Abstract: The main objective of this research is to synthesize silk fibroin fiber for indoor air particulate removal. Silk cocoons were de-gummed using 0.5 wt % Na2CO3 alkaline solutions at 90 Ó╣ìC for 60 mins, washed with distilled water, and dried at 80 Ó╣ìC for 3 hrs in a vacuum oven. Two sets of experiment were conducted to investigate the impacts of initial particulate matter (PM) concentration and that of air flow rate on the removal efficiency. Rice bran collected from a local rice mill in Ubonratchathani province was used as indoor air contaminant in this work. The morphology and physical properties of silk fibroin (SF) fiber were measured. The SEM revealed the deposition of PM on the used fiber. The PM removal efficiencies of 72.29 ± 3.03 % and 39.33 ± 1.99 % were obtained of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, when using the initial PM concentration at 0.040 mg/m3 and 0.020 mg/m3 of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, with the air flow rate of 5 L/min.
Abstract: This paper presents a new technique for generating sets of synthetic classifiers to evaluate abstract-level combination methods. The sets differ in terms of both recognition rates of the individual classifiers and degree of similarity. For this purpose, each abstract-level classifier is considered as a random variable producing one class label as the output for an input pattern. From the initial set of classifiers, new slightly different sets are generated by applying specific operators, which are defined at the purpose. Finally, the sets of synthetic classifiers have been used to estimate the performance of combination methods for abstract-level classifiers. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Abstract: Beginning from the creator of integro-differential
equations Volterra, many scientists have investigated these
equations. Classic method for solving integro-differential
equations is the quadratures method that is successfully applied up
today. Unlike these methods, Makroglou applied hybrid methods
that are modified and generalized in this paper and applied to the
numerical solution of Volterra integro-differential equations. The
way for defining the coefficients of the suggested method is also
given.
Abstract: Boron minerals are very useful for various industrial
activities, such as glass industry and detergent industry, due to its
mechanical and chemical properties. During the production of boron
compounds, many of these are introduced into the environment in the
form of waste. Boron is also an important micro nutrient for the
plants to vegetate but if it exists in high concentrations, it could have
toxic effects. The maximum boron level in drinking water for human
health is given as 0.3 mg/L in World Health Organization (WHO)
standards. The toxic effects of boron should be noted especially for
dry regions, thus, in recent years, increasing attention has been paid
to remove the boron from waste waters. In this study, boron removal
is implemented by ion exchange process using Amberlite IRA-743
resin. Amberlite IRA-743 resin is a boron specific resin and it
belongs to the polymerizate sorbent group within the aminopolyol
functional group. Batch studies were performed to investigate the
effects of various experimental parameters, such as adsorbent dose,
initial concentration and pH, on the removal of boron. It is found
that, when the adsorbent dose increases removal of boron from the
liquid phase increases. However, an increase in the initial
concentration decreases the removal of boron. The effective pH
values for removal of boron are determined between 8.5 and 9.
Equilibrium isotherms were also analyzed by Langmuir and
Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm is obeyed better
than the Freundlich isotherm.
Abstract: This paper presents and discusses the numerical simulations of transient laminar natural convection cooling of high Prandtl number fluids in cubical cavities, in which the six walls of the cavity are subjected to a step change in temperature. The effect of the fluid Prandtl number on the heat transfer coefficient is studied for three different fluids (Golden Syrup, Glycerin and Glycerin-water solution 50%). The simulations are performed at two different Rayleigh numbers (5·106 and 5·107) and six different Prandtl numbers (3 · 105 ≥Pr≥ 50). Heat conduction through the cavity glass walls is also considered. The propsed correlations of the averaged heat transfer coefficient (N u) showed that it is dependant on the initial Ra and almost independent on P r. The instantaneous flow patterns, temperature contours and time evolution of volume averaged temperature and heat transfer coefficient are presented and analyzed.
Abstract: Solution of some practical problems is reduced to the
solution of the integro-differential equations. But for the numerical
solution of such equations basically quadrature methods or its
combination with multistep or one-step methods are used. The
quadrature methods basically is applied to calculation of the integral
participating in right hand side of integro-differential equations. As
this integral is of Volterra type, it is obvious that at replacement with
its integrated sum the upper limit of the sum depends on a current
point in which values of the integral are defined. Thus we receive the
integrated sum with variable boundary, to work with is hardly.
Therefore multistep method with the constant coefficients, which is
free from noted lack and gives the way for finding it-s coefficients is
present.
Abstract: Automated discovery of Rule is, due to its applicability, one of the most fundamental and important method in KDD. It has been an active research area in the recent past. Hierarchical representation allows us to easily manage the complexity of knowledge, to view the knowledge at different levels of details, and to focus our attention on the interesting aspects only. One of such efficient and easy to understand systems is Hierarchical Production rule (HPRs) system. A HPR, a standard production rule augmented with generality and specificity information, is of the following form: Decision If < condition> Generality Specificity . HPRs systems are capable of handling taxonomical structures inherent in the knowledge about the real world. This paper focuses on the issue of mining Quantified rules with crisp hierarchical structure using Genetic Programming (GP) approach to knowledge discovery. The post-processing scheme presented in this work uses Quantified production rules as initial individuals of GP and discovers hierarchical structure. In proposed approach rules are quantified by using Dempster Shafer theory. Suitable genetic operators are proposed for the suggested encoding. Based on the Subsumption Matrix(SM), an appropriate fitness function is suggested. Finally, Quantified Hierarchical Production Rules (HPRs) are generated from the discovered hierarchy, using Dempster Shafer theory. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: This paper investigates the problem of sampling from transactional data streams. We introduce CFISDS as a content based sampling algorithm that works on a landmark window model of data streams and preserve more informed sample in sample space. This algorithm that work based on closed frequent itemset mining tasks, first initiate a concept lattice using initial data, then update lattice structure using an incremental mechanism.Incremental mechanism insert, update and delete nodes in/from concept lattice in batch manner. Presented algorithm extracts the final samples on demand of user. Experimental results show the accuracy of CFISDS on synthetic and real datasets, despite on CFISDS algorithm is not faster than exist sampling algorithms such as Z and DSS.
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the optimum
levels of glutamine (Gln) supplementation in broiler diets. A total of
32 one-day-old male chicks with initial body weight 41.5 g were
segregated into 4 groups (8 chicks per group) and subsequently
distributed to individual cages. Feed and water were provided ad
libitum for 21 days. Four dietary treatments were as follows: control
and supplemented Gln at 1, 2 and 3%, respectively. The results found
that the addition Gln had no negative effects on dry matter, organic
matter, ash digestibility or nitrogen retention. Birds fed with 1% Gln
had significantly higher villi wide and villi height : crypt depth ratio
in duodenum than the control chicks and 2 and 3% Gln chicks. It is
suggested that the addition of Gln at 1% indicated a beneficial effect
on improving small intestinal morphology, in addition Gln may
stimulate immune organ development of broiler chickens.
Abstract: A rare phenomenon of SDS-induced activation of a latent protease activity associated with the purified silkworm excretory red fluorescent protein (SE-RFP) was noticed. SE-RFP aliquots incubated with SDS for different time intervals indicated that the protein undergoes an obligatory breakdown into a number of subunits which exhibit autoproteolytic (acting upon themselves) and/or heteroproteolytic (acting on other proteins) activities. A strong serine protease activity of SE-RFP subunits on Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) polyhedral protein was detected by zymography technique. A complete inhibition of BmNPV infection to silkworms was observed by the oral administration assay of the SE-RFP. Here, it is proposed that the SE-RFP prevents the initial infection of BmNPV to silkworms by obliterating the polyhedral protein. This is the first report on a silkworm red fluorescent protein that exhibits a protease activity on exposure to SDS. The present studies would help in understanding the antiviral mechanism of silkworm red fluorescent proteins.
Abstract: Laboratory experiments have been performed to investigate photocatalytic detoxification by using TiO2 photocatalyst for treating dairy effluent. Various operational parameters such as catalyst concentration, initial concentration, angle of tilt of solar flat plate reactor and flow rate were investigated. Results indicated that the photocatalytic detoxification process can efficiently treat dairy effluent. Experimental runs with dairy wastewater can be used to identify the optimum operational parameters to perform wastewater degradation on large scale for recycling purpose. Also effect of two different types of reactors on degradation process was analyzed.
Abstract: Numerical integration of initial boundary problem for advection equation in 3 ℜ is considered. The method used is
conditionally stable semi-Lagrangian advection scheme with high order interpolation on unstructured mesh. In order to increase time step integration the BFECC method with limiter TVD correction is used. The method is adopted on parallel graphic processor unit environment using NVIDIA CUDA and applied in Navier-Stokes solver. It is shown that the calculation on NVIDIA GeForce 8800
GPU is 184 times faster than on one processor AMDX2 4800+ CPU. The method is extended to the incompressible fluid dynamics solver. Flow over a Cylinder for 3D case is compared to the experimental data.
Abstract: In this paper we present a novel approach for density estimation. The proposed approach is based on using the logistic regression model to get initial density estimation for the given empirical density. The empirical data does not exactly follow the logistic regression model, so, there will be a deviation between the empirical density and the density estimated using logistic regression model. This deviation may be positive and/or negative. In this paper we use a linear combination of Gaussian (LCG) with positive and negative components as a model for this deviation. Also, we will use the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to estimate the parameters of LCG. Experiments on real images demonstrate the accuracy of our approach.
Abstract: Kojic acid is an organic acid that is widely used as an ingredient for dermatological products, precursor for flavor enhancer and also as anti-inflammatory drug. The present study was undertaken to test the feasibility of pineapple residues as substrate for kojic acid production by Aspergillus flavus Link 44-1 via solid-state fermentation. The effect of initial moisture content, pH and incubation time on kojic acid fermentation was investigated. The best initial moisture content for kojic acid production from pineapple residues was observed at 70% (v/w) whereas initial culture pH 2.5 was identified to give high production of kojic acid. The optimal range of incubation time was identified between 8 and 14 days of incubation which corresponded to highest range of kojic acid produced. The results from this study pronounce the promising usability of pineapple residues as alternative substrate for kojic acid production by A. flavus Link 44-1.
Abstract: High purity hydrogen and the valuable by-product of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be produced by the methane catalytic decomposition. The methane conversion and the performance of CNTs were determined by the choices of catalysts and the condition of decomposition reaction. In this paper, Ni/MgO and Ni/O-D (oxidized diamond) catalysts were prepared by wetness impregnation method. The effects of reaction temperature and space velocity of methane on the methane conversion were investigated in a fixed-bed. The surface area, structure and micrography were characterized with BET, XPS, SEM, EDS technology. The results showed that the conversion of methane was above 8% within 150 min (T=500) for 33Ni/O-D catalyst and higher than 25% within 120 min (T=650) for 41Ni/MgO catalyst. The initial conversion increased with the increasing temperature of the decomposition reaction, but their catalytic activities decreased rapidly while at too higher temperature. To decrease the space velocity of methane was propitious to promote the methane conversion, but not favor of the hydrogen yields. The appearance of carbon resulted from the methane decomposition lied on the support type and the condition of catalytic reaction. It presented as fiber shape on the surface of Ni/O-D at the relatively lower temperature such as 500 and 550, but as grain shape stacked on and overlayed on the surface of the metal nickel while at 650. The carbon fiber can form on the Ni/MgO surface at 650 and the diameter of the carbon fiber increased with the decreasing space velocity.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the capacity
of natural Turkish zeolite for NH4-N removal from landfill leachate.
The effects of modification and initial concentration on the removal
of NH4-N from leachate were also investigated. The kinetics of
adsorption of NH4-N has been discussed using three kinetic models,
i.e., the pseudo-second order model, the Elovich equation, the
intraparticle diffuion model. Kinetic parameters and correlation
coefficients were determined. Equilibrium isotherms for the
adsorption of NH4-N were analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich and
Tempkin isotherm models. Langmuir isotherm model was found to
best represent the data for NH4-N.
Abstract: This work was to study batch biosorption of Pb(II)
ions from aqueous solution by Luffa charcoal. The effect of operating
parameters such as adsorption contact time, initial pH solution and
different initial Pb(II) concentration on the sorption of Pb(II) were
investigated. The results showed that the adsorption of Pb(II) ions
was initially rapid and the equilibrium time was 10 h. Adsorption
kinetics of Pb(II) ions onto Luffa charcoal could be best described by
the pseudo-second order model. At pH 5.0 was favorable for the
adsorption and removal of Pb(II) ions. Freundlich adsorption
isotherm model was better fitted for the adsorption of Pb(II) ions than
Langmuir and Timkin isotherms, respectively. The highest monolayer
adsorption capacity obtained from Langmuir isotherm model was
51.02 mg/g. This study demonstrated that Luffa charcoal could be
used for the removal of Pb(II) ions in water treatment.
Abstract: Suspended cable structures are most preferable for large spans covering due to rational use of structural materials, but the problem of suspended cable structures is initial shape change under the action of non-symmetrical load. The problem can be solved by increasing of relation of dead weight and imposed load, but this methods cause increasing of materials consumption.Prestressed cable truss usage is another way how the problem of shape change under the action of non-symmetrical load can be fixed. The better results can be achieved if we replace top chord with cable truss with cross web. Rational structure of the cable truss for prestressed cable truss top chord was developed using optimization realized in FEM program ANSYS 12 environment. Single cable and cable truss model work was discovered.Analytical and model testing results indicate, that usage of cable truss with the cross web as a top chord of prestressed cable truss instead of single cable allows to reduce total displacements by 13-16% in the case of non-symmetrical load. In case of uniformly distributed load single cable is preferable.
Abstract: The investigation results of high-density hydrogen
heating by high-current electric arc are presented at initial pressure
from 5 MPa to 160 MPa with current amplitude up to 1.6 MA and
current rate of rise 109-1011 A/s. When changing the initial pressure
and current rate of rise, channel temperature varies from several
electronvolts to hundreds electronvolts. Arc channel radius is several
millimeters. But the radius of the discharge chamber greater than the
radius of the arc channel on approximately order of magnitude. High
efficiency of gas heating is caused by radiation absorption of
hydrogen surrounding the arc. Current channel consist from vapor of
the initiating wire. At current rate of rise of 109 A/s and relatively
small current amplitude gas heating occurs due to radiation
absorption in the band transparency of hydrogen by the wire vapours
with photon energies less than 13.6 eV. At current rate of rise of
1011 A/s gas heating is due to hydrogen absorption of soft X-rays
from discharge channel.
Abstract: Automatic reusability appraisal could be helpful in
evaluating the quality of developed or developing reusable software
components and in identification of reusable components from
existing legacy systems; that can save cost of developing the software
from scratch. But the issue of how to identify reusable components
from existing systems has remained relatively unexplored. In this
paper, we have mentioned two-tier approach by studying the
structural attributes as well as usability or relevancy of the
component to a particular domain. Latent semantic analysis is used
for the feature vector representation of various software domains. It
exploits the fact that FeatureVector codes can be seen as documents
containing terms -the idenifiers present in the components- and so
text modeling methods that capture co-occurrence information in
low-dimensional spaces can be used. Further, we devised Neuro-
Fuzzy hybrid Inference System, which takes structural metric values
as input and calculates the reusability of the software component.
Decision tree algorithm is used to decide initial set of fuzzy rules for
the Neuro-fuzzy system. The results obtained are convincing enough
to propose the system for economical identification and retrieval of
reusable software components.