Abstract: the effects of refining and alkaline chemicals on potential of recycling bleached chemical pulp of bagasse were investigated in this study. Recycling was done until three times. Handsheet properties such as, apparent density, light scattering coefficient, tear index, burst index, breaking length, and fold number according to TAPPI standard were measured. Water retention value also was used to considering the treatments during recycling. Refining enhanced the strength of recycled pulp by increasing fiber flexibility and swelling ability, whereas by applying chemical treatment didn't observe any improvement. The morphology of recycled fiber was considered with scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
Abstract: With the popularity of the multi-core and many-core architectures there is a great requirement for software frameworks which can support parallel programming methodologies. In this paper we introduce an Eclipse toolkit, JConqurr which is easy to use and provides robust support for flexible parallel progrmaming. JConqurr is a multi-core and many-core programming toolkit for Java which is capable of providing support for common parallel programming patterns which include task, data, divide and conquer and pipeline parallelism. The toolkit uses an annotation and a directive mechanism to convert the sequential code into parallel code. In addition to that we have proposed a novel mechanism to achieve the parallelism using graphical processing units (GPU). Experiments with common parallelizable algorithms have shown that our toolkit can be easily and efficiently used to convert sequential code to parallel code and significant performance gains can be achieved.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate a new
approach based on the idea of pictograms for food portion size. This
approach adopts the model of the United States Pharmacopeia- Drug
Information (USP-DI). The representation of each food portion size
composed of three parts: frame, the connotation of dietary portion
sizes and layout. To investigate users- comprehension based on this
approach, two experiments were conducted, included 122 Taiwanese
people, 60 male and 62 female with ages between 16 and 64 (divided
into age groups of 16-30, 31-45 and 46-64). In Experiment 1, the mean
correcting rate of the understanding level of food items is 48.54%
(S.D.= 95.08) and the mean response time 2.89sec (S.D.=2.14). The
difference on the correct rates for different age groups is significant
(P*=0.00
Abstract: In this paper, free vibration analysis of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced laminated composite panels is presented. Three types of panels such as flat, concave and convex are considered for study. Numerical simulation is carried out using commercially available finite element analysis software ANSYS. Numerical homogenization is employed to calculate the effective elastic properties of randomly distributed carbon nanotube reinforced composites. To verify the accuracy of the finite element method, comparisons are made with existing results available in the literature for conventional laminated composite panels and good agreements are obtained. The results of the CNT reinforced composite materials are compared with conventional composite materials under different boundary conditions.
Abstract: In order to achieve effective management, the professional and individual characteristics and qualifications of school principals and their system-oriented perception is very important. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct regular comprehensive studies into the profiles of school principals. The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of primary school principals about their working conditions and to present their professional profiles. The questionnaire was distributed to 1475 respondents and 1428 valid questionnaires were evaluated. The results of the research were discussed and compared to other similar studies.Keywordseducation, education management, primary school principal, principals profiles
Abstract: The problem of lot sizing, sequencing and scheduling
multiple products in flow line production systems has been studied
by several authors. Almost all of the researches in this area assumed
that setup times and costs are sequence –independent even though
sequence dependent setups are common in practice. In this paper we
present a new mixed integer non linear program (MINLP) and a
heuristic method to solve the problem in sequence dependent case.
Furthermore, a genetic algorithm has been developed which applies
this constructive heuristic to generate initial population. These two
proposed solution methods are compared on randomly generated
problems. Computational results show a clear superiority of our
proposed GA for majority of the test problems.
Abstract: The growing health hazardous impact of arsenic (As)
contamination in environment is the impetus of the present
investigation. Application of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for the
removal of toxic and heavy metals from water has been reported.
This study was performed in order to isolate and characterize the Asresistant
LAB from mud and sludge samples for using as efficient As
uptaking probiotic. Isolation of As-resistant LAB colonies was
performed by spread plate technique using bromocresol purple
impregnated-MRS (BP-MRS) agar media provided with As @ 50
μg/ml. Isolated LAB were employed for probiotic characterization
process, acid and bile tolerance, lactic acid production, antibacterial
activity and antibiotic tolerance assays. After As-resistant and
removal characterizations, the LAB were identified using 16S rDNA
sequencing. A total of 103 isolates were identified as As-resistant
strains of LAB. The survival of 6 strains (As99-1, As100-2, As101-3,
As102-4, As105-7, and As112-9) was found after passing through the
sequential probiotic characterizations. Resistant pattern pronounced
hollow zones at As concentration >2000 μg/ml in As99-1, As100-2,
and As101-3 LAB strains, whereas it was found at ~1000 μg/ml in
rest 3 strains. Among 6 strains, the As uptake efficiency of As102-4
(0.006 μg/h/mg wet weight of cell) was higher (17 – 209%)
compared to remaining LAB. 16S rDNA sequencing data of 3 (As99-
1, As100-2, and As101-3) and 3 (As102-4, As105-7, and As112-9)
LAB strains clearly showed 97 to 99% (340 bp) homology to
Pediococcus dextrinicus and Pediococcus acidilactici, respectively.
Though, there was no correlation between the metal resistant and
removal efficiency of LAB examined but identified elevated As
removing LAB would probably be a potential As uptaking probiotic
agent. Since present experiment concerned with only As removal
from pure water, As removal and removal mechanism in natural
condition of intestinal milieu should be assessed in future studies.
Abstract: Harmonic pollution and low power factor in power
systems caused by power converters have been of great concern. To
overcome these problems several converter topologies using
advanced semiconductor devices and control schemes have been
proposed. This investigation is to identify a low cost, small size,
efficient and reliable ac to dc converter to meet the input performance
index of UPS. The performance of single phase and three phase ac to
dc converter along with various control techniques are studied and
compared. The half bridge converter topology with linear current
control is identified as most suitable. It is simple, energy efficient
because of single switch power loss and transformer-less operation of
UPS. The results are validated practically using a prototype built
using IGBT and analog controller. The performance for both single
and three-phase system is verified. Digital implementation of closed
loop control achieves higher reliability. Its cost largely depends on
chosen bit precision. The minimal bit precision for optimum
converter performance is identified as 16-bit with fixed-point
operation. From the investigation and practical implementation it is
concluded that half bridge ac – dc converter along with digital linear
controller meets the performance index of UPS for single and three
phase systems.
Abstract: Chikungunya virus (CHICKV) is an arboviruses belonging to family Tagoviridae and is transmitted to human through by mosquito (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus) bite. A large outbreak of chikungunya has been reported in India between 2006 and 2007, along with several other countries from South-East Asia and for the first time in Europe. It was for the first time that the CHICKV outbreak has been reported with mortality from Reunion Island and increased mortality from Asian countries. CHICKV affects all age groups, and currently there are no specific drugs or vaccine to cure the disease. The need of antiviral agents for the treatment of CHICKV infection and the success of virtual screening against many therapeutically valuable targets led us to carry out the structure based drug design against Chikungunya nSP2 protease (PDB: 3TRK). Highthroughput virtual screening of publicly available databases, ZINC12 and BindingDB, has been carried out using the Openeye tools and Schrodinger LLC software packages. Openeye Filter program has been used to filter the database and the filtered outputs were docked using HTVS protocol implemented in GLIDE package of Schrodinger LLC. The top HITS were further used for enriching the similar molecules from the database through vROCS; a shape based screening protocol implemented in Openeye. The approach adopted has provided different scaffolds as HITS against CHICKV protease. Three scaffolds: Indole, Pyrazole and Sulphone derivatives were selected based on the docking score and synthetic feasibility. Derivatives of Pyrazole were synthesized and submitted for antiviral screening against CHICKV.
Abstract: Pre-germinated parboiled brown rice or Khao hang (in Thai) is paddy which undergoing the processes of soaking, steaming, drying and dehusking to obtain the edible form for consumption. The objectives of this research were to study the kinetic of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice drying using fluidization technique and to study the properties of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice after drying. The dryings were performed at the different temperatures of 110, 120 and 130 oC at the bed depth of 2 cm with the air velocity of 1.98 m/s. The results found that the higher drying temperature led to the faster moisture reduction. After drying until the moisture content of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice was lower than 14%wet basis, samples were taken to determine various qualities such as percentage of head rice and L* a* b* color values. The shade drying was used as a control. The results found that the higher drying temperature resulted in the decrease of head rice percentage. For the color assessment, the trend of L* and a* values was increased with the drying temperature, while the b* value was not significantly difference (p › 0.05) by drying temperatures. However, the b value of drying by fluidized bed dryer was higher than the control.
Abstract: Data warehouse is a dedicated database used for querying and reporting. Queries in this environment show special characteristics such as multidimensionality and aggregation. Exploiting the nature of queries, in this paper we propose a query driven design framework. The proposed framework is general and allows a designer to generate a schema based on a set of queries.
Abstract: Fault-proneness of a software module is the
probability that the module contains faults. A correlation exists
between the fault-proneness of the software and the measurable
attributes of the code (i.e. the static metrics) and of the testing (i.e.
the dynamic metrics). Early detection of fault-prone software
components enables verification experts to concentrate their time and
resources on the problem areas of the software system under
development. This paper introduces Genetic Algorithm based
software fault prediction models with Object-Oriented metrics. The
contribution of this paper is that it has used Metric values of JEdit
open source software for generation of the rules for the classification
of software modules in the categories of Faulty and non faulty
modules and thereafter empirically validation is performed. The
results shows that Genetic algorithm approach can be used for
finding the fault proneness in object oriented software components.
Abstract: With the advance of multimedia and diagnostic
images technologies, the number of radiographic images is increasing
constantly. The medical field demands sophisticated systems for
search and retrieval of the produced multimedia document. This
paper presents an ongoing research that focuses on the semantic
content of radiographic image documents to facilitate semantic-based
radiographic image indexing and a retrieval system. The proposed
model would divide a radiographic image document, based on its
semantic content, and would be converted into a logical structure or
a semantic structure. The logical structure represents the overall
organization of information. The semantic structure, which is bound
to logical structure, is composed of semantic objects with
interrelationships in the various spaces in the radiographic image.
Abstract: Today-s healthcare industries had become more
patient-centric than profession-centric, from which the issues of quality of healthcare and the patient safety are the major concerns in the modern healthcare facilities. An unplanned extubation (UE) may
be detrimental to the patient-s life, and thus is one of the major indexes
of patient safety and healthcare quality. A high UE rate not only
defeated the healthcare quality as well as the patient safety policy but
also the nurses- morality, and job satisfaction. The UE problem in a psychiatric hospital is unique and may be a tough challenge for the
healthcare professionals for the patients were mostly lacking communication capabilities. We reported with this essay a particular
project that was organized to reduce the UE rate from the current 2.3%
to a lower and satisfactory level in the long-term care units of a psychiatric hospital. The project was conducted between March 1st,
2011 and August 31st, 2011. Based on the error information gathered
from varied units of the hospital, the team analyzed the root causes
with possible solutions proposed to the meetings. Four solutions were
then concluded with consensus and launched to the units in question.
The UE rate was now reduced to a level of 0.17%. Experience from
this project, the procedure and the tools adopted would be good reference to other hospitals.
Abstract: An effort has been taken to simulate the combustion
and performance characteristics of biodiesel fuel in direct injection
(D.I) low heat rejection (LHR) diesel engine. Comprehensive
analyses on combustion characteristics such as cylinder pressure,
peak cylinder pressure, heat release and performance characteristics
such as specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency are
carried out. Compression ignition (C.I) engine cycle simulation was
developed and modified in to LHR engine for both diesel and
biodiesel fuel. On the basis of first law of thermodynamics the
properties at each degree crank angle was calculated. Preparation and
reaction rate model was used to calculate the instantaneous heat
release rate. A gas-wall heat transfer calculations are based on the
ANNAND-s combined heat transfer model with instantaneous wall
temperature to analyze the effect of coating on heat transfer. The
simulated results are validated by conducting the experiments on the
test engine under identical operating condition on a turbocharged D.I
diesel engine. In this analysis 20% of biodiesel (derived from
Jatropha oil) blended with diesel and used in both conventional and
LHR engine. The simulated combustion and performance
characteristics results are found satisfactory with the experimental
value.
Abstract: One of the most important parameters to develop and
manage urban areas is appropriate selection of land surface to
develop green spaces in these areas. In this study, in order to identify
the most appropriate sites and areas cultivated for ornamental species
in Jiroft, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images
due to extract the most important effective climatic and adaphic
parameters for growth ornamental species were used. After geometric
and atmospheric corrections applied, to enhance accuracy of multi
spectral (XS) bands, the fusion of Landsat XS bands by IRS-1D
panchromatic band (PAN) was performed. After field sampling to
evaluate the correlation between different factors in surface soil
sampling location and different bands digital number (DN) of ETM+
sensor on the same points, correlation tables formed using the best
computational model and the map of physical and chemical
parameters of soil was produced. Then the accuracy of them was
investigated by using kappa coefficient. Finally, according to
produced maps, the best areas for cultivation of recommended
species were introduced.
Abstract: Today automobile and aerospace industries realise Laser Beam Welding for a clean and non contact source of heating and fusion for joining of sheets. The welding performance is mainly based on by the laser welding parameters. Some concepts related to Artificial Neural Networks and how can be applied to model weld bead geometry and mechanical properties in terms of equipment parameters are reported in order to evaluate the accuracy and compare it with traditional modeling schemes. This review reveals the output features of Titanium and Aluminium weld bead geometry and mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, elongation and reduction of the area of the weld using Artificial Neural Network.
Abstract: Until recently, researchers have developed various
tools and methodologies for effective clinical decision-making.
Among those decisions, chest pain diseases have been one of
important diagnostic issues especially in an emergency department. To
improve the ability of physicians in diagnosis, many researchers have
developed diagnosis intelligence by using machine learning and data
mining. However, most of the conventional methodologies have been
generally based on a single classifier for disease classification and
prediction, which shows moderate performance. This study utilizes an
ensemble strategy to combine multiple different classifiers to help
physicians diagnose chest pain diseases more accurately than ever.
Specifically the ensemble strategy is applied by using the integration
of decision trees, neural networks, and support vector machines. The
ensemble models are applied to real-world emergency data. This study
shows that the performance of the ensemble models is superior to each
of single classifiers.
Abstract: In this study, ZnO nano rods and ZnO ultrafine particles were synthesized by Gel-casting method. The synthesized ZnO powder has a hexagonal zincite structure. The ZnO aggregates with rod-like morphology are typically 1.4 μm in length and 120 nm in diameter, which consist of many small nanocrystals with diameters of 10 nm. Longer wires connected by many hexahedral ZnO nanocrystals were obtained after calcinations at the temperature over 600° C.The crystalline structures and morphologies of the powder have been characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Scaning electron microscopy (SEM).The result shows that the different preparation conditions such as concentration H2O, calcinations time and calcinations temperature have a lot of influences upon the properties of nano ZnO powders, an increase in the temperature of the calcinations results in an increase of the grain size and also the increase of the calcinations time in high temperature makes the size of the grains bigger. The existences of extra watter prevent nano grains from improving like rod morphology. We have obtained the smallest grain size of ZnO powder by controlling the process conditions. Finally In a suitable condition, a novel nanostructure, namely bi-rod-like ZnO nano rods was found which is different from known ZnO nanostructures.
Abstract: The development of wearable sensing technologies is a great challenge which is being addressed by the Proetex FP6 project (www.proetex.org). Its main aim is the development of wearable sensors to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel. This will be achieved by continuous, real-time monitoring of vital signs, posture, activity, and external hazards surrounding emergency workers. We report here the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing boot by incorporating commercially available CO2 sensor with a wireless platform into the boot assembly. Carefully selected commercially available sensors have been tested. Some of the key characteristics of the selected sensors are high selectivity and sensitivity, robustness and the power demand. This paper discusses some of the results of CO2 sensor tests and sensor integration with wireless data transmission