding and to
deliver projects on time, within the budget and to the required
specifications. Private sectors are preferred by the government in
East Asia to participate in BOT projects due to lack of public
funding. The finding has resulted that the private sector or promoter
of the BOT projects is exposed to multiple risks which have been
discussed in this paper. Effective risk management methods and
good managerial skills are required in ensuring the success of the
project. The review indicated that mitigation measures should be
employed by the promoter throughout the concession period and
support from the host government is also required in ensuring the
success of the BOT project.
Abstract: Oxyleotris marmorata is considered as
undomesticated fish, and its culture occasionally faces a problem of
food deprivation. The present study aims to evaluate alteration of
hematological indices, blood chemical associated with liver function
during 4 weeks of fasting. A non-linear relationships between fasting
days and hematological parameters (red blood cell number; y = -
0.002x2 + 0.041x + 1.249; R2=0.915, P0.05), mean corpuscular
volume; y = -0.180x2 + 2.183x + 149.61; R2=0.732, P>0.05, mean
corpuscular hemoglobin; y = -0.041x2 + 0.862x + 29.864; R2=0.818,
P>0.05 and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; y = -
0.044x2 + 0.711x + 21.580; R2=0.730, P>0.05) were demonstrated.
Significant change in hematocrit (Ht) during fasting period was
observed. Ht elevated sharply increase at the first weeks of fasting
period. Higher Ht also was detected during week 2-4 of fasting time.
The significant reduction of hepatosomatic index was observed (y = -
0.007x2 - 0.096x + 1.414; R2=0.968, P0.05, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase;
y = 0.005x2 – 0.201x2 + 1.297x + 33.256; R2=1, P0.05). Taken together, prolonged fasting has
deleterious effects on hematological indices, liver mass and enzyme
associated in liver function. The marked adverse effects occurred
after the first week of fasting state.
Abstract: According to the governmental data, the cases of oral
cancers doubled in the past 10 years. This had brought heavy burden to
the patients- family, the society, and the country. The literature
generally evidenced the betel nut contained particular chemicals that
can cause oral cancers. Research in Taiwan had also proofed that 90
percent of oral cancer patients had experience of betel nut chewing. It
is thus important to educate the betel-nut hobbyists to cease such a
hazardous behavior. A program was then organized to establish
several training classes across different areas specific to help ceasing
this particular habit. Purpose of this research was to explore the
attitude and intention toward ceasing betel-nut chewing before and
after attending the training classes. 50 samples were taken from a
ceasing class with average age at 45 years old with high school
education (54%). 74% of the respondents were male in service or
agricultural industries. Experiences in betel-nut chewing were 5-20
years with a dose of 1-20 pieces per day. The data had shown that 60%
of the respondents had cigarette smoking habit, and 30% of the
respondents were concurrently alcoholic dependent. Research results
indicated that the attitude, intentions, and the knowledge on oral
cancers were found significant different between before and after
attendance. This provided evidence for the effectiveness of the training
class. However, we do not perform follow-up after the class.
Noteworthy is the test result also shown that participants who were
drivers as occupation, or habitual smokers or alcoholic dependents
would be less willing to quit the betel-nut chewing. The test results
indicated as well that the educational levels and the type of occupation
may have significant impacts on an individual-s decisions in taking
betel-nut or substance abuse.
Abstract: This paper presents the study of hardness profile of spur gear heated by induction heating process in function of the machine parameters, such as the power (kW), the heating time (s) and the generator frequency (kHz). The global work is realized by 3D finite-element simulation applied to the process by coupling and resolving the electromagnetic field and the heat transfer problems, and it was performed in three distinguished steps. First, a Comsol 3D model was built using an adequate formulation and taking into account the material properties and the machine parameters. Second, the convergence study was conducted to optimize the mesh. Then, the surface temperatures and the case depths were deeply analyzed in function of the initial current density and the heating time in medium frequency (MF) and high frequency (HF) heating modes and the edge effect were studied. Finally, the simulations results are validated using experimental tests.
Abstract: Recently, genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique have attracted considerable attention among various modern heuristic optimization techniques. The GA has been popular in academia and the industry mainly because of its intuitiveness, ease of implementation, and the ability to effectively solve highly non-linear, mixed integer optimization problems that are typical of complex engineering systems. PSO technique is a relatively recent heuristic search method whose mechanics are inspired by the swarming or collaborative behavior of biological populations. In this paper both PSO and GA optimization are employed for finding stable reduced order models of single-input- single-output large-scale linear systems. Both the techniques guarantee stability of reduced order model if the original high order model is stable. PSO method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. Both the methods are illustrated through numerical example from literature and the results are compared with recently published conventional model reduction technique.