Abstract: In this study the administration of 660 mg/kg of the ethanolic extract of the Alhagigraecorum (Camel Thorn)to mice, showed a significant decrease in the level of transaminases in animals treated with a combination of CTE plus carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) or acetaminophen as compared to animals receiving CCl4 or acetaminophen alone. Histopatological investigation also confirmed that, camel thorn extract protects liver against damage-induced either by carbon tetrachloride or acetaminophen. On the other hand the cardiac toxicity produced by adriamycine was significantly increased in the presence of the ethanolic extract of camel thorn. Our study suggested that camel thorn can protect the liver against the injury produced by carbon tetrachloride or acetaminophen, with unexpected increase in the cardiac toxicity –induced by adriamycin in rodents.
Abstract: Computer software to calculate electron mobility with respect to different scattering mechanism has been developed. This software is adopted completely Graphical User Interface (GUI) technique and its interface has been designed by Microsoft Visual basic 6.0. As a case study the electron mobility of n-GaN was performed using this software. The behavior of the mobility for n-GaN due to elastic scattering processes and its relation to temperature and doping concentration were discussed. The results agree with other available theoretical and experimental data.
Abstract: This study explored the morphological characteristics and effects of pollination methods on fruit set and characteristics in 4 red pitaya (Hylocereus spp.) clones. The distinctive morphological recognition and classification among pitaya clones were confirmed by the stem, flower and fruit features. The fruit production season was indicated from the beginning of May to the end of August – the beginning of September with 6-7 flowering cycles per year. The floral stage took from 15-19 days and fruit duration spent 30–32 days. VN White, fully self-compatible, obtained high fruit set rates (80.0–90.5%) in all pollination treatments and the maximum fruit weight (402.6g) in hand self- and (403.4g) in open-pollination. Chaozhou 5 was partially self-compatible while Orejona and F11 were completely self-incompatible. Hand cross-pollination increased significantly fruit set (95.8; 88.4 and 90.2%) and fruit weight (374.2; 281.8 and 416.3g) in Chaozhou 5, Orejona and F11, respectively. TSS contents were not much influcenced by pollination methods.
Abstract: Microfibrous palygorskite and tubular halloysite clay mineral combined with nanocrystalline TiO2 are incorporating in the preparation of nanocomposite films on glass substrates via sol-gel route at 450oC. The synthesis is employing nonionic surfactant molecule as pore directing agent along with acetic acid-based sol-gel route without addition of water molecules. Drying and thermal treatment of composite films ensure elimination of organic material lead to the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles homogeneously distributed on the palygorskite or halloysite surfaces. Nanocomposite films without cracks of active anatase crystal phase on palygorskite and halloysite surfaces are characterized by microscopy techniques, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and porosimetry methods in order to examine their structural properties.
The composite palygorskite-TiO2 and halloysite-TiO2 films with variable quantities of palygorskite and halloysite were tested as photocatalysts in the photo-oxidation of Basic Blue 41 azo dye in water. These nanocomposite films proved to be most promising photocatalysts and highly effective to dye’s decoloration in spite of small amount of palygorskite-TiO2 or halloysite-TiO2 catalyst immobilized onto glass substrates mainly due to the high surface area and uniform distribution of TiO2 on clay minerals avoiding aggregation.
Abstract: Apple juice is the main raw material for cider production. In this study apple juices obtained from 14 dessert and crab variety apples grown in Latvia were investigated. For all samples soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH and sugar content were determined. Crab apples produce more dry matter, total sugar and acid content compared to the dessert apples but it depends on the apple variety. Total sugar content of crab apple juices was 1.3 to 1.8 times larger than in dessert apple juices. Titratable acidity of dessert apple juices is in the range of 4.1g L-1 to 10.83g L-1 and in crab apple juices titratable acidity is from 7.87g L-1 to 19.6g L-1. Fructose was detected as the main sugar whereas glucose level varied depending on the variety. The highest titratable acidity and content of sugars was detected in ‘Cornelia’ apples juice.
Abstract: This paper presents partial results of primary research on consumer purchasing behavior in times of crisis. It starts with brief theoretical debate on purchasing behavior and short secondary research related to the issues, which is used for the comparison of results. For purpose of collecting data, questionnaire survey was given to 355 respondents in Moravian-Silesian region. Hypotheses deal with the relationship of the financial situation of the respondents and their purchasing behavior. The research analysis disclosed that consumers change their behavior during crisis and MS region has some specifics compared to other regions.
Abstract: Transit route Network Design Problem (TrNDP) is the most important component in Transit planning, in which the overall cost of the public transportation system highly depends on it. The main purpose of this study is to develop a novel solution methodology for the TrNDP, which goes beyond pervious traditional sophisticated approaches. The novelty of the solution methodology, adopted in this paper, stands on the deterministic operators which are tackled to construct bus routes. The deterministic manner of the TrNDP solution relies on using linear and integer mathematical formulations that can be solved exactly with their standard solvers. The solution methodology has been tested through Mandl’s benchmark network problem. The test results showed that the methodology developed in this research is able to improve the given network solution in terms of number of constructed routes, direct transit service coverage, transfer directness and solution reliability. Although the set of routes resulted from the methodology would stand alone as a final efficient solution for TrNDP, it could be used as an initial solution for meta-heuristic procedures to approach global optimal. Based on the presented methodology, a more robust network optimization tool would be produced for public transportation planning purposes.
Abstract: This research proposes a preemptive fuzzy goal programming model for multi-objective multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problem. The objectives of the problem are minimization of the total time and the total cost of the project. Objective in a multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem is often a minimization of makespan. However, both time and cost should be considered at the same time with different level of important priorities. Moreover, all elements of cost functions in a project are not included in the conventional cost objective function. Incomplete total project cost causes an error in finding the project scheduling time. In this research, preemptive fuzzy goal programming is presented to solve the multi-objective multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problem. It can find the compromise solution of the problem. Moreover, it is also flexible in adjusting to find a variety of alternative solutions.
Abstract: During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances and cost performances in the supply chain.
Abstract: This work is developed within IAEA Coordinated Research Program 1496, “Innovative methods in research reactor analysis: Benchmark against experimental data on neutronics and thermal-hydraulic computational methods and tools for operation and safety analysis of research reactors”.
The study investigates the capability of Code RELAP5/Mod3.4 to solve complex geometry complexity. Its results are compared to the results of PARET, a common code in thermal hydraulic analysis for research reactors, belonging to MTR-PC groups.
The WWR-SM reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in the Republic of Uzbekistan is simulated using both PARET and RELAP5 at steady state. Results from the two codes are compared.
REALP5 code succeeded in solving the complex fuel geometry. The PARET code needed some calculations to obtain the final result. Although the final results from the PARET are more accurate, the small differences in both results makes using RELAP5 code recommended in case of complex fuel assemblies.
Abstract: Collagen was isolated from chicken feet by using papain and pepsin enzymes in acetic acid solution at 4°C for 24h with a yield of 18.16% and 22.94% by dry weight, respectively. Chemical composition and characteristics of chicken feet collagen such as amino acid composition, SDS-PAGE patterns, FTIR spectra and thermal properties were evaluated. The chicken feet collagen is rich in the amino acids glycine, glutamic acid, proline and hydroxyproline. Electrophoresis pattern demonstrated two distinct α-chains (α1 and α2) and β chain, indicating that type I collagen is a major component of chicken feet collagen. The thermal stability of collagen isolated by papain and pepsin revealed stable denaturation temperatures of 48.40 and 53.35°C, respectively. The FTIR spectra of both collagens were similar with amide regions in A, B, I, II and III. The study demonstrated that chicken feet collagen using papain isolation method is possible as commercial alternative ingredient.
Abstract: Supplier evaluation and selection is one of the most important components of an effective supply chain management system. Due to the expanding competition in healthcare, selecting the right medical device suppliers offers great potential for increasing quality while decreasing costs. This paper proposes a fuzzy decision making approach for medical supplier selection. A real-world medical device supplier selection problem is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed decision methodology.
Abstract: Supplier selection is considered as one of the most critical issues encountered by operations and purchasing managers to sharpen the company’s competitive advantage. In this paper, a novel fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach integrating quality function deployment (QFD) and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is proposed for supplier selection. The proposed methodology enables to consider the impacts of inner dependence among supplier assessment criteria. A house of quality (HOQ) which translates purchased product features into supplier assessment criteria is built using the weights obtained by DEMATEL approach to determine the desired levels of supplier assessment criteria. Supplier alternatives are ranked by a distance-based method.
Abstract: Detailed thermal hydraulic investigations are very
essential for safe and reliable functioning of liquid metal cooled fast
breeder reactors. These investigations are further more important for
components with complex profile, since there is no direct correlation
available in literature to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of such
components directly. In those cases available correlations for similar
profile or geometries may lead to significant uncertainty in the
outcome. Hence experimental approach can be adopted to evaluate
these hydraulic characteristics more precisely for better prediction in
reactor core components.
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), a sodium cooled pool
type reactor is under advanced stage of construction at Kalpakkam,
India. Several components of this reactor core require hydraulic
investigation before its usage in the reactor. These hydraulic
investigations on full scale models, carried out by experimental
approaches using water as simulant fluid are discussed in the paper.
Abstract: The in-depth understanding of severe accident propagation in Generation IV of nuclear reactors is important so that appropriate risk management can be undertaken early in their design process. This paper is focused on model improvements in the SIMMER code in order to perform studies of severe accident mitigation of Sodium Fast Reactor. During the design process of the mitigation devices dedicated to extraction of molten fuel from the core region, the molten fuel propagation from the core up to the core catcher has to be studied. In this aim, analytical as well as the complex thermohydraulic simulations with SIMMER-III code are performed. The studies presented in this paper focus on physical phenomena and associated physical models that influence the corium relocation. Firstly, the molten pool heat exchange with surrounding structures is analyzed since it influences directly the instant of rupture of the dedicated tubes favoring the corium relocation for mitigation purpose. After the corium penetration into mitigation tubes, the fuel-coolant interactions result in formation of debris bed. Analyses of debris bed fluidization as well as sinking into a fluid are presented in this paper.
Abstract: In this research, computer simulation is used for Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) plant layout analysis. The current layout of this manufacturing plant is a process layout, which is not suitable due to the nature of an EMS that has high-volume and high-variety environment. Moreover, quick response and high flexibility are also needed. Then, cellular manufacturing layout design was determined for the selected group of products. Systematic layout planning (SLP) was used to analyze and design the possible cellular layouts for the factory. The cellular layout was selected based on the main criteria of the plant. Computer simulation was used to analyze and compare the performance of the proposed cellular layout and the current layout. It found that the proposed cellular layout can generate better performances than the current layout. In this research, computer simulation is used for Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) plant layout analysis. The current layout of this manufacturing plant is a process layout, which is not suitable due to the nature of an EMS that has high-volume and high-variety environment. Moreover, quick response and high flexibility are also needed. Then, cellular manufacturing layout design was determined for the selected group of products. Systematic layout planning (SLP) was used to analyze and design the possible cellular layouts for the factory. The cellular layout was selected based on the main criteria of the plant. Computer simulation was used to analyze and compare the performance of the proposed cellular layout and the current layout. It found that the proposed cellular layout can generate better performances than the current layout.
Abstract: Scheduling is the process of dynamically allocating physical resources to User Equipment (UE) based on scheduling algorithms implemented at the LTE base station. Various algorithms have been proposed by network researchers as the implementation of scheduling algorithm which represents an open issue in Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. This paper makes an attempt to study and compare the performance of PF, MLWDF and EXP/PF scheduling algorithms. The evaluation is considered for a single cell with interference scenario for different flows such as Best effort, Video and VoIP in a pedestrian and vehicular environment using the LTE-Sim network simulator. The comparative study is conducted in terms of system throughput, fairness index, delay, packet loss ratio (PLR) and total cell spectral efficiency.
Abstract: Reversible watermarking that not only protects the copyright but also preserve the original quality of the digital content have been intensively studied. In particular, the demand for reversible watermarking has increased. In this paper, we propose a reversible watermarking scheme based on interpolation-error shifting and error pre-compensation. The intensity of a pixel is interpolated from the intensities of neighboring pixels, and the difference histogram between the interpolated and the original intensities is obtained and modified to embed the watermark message. By restoring the difference histogram, the embedded watermark is extracted and the original image is recovered by compensating for the interpolation error. The overflow and underflow are prevented by error pre-compensation. To show the performance of the method, the proposed algorithm is compared with other methods using various test images.
Abstract: Mosaic refers to a technique that makes image by gathering lots of small materials in various colors. This paper presents an automatic algorithm that makes the photo-mosaic image using photos. The algorithm is composed of 4 steps: partition and feature extraction, block matching, redundancy removal and color adjustment. The input image is partitioned in the small block to extract feature. Each block is matched to find similar photo in database by comparing similarity with Euclidean difference between blocks. The intensity of the block is adjusted to enhance the similarity of image by replacing the value of light and darkness with that of relevant block. Further, the quality of image is improved by minimizing the redundancy of tiles in the adjacent blocks. Experimental results support that the proposed algorithm is excellent in quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.
Abstract: An experimental study was conducted on foamed concrete with synthetic and natural fibres consisting of AR-glas, polypropylene, steel, kenaf and oil palm fibre. The foamed concrete mixtures produced had a target density of 1000kg/m3 and a mix ratio of (1:1.5:0.45). The fibres were used as additives. The inclusion of fibre was maintained at a volumetric fraction of 0.25 and 0.4%. The water absorption, thermal and shrinkage were determined to study the effect of the fibre on the durability properties of foamed concrete. The results showed that AR-glass fibre has the lowest percentage value of drying shrinkage compared to others.