Abstract: The objective of this study was to synthesize and characterize 5-acryloyloxy-3,4-dichlorocrotonolactone (a furanone derivative), use this derivative to modify a dental restorative, and study the effect of the derivative on the antibacterial activity and compressive strength of the formed restorative. In this study, a furanone derivative was synthesized, characterized, and used to formulate a dental restorative. Compressive strength (CS) and S. mutans viability were used to evaluate the mechanical strength and antibacterial activity of the formed restorative. The fabricated restorative specimens were photocured and conditioned in distilled water at 37oC for 24 h, followed by direct testing for CS or/and incubating with S. mutans for 48 h for antibacterial testing. The results show that the modified dental restorative showed a significant antibacterial activity without substantially decreasing the mechanical strengths. With addition of the antibacterial derivative up to 30%, the restorative kept its original CS nearly unchanged but showed a significant antibacterial activity with 68% reduction in the S. mutans viability. Furthermore, the antibacterial function of the modified restorative was not affected by human saliva. The aging study also indicates that the modified restorative may have a long-lasting antibacterial function. It is concluded that this experimental antibacterial restorative may potentially be developed into a clinically attractive dental filling restorative due to its high mechanical strength and antibacterial function.
Abstract: The present paper discusses the prediction of gas-liquid two-phase frictional pressure drop in a 2.12 mm horizontal circular minichannel using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The experimental results are obtained with air as gas phase and water as liquid phase. The superficial gas velocity is kept in the range of 0.0236 m/s to 0.4722 m/s while the values of 0.0944 m/s, 0.1416 m/s and 0.1889 m/s are considered for superficial liquid velocity. The experimental results are predicted using different Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. Networks used for prediction are radial basis, generalised regression, linear layer, cascade forward back propagation, feed forward back propagation, feed forward distributed time delay, layer recurrent, and Elman back propagation. Transfer functions used for networks are Linear (PURELIN), Logistic sigmoid (LOGSIG), tangent sigmoid (TANSIG) and Gaussian RBF. Combination of networks and transfer functions give different possible neural network models. These models are compared for Mean Absolute Relative Deviation (MARD) and Mean Relative Deviation (MRD) to identify the best predictive model of ANN.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel 2.5D face recognition method based on Gabor Discrete Cosine Transform (GDCT). In the proposed method, the Gabor filter is applied to extract feature vectors from the texture and the depth information. Then, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is used for dimensionality and redundancy reduction to improve computational efficiency. The system is combined texture and depth information in the decision level, which presents higher performance compared to methods, which use texture and depth information, separately. The proposed algorithm is examined on publically available Bosphorus database including models with pose variation. The experimental results show that the proposed method has a higher performance compared to the benchmark.
Abstract: To increase the temperature contrast in thermal
images, the characteristics of the electrical conductivity and thermal
imaging modalities can be combined. In this experimental study, it is
objected to observe whether the temperature contrast created by the
tumor tissue can be improved just due to the current application
within medical safety limits. Various thermal breast phantoms are
developed to simulate the female breast tissue. In vitro experiments
are implemented using a thermal infrared camera in a controlled
manner. Since experiments are implemented in vitro, there is no
metabolic heat generation and blood perfusion. Only the effects and
results of the electrical stimulation are investigated. Experimental
study is implemented with two-dimensional models. Temperature
contrasts due to the tumor tissues are obtained. Cancerous tissue is
determined using the difference and ratio of healthy and tumor
images. 1 cm diameter single tumor tissue causes almost 40 °mC
temperature contrast on the thermal-breast phantom. Electrode
artifacts are reduced by taking the difference and ratio of background
(healthy) and tumor images. Ratio of healthy and tumor images show
that temperature contrast is increased by the current application.
Abstract: In this study, the influence of rolling process parameters such as the work roll cross angle and work roll shifting value on the strip shape and profile of aluminum have been investigated under dry conditions at a speed ratio of 1.3 using Hille 100 experimental mill. The strip profile was found to improve significantly with increase in work roll cross angle from 0o to 1o, with an associated decrease in rolling force. The effect of roll shifting (from 0 to 8mm) was not as significant as the roll cross angle. However, an increase in work roll shifting value achieved a similar decrease in rolling force as that of work roll cross angle. The effect of work roll shifting was also found to be maximum at an optimum roll speed of 0.0986 m/s for the desired thickness. Of all these parameters, the most significant effect of the strip shape profile was observed with variation of work roll cross angle. However, the rolling force can be a significantly reduced by either increasing the the work roll cross angle or work roll shifting.
Abstract: For briquetting of metal chips are used hydraulic and
mechanical presses. The density of the briquettes in this case is about
60% - 70 % on the density of solid metal. In this work are presented
the results of experimental studies for briquetting of metal chips, by
using a new technology for impact briquetting. The used chips are by
Armco iron, steel, cast iron, copper, aluminum and brass. It has been
found that: (i) in a controlled impact the density of the briquettes can
be increases up to 30%; (ii) at the same specific impact energy Es
(J/sm3) the density of the briquettes increases with increasing of the
impact velocity; (iii), realization of the repeated impact leads to
decrease of chips density, which can be explained by distribution of
elastic waves in the briquette.
Abstract: Texture is an important characteristic in real and
synthetic scenes. Texture analysis plays a critical role in inspecting
surfaces and provides important techniques in a variety of
applications. Although several descriptors have been presented to
extract texture features, the development of object recognition is still a
difficult task due to the complex aspects of texture. Recently, many
robust and scaling-invariant image features such as SIFT, SURF and
ORB have been successfully used in image retrieval and object
recognition. In this paper, we have tried to compare the performance
for texture classification using these feature descriptors with k-means
clustering. Different classifiers including K-NN, Naive Bayes, Back
Propagation Neural Network , Decision Tree and Kstar were applied in
three texture image sets － UIUCTex, KTH-TIPS and Brodatz,
respectively. Experimental results reveal SIFTS as the best average
accuracy rate holder in UIUCTex, KTH-TIPS and SURF is
advantaged in Brodatz texture set. BP neuro network works best in the
test set classification among all used classifiers.
Abstract: We present a new framework of the data-reusing (DR)
adaptive algorithms by incorporating a constraint on noise, referred
to as a noise constraint. The motivation behind this work is that the
use of the statistical knowledge of the channel noise can contribute
toward improving the convergence performance of an adaptive filter
in identifying a noisy linear finite impulse response (FIR) channel.
By incorporating the noise constraint into the cost function of the
DR adaptive algorithms, the noise constrained DR (NC-DR) adaptive
algorithms are derived. Experimental results clearly indicate their
superior performance over the conventional DR ones.
Abstract: We present a new subband adaptive filter (R-SAF)
which is robust against impulsive noise in system identification. To
address the vulnerability of adaptive filters based on the L2-norm
optimization criterion against impulsive noise, the R-SAF comes from
the L1-norm optimization criterion with a constraint on the energy
of the weight update. Minimizing L1-norm of the a posteriori error
in each subband with a constraint on minimum disturbance gives
rise to the robustness against the impulsive noise and the capable
convergence performance. Experimental results clearly demonstrate
that the proposed R-SAF outperforms the classical adaptive filtering
algorithms when impulsive noise as well as background noise exist.
Abstract: Liver cancer is one of the common diseases that cause the death. Early detection is important to diagnose and reduce the incidence of death. Improvements in medical imaging and image processing techniques have significantly enhanced interpretation of medical images. Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems based on these techniques play a vital role in the early detection of liver disease and hence reduce liver cancer death rate. This paper presents an automated CAD system consists of three stages; firstly, automatic liver segmentation and lesion’s detection. Secondly, extracting features. Finally, classifying liver lesions into benign and malignant by using the novel contrasting feature-difference approach. Several types of intensity, texture features are extracted from both; the lesion area and its surrounding normal liver tissue. The difference between the features of both areas is then used as the new lesion descriptors. Machine learning classifiers are then trained on the new descriptors to automatically classify liver lesions into benign or malignant. The experimental results show promising improvements. Moreover, the proposed approach can overcome the problems of varying ranges of intensity and textures between patients, demographics, and imaging devices and settings.
Abstract: This paper details the progress made in the development of the different state-of-the-art aerodynamic tools for the analysis of vertical axis wind turbines including the flow simulation around the blade, viscous flow, stochastic wind, and dynamic stall effects. The paper highlights the capabilities of the developed wind turbine aerodynamic codes over the last thirty years which are currently being used in North America and Europe by Sandia Laboratories, FloWind, IMST Marseilles, and Hydro-Quebec among others. The aerodynamic codes developed at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada, represent valuable tools for simulating the flow around wind turbines including secondary effects. Comparison of theoretical results with experimental data have shown good agreement. The strength of the aerodynamic codes based on Double-Multiple Stream tube model (DMS) lies in its simplicity, accuracy, and ability to analyze secondary effects that interfere with wind turbine aerodynamic calculations.
Abstract: Makishima and Mackenzie model was used to
simulation of acoustic properties (longitudinal and shear ultrasonic
wave velocities, elastic moduli theoretically for many tellurite and
borate glasses. The model was proposed mainly depending on the
values of the experimentally measured density, which are obtained
before. In this search work, we are trying to obtain the values of
densities of amorphous glasses (as the density depends on the
geometry of the network structure of these glasses). In addition, the
problem of simulating the slope of linear regression between the
experimentally determined bulk modulus and the product of packing
density and experimental Young's modulus, were solved in this
search work. The results showed good agreement between the
experimentally measured values of densities and both ultrasonic wave
velocities, and those theoretically determined.
Abstract: Fixed bed adsorption has become a frequently used
industrial application in wastewater treatment processes. Various low
cost adsorbents have been studied for their applicability in treatment
of different types of effluents. In this work, the intention of the study
was to explore the efficacy and feasibility for azo dye, Acid Orange 7
(AO7) adsorption onto fixed bed column of NaOH Treated eggshell
(TES). The effect of various parameters like flow rate, initial dye
concentration, and bed height were exploited in this study. The
studies confirmed that the breakthrough curves were dependent on
flow rate, initial dye concentration solution of AO7 and bed depth.
The Thomas, Yoon–Nelson, and Adams and Bohart models were
analysed to evaluate the column adsorption performance. The
adsorption capacity, rate constant and correlation coefficient
associated to each model for column adsorption was calculated and
mentioned. The column experimental data were fitted well with
Thomas model with coefficients of correlation R2 ≥0.93 at different
conditions but the Yoon–Nelson, BDST and Bohart–Adams model
(R2=0.911), predicted poor performance of fixed-bed column. The
(TES) was shown to be suitable adsorbent for adsorption of AO7
using fixed-bed adsorption column.
Abstract: Water is essential for life and fresh water is a finite
resource that is becoming scarce day by day even though it is
recycled by hydrological cycle. The fresh water reserves are being
polluted due to expanding irrigation, industries, urban population and
its development. Contaminated water leads to several health
problems. With the increasing demand of fresh water, solar
distillation is an alternate solution which uses solar energy to
evaporate water and then to condense it, thereby collecting distilled
water within or outside the same system to use it as potable water.
The structure that houses the process is known as a 'solar still'. In this
paper, ‘Modified double slope solar still (MDSSS)’ & 'Modified
double slope basin type multiwick solar still (MDSBMSS)' have been
designed to convert saline, brackish water into drinking water. In this
work two different modified solar stills are fabricated to study the
performance of these solar stills. For modification of solar stills,
Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and Acrylic sheets are used. The
experiments in MDSBMSS and MDSSS was carried on 10
September 2015 & 5 November 2015 respectively. Performances of
the stills were investigated. The amount of distillate has been found
3624 Ml/day in MDSBMSS on 10 September 2015 and 2400 Ml/day
in MDSSS on 5 November 2015.
Abstract: Promotion of the Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) as a construction material for civil engineering projects has invoked numerous researchers to investigate their mechanical behavior. Even though there is satisfactory information about the effects of fiber type and length, concrete mixture, casting type and other variables on the strength and deformability parameters of FRC, the numerical modeling of such materials still needs research attention. The focus of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model in prediction of Macro-synthetic FRC structures behavior. CDP model requires the tensile behavior of concrete to be well characterized. For this purpose, a series of uniaxial direct tension and four point bending tests were conducted on the notched specimens to define bilinear tension softening (post-peak tension stress-strain) behavior. With these parameters obtained, the flexural behavior of macro-synthetic FRC beams were modeled and the results showed a good agreement with the experimental measurements.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall system of residential buildings is popular in South Korea. RC walls are subjected to axial forces in common and the effect of axial forces on the strength loss of the fire damaged walls has not been investigated. This paper aims at investigating temperature distribution on fire damaged concrete walls having different axial loads. In the experiments, a variable of specimens is axial force ratio. RC walls are fabricated with 150mm of wall thicknesses, 750mm of lengths and 1,300mm of heights having concrete strength of 24MPa. After curing, specimens are heated on one surface with ISO-834 standard time-temperature curve for 2 hours and temperature distributions during the test are measured using thermocouples inside the walls. The experimental results show that the temperature of the RC walls exposed to fire increases as axial force ratio increases. To verify the experiments, finite element (FE) models are generated for coupled temperature-structure analyses. The analytical results of thermal behaviors are in good agreement with the experimental results. The predicted displacement of the walls decreases when the axial force increases.
Abstract: Problem of food preservation is extremely important
for mankind. Viscous damage ("illness") of bread results from
development of Bacillus spp. bacteria. High temperature resistant
spores of this microorganism are steady against 120°C) and remain in
bread during pastries, potentially causing spoilage of the final
product. Scientists are interested in further characterization of bread
spoiling Bacillus spp. species. Our aim was to find weather yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that are able to produce natural
antimicrobial killer factor can preserve bread illness. By diffusion
method, we showed yeast antagonistic activity against spore-forming
bacteria. Experimental technological parameters were the same as for
bakers' yeasts production on the industrial scale. Risograph test
during dough fermentation demonstrated gas production. The major
finding of the study was a clear indication of the presence of killer
yeast strain antagonistic activity against rope in bread causing
bacteria. After demonstrating antagonistic effect of S. cerevisiae on
bacteria using solid nutrient medium, we tested baked bread under
provocative conditions. We also measured formation of carbon
dioxide in the dough, dough-making duration and quality of the final
products, when using different strains of S. cerevisiae. It is
determined that the use of yeast S. cerevisiae RCAM 01730 killer
strain inhibits appearance of rope in bread. Thus, natural yeast
antimicrobial killer toxin, produced by some S. cerevisiae strains is
an anti-rope in bread protector.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of the solution-focused brief therapy on improving the psychological wellbeing of family supervisor woman. This study has been carried out by semi-experimental method and in the form of pre-test, post-test performance on two groups (experimental and control), so that one sample group of 30 individuals was randomly achieved and were randomly divided in two groups of experimental (n=15) and control (n=15). To collect data, Ryff scale psychological wellbeing was used. After conducting pre-test (RSPWB) for two experimental and control groups, Solution-focused brief therapy interference was conducted on the experimental group during five two-hour sessions. Finally, Ryff scale psychological wellbeing was reused for the two groups as post-test and achieved outcomes that were analyzed using covariance. The results indicated that the significant increase of average marks of the experimental group in psychological wellbeing had better function than that of the control group. Finally, solution-focused brief therapy for improving psychological well-being of family supervisor women has a suitable capability and could be used in this way.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of solution-focused group therapy on improving the depressed mothers of child abuser families. This study was carried out in the form of a semi-pilot, pre-test and post-test on two groups (experimental and control). Subjects include all mothers and their children that are the members of Shush and Naser Khosro child home. Beck Depression Inventory and Child Trauma Questionnaire were used to collect data. First, child abuse questionnaire was completed by children, Then Beck Depression Inventory was completed by their mothers that 22 of them were recognized as depressed and randomly divided in two groups of experimental and control. After applying pre-test for both of these groups, the intervention of solution- focused group therapy was performed in five sessions on experimental group. Finally, post-test was applied on both groups and subsequently in a month, follow-up test was performed. T-test, multivariate variance, and repeated measurement analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. According to the findings, it can be concluded that this therapy leads to the improvement of depressed mother's mood. As a result, the intervention of solution-focused group therapy is useful in order to improve the depressing mood of mothers of child abuser families.
Abstract: This paper presents results of numerical and experimental studies on a two-dimensional (2D) flapping elliptic airfoil in a forward flight condition at Reynolds number of 5000. The study is motivated from an earlier investigation which shows that the deterioration in thrust performance of a sinusoidal heaving and pitching 2D (NACA0012) airfoil at high flapping frequency can be recovered by changing the effective angle of attack profile to square wave, sawtooth, or cosine wave shape. To better understand why such modifications lead to superior thrust performance, we take a closer look at the transient aerodynamic force behavior of an airfoil when the effective angle of attack profile changes gradually from a generic smooth trapezoidal profile to a sinusoid shape by modifying the base length of the trapezoid. The choice of using a smooth trapezoidal profile is to avoid the infinite acceleration condition encountered in the square wave profile. Our results show that the enhancement in the time-averaged thrust performance at high flapping frequency can be attributed to the delay and reduction in the drag producing valley region in the transient thrust force coefficient when the effective angle of attack profile changes from sinusoidal to trapezoidal.