Abstract: The content of omega-3 in soybean oil is important in the development of infants and is an alternative for the omega-3 in fish oils. The investigation of extraction of soybean oil is needed to obtain the bioactive compound in the extract. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is modern and green technology to extract herbs and plants to obtain high quality extract due to high diffusivity and solubility of the solvent. The aim of this study was to obtain the optimum condition of soybean oil extraction by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. The soybean oil was extracted by using modified supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) under the temperatures of 40, 60, 80 °C, pressures of 150, 250, 350 Bar, and constant flow-rate of 10 g/min as the parameters of extraction processes. An experimental design was performed in order to optimize three important parameters of SC-CO2 extraction which are pressure (X1), temperature (X2) to achieve optimum yields of soybean oil. Box Behnken Design was applied for experimental design. From the optimization process, the optimum condition of extraction of soybean oil was obtained at pressure 338 Bar and temperature 80 °C with oil yield of 2.713 g. Effect of pressure is significant on the extraction of soybean oil by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. Increasing of pressure will increase the oil yield of soybean oil.
Abstract: Strain sensors based on a change in resistance are
well established for the measurement of forces, stresses, or material
fatigue. Within the scope of this paper, fully additive manufactured
strain sensors were produced using an ink of silver nanoparticles.
Their behavior was evaluated by periodic tensile tests. Printed
strain sensors exhibit two advantages: Their measuring grid is
adaptable to the use case and they do not need a carrier-foil,
as the measuring structure can be printed directly onto a thin
sprayed varnish layer on the aluminum specimen. In order to
compare quality characteristics, the sensors have been manufactured
using two different technologies, namely aerosoljet-printing and
micropipette-dispensing. Both processes produce structures which
exhibit continuous features (in contrast to what can be achieved with
droplets during inkjet printing). Briefly summarized the results show
that aerosoljet-printing is the preferable technology for specimen with
non-planar surfaces whereas both technologies are suitable for flat
specimen.
Abstract: Resilience Engineering is a new paradigm of safety management that proposes to change the way of managing the safety to focus on the things that go well instead of the things that go wrong. Many complex and high-risk sectors such as air traffic control, health care, nuclear power plants, railways or emergencies, have applied this new vision of safety and have obtained very positive results. In the construction sector, safety management continues to be a problem as indicated by the statistics of occupational injuries worldwide. Therefore, it is important to improve safety management in this sector. For this reason, it is proposed to apply Resilience Engineering to the construction sector. The Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan emerges as a key element for the planning of safety management. One of the key tools of Resilience Engineering is the Resilience Assessment Grid that allows measuring the four essential abilities (respond, monitor, learn and anticipate) for resilient performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a questionnaire based on the Resilience Assessment Grid, specifically on the ability to learn, to assess whether a Construction Phase Health and Safety Plans helps companies in a construction site to implement this ability. The research process was divided into four stages: (i) initial design of a questionnaire, (ii) validation of the content of the questionnaire, (iii) redesign of the questionnaire and (iii) application of the Delphi method. The questionnaire obtained could be used as a tool to help construction companies to evolve from Safety-I to Safety-II. In this way, companies could begin to develop the ability to learn, which will serve as a basis for the development of the other abilities necessary for resilient performance. The following steps in this research are intended to develop other questions that allow evaluating the rest of abilities for resilient performance such as monitoring, learning and anticipating.
Abstract: Urban intensification is regarded as the prevalent strategy in many cities of the world to ease the pressures of urban sprawl and deliver sustainable development through increasing the density of built form and activities. However, within the context of intensive development, planning and design control measures that help to maintain and promote the character of existing residential environments have been slow to develop. This causes the possible loss of the character of an area that makes a place unique and distinctive. The purpose of this paper is to explore the way of identifying the character of an urban area for the planning of urban landscape in the implementation of intensification. By employing the theory of urban morphology, the concept of morphological region is used for the analysis and characterisation of the spatial structure of the urban landscape in terms of ground plans, building types, and building and land utilisation. The morphological mapping of the character of urban landscape is suggested, which lays a foundation for more sensitive planning of urban landscape changes.
Abstract: Low ink sintering temperature is desired for flexible electronics, as it would widen the application of the ink on temperature-sensitive substrates where the selection of silver precursor is very critical. In this paper, four types of organic silver precursors, silver carbonate, silver oxalate, silver tartrate and silver itaconate, were synthesized using an ion exchange method, firstly. Various characterization methods were employed to investigate their physical phase, chemical composition, morphologies and thermal decomposition behavior. It was found that silver oxalate had the ideal thermal property and showed the lowest decomposition temperature. An ink was then formulated by complexing the as-prepared silver oxalate with ethylenediamine in organic solvents. Results show that a favorable conductive film with a uniform surface structure consisting of silver nanoparticles and few voids could be produced from the ink at a sintering temperature of 150 °C.
Abstract: This study investigated the relation between processing information and fitness level of active (fit) and sedentary (unfit) children drawn from rural and urban areas in Botswana. It was hypothesized that fit children would display faster simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction times (CRT) and movement times (SMT). 60, third grade children (7.0 – 9.0 years) were initially selected and based upon fitness testing, 45 participated in the study (15 each of fit urban, unfit urban, fit rural). All children completed anthropometric measures, skinfold testing and submaximal cycle ergometer testing. The cognitive testing included SRT, CRT, SMT and Choice Movement Time (CMT) and memory sequence length. Results indicated that the rural fit group exhibited faster SMT than the urban fit and unfit groups. For CRT, both fit groups were faster than the unfit group. Collectively, the study shows that the relationship that exists between physical fitness and cognitive function amongst the elderly can tentatively be extended to the pediatric population. Physical fitness could be a factor in the speed at which we process information, including decision making, even in children.
Abstract: In recent years, the field of natural antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds is one of the main research topics in the food industry. Application of agricultural residues is mainly cheap, and available resources are receiving increased attention. Walnut green husk is one of the agricultural residues that is considered as natural compounds with biological properties because of phenolic compounds. In this study, maltodextrin 10% was used for microencapsulation of walnut green husk extract. At first, the extract was examined to consider extraction yield, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activation. The results showed the extraction yield of 81.43%, total phenolic compounds of 3997 [mg GAE/100 g], antioxidant activity [DPPH] of 84.85% for walnut green husk extract. Antioxidant activity is about 75%-81% and by DPPH. At the next stage, microencapsulation was done by spry-drying method. The microencapsulation efficiency was 72%-79%. The results of SEM tests confirmed this microencapsulation process. In addition, microencapsulated and free extract was more effective on gram-positive bacteria’s rather than the gram-negative ones. According to the study, walnut green husk can be used as a cheap antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds due to sufficient value of phenolic compounds.
Abstract: The three phase system drives produce the problem of more torque pulsations and harmonics. This issue prevents the smooth operation of the drives and it also induces the amount of heat generated thus resulting in an increase in power loss. Higher phase system offers smooth operation of the machines with greater power capacity. Five phase variable-speed induction motor drives are commonly used in various industrial and commercial applications like tractions, electrical vehicles, ship propulsions and conveyor belt drive system. In this work, a comparative analysis of the different modulation schemes applied on the five-level five-phase Packed U Cell (PUC) inverter fed induction motor drives is presented. The performance of the inverter is greatly affected with the modulation schemes applied. The system is modeled, designed, and implemented in MATLAB®/Simulink environment. Experimental validation is done for the prototype of single phase, whereas five phase experimental validation is proposed in the future works.
Abstract: Turbocharger is a device that is driven by the turbine and increases efficiency and power output of the engine by forcing external air into the combustion chamber. This study focused on the distribution of stress on the turbine blades and total deformation that may occur during its working along with turbocharger to carry out its static structural analysis of turbine blades. Structural steel was selected as the material for turbocharger. Assembly of turbocharger and turbine blades was designed on PRO ENGINEER. Furthermore, the structural analysis is performed by using ANSYS. This research concluded that by using structural steel, the efficiency of engine is improved and by increasing number of turbine blades, more waste heat from combustion chamber is emitted.
Abstract: Software development for complex systems requires
efficient and automatic tools that can be used to verify the
satisfiability of some critical properties such as security ones. With
the emergence of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), considerable
work has been done in order to better modularize the separation of
concerns in the software design and implementation. The goal is to
prevent the cross-cutting concerns to be scattered across the multiple
modules of the program and tangled with other modules. One of the
key challenges in the aspect-oriented programs is to be sure that all
the pieces put together at the weaving time ensure the satisfiability
of the overall system requirements. Our paper focuses on this problem and proposes a formal property
verification approach for a given property from the woven program.
The approach is based on the control flow graph (CFG) of the
woven program, and the use of a satisfiability modulo theories (SMT)
solver to check whether each property (represented par one aspect)
is satisfied or not once the weaving is done.
Abstract: In response to widely used wearable medical devices equipped with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and insulin pump, the advanced control methods are still demanding to get the full benefit of these devices. Unlike costly clinical trials, implementing effective insulin-glucose control strategies can provide significant contributions to the patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes. This study deals with a key role of two-layer insulin-glucose regulator based on model-predictive-control (MPC) scheme so that the patient’s predicted glucose profile is in compliance with the insulin level injected through insulin pump automatically. It is achieved by iterative optimization algorithm which is called an integrated perturbation analysis and sequential quadratic programming (IPA-SQP) solver for handling uncertainties due to unexpected variations in glucose-insulin values and body’s characteristics. The feasibility evaluation of the discussed control approach is also studied by means of numerical simulations of two case scenarios via measured data. The obtained results are presented to verify the superior and reliable performance of the proposed control scheme with no negative impact on patient safety.
Abstract: Usability testing (UT) is one of the vital steps in the User-centred design (UCD) process when designing a product. In an e-commerce ecosystem, UT becomes primary as new products, features, and services are launched very frequently. And, there are losses attached to the company if an unusable and inefficient product is put out to market and is rejected by customers. This paper tries to answer why UT is important in the product life-cycle of an E-commerce ecosystem. Secondary user research was conducted to find out work patterns, development methods, type of stakeholders, and technology constraints, etc. of a typical E-commerce company. Qualitative user interviews were conducted with product managers and designers to find out the structure, project planning, product management method and role of the design team in a mid-level company. The paper tries to address the usual apprehensions of the company to inculcate UT within the team. As well, it stresses upon factors like monetary resources, lack of usability expert, narrow timelines, and lack of understanding of higher management as some primary reasons. Outsourcing UT to vendors is also very prevalent with mid-level e-commerce companies, but it has its own severe repercussions like very little team involvement, huge cost, misinterpretation of the findings, elongated timelines, and lack of empathy towards the customer, etc. The shortfalls of the unavailability of a UT process in place within the team and conducting UT through vendors are bad user experiences for customers while interacting with the product, badly designed products which are neither useful and nor utilitarian. As a result, companies see dipping conversions rates in apps and websites, huge bounce rates and increased uninstall rates. Thus, there was a need for a more lean UT system in place which could solve all these issues for the company. This paper highlights on optimizing the UT process with a collaborative method. The degree of optimization and structure of collaborative method is the highlight of this paper. Collaborative method of UT is one in which the centralised design team of the company takes for conducting and analysing the UT. The UT is usually a formative kind where designers take findings into account and uses in the ideation process. The success of collaborative method of UT is due to its ability to sync with the product management method employed by the company or team. The collaborative methods focus on engaging various teams (design, marketing, product, administration, IT, etc.) each with its own defined roles and responsibility in conducting a smooth UT with users In-house. The paper finally highlights the positive results of collaborative UT method after conducting more than 100 In-lab interviews with users across the different lines of businesses. Some of which are the improvement of interaction between stakeholders and the design team, empathy towards users, improved design iteration, better sanity check of design solutions, optimization of time and money, effective and efficient design solution. The future scope of collaborative UT is to make this method leaner, by reducing the number of days to complete the entire project starting from planning between teams to publishing the UT report.
Abstract: Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) is explored to
design an optimal circuit capable of early stage breast cancer
detection. CGP is used to evolve simple multiplexer circuits for
detection of malignancy in the Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) samples
of breast. The data set used is extracted from Wisconsins Breast
Cancer Database (WBCD). A range of experiments were performed,
each with different set of network parameters. The best evolved
network detected malignancy with an accuracy of 99.14%, which is
higher than that produced with most of the contemporary non-linear
techniques that are computational expensive than the proposed
system. The evolved network comprises of simple multiplexers
and can be implemented easily in hardware without any further
complications or inaccuracy, being the digital circuit.
Abstract: Modelling of Timoshenko beams on elastic foundations has been widely used in the analysis of buildings, geotechnical problems, and, railway and aerospace structures. For the elastic foundation, the most widely used models are one-parameter mechanical models or two-parameter models to include continuity and cohesion of typical foundations, with the two-parameter usually considered the better of the two. Knowledge of free vibration characteristics of beams on an elastic foundation is considered necessary for optimal design solutions in many engineering applications, and in this work, the efficient and accurate variational iteration method is developed and used to calculate natural frequencies of a Timoshenko beam on a two-parameter foundation. The variational iteration method is a technique capable of dealing with some linear and non-linear problems in an easy and efficient way. The calculations are compared with those using a finite-element method and other analytical solutions, and it is shown that the results are accurate and are obtained efficiently. It is found that the effect of the presence of the two-parameter foundation is to increase the beam’s natural frequencies and this is thought to be because of the shear-layer stiffness, which has an effect on the elastic stiffness. By setting the two-parameter model’s stiffness parameter to zero, it is possible to obtain a one-parameter foundation model, and so, comparison between the two foundation models is also made.
Abstract: Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. At the same time, the world produces a large amount of construction waste each year. Waste concrete is processed and treated, and the recycled aggregate is used to make pervious concrete, which enables the construction waste to be recycled. Pervious concrete has many advantages such as permeability to water, protection of water resources, and so on. This paper tests the recycled aggregate obtained by crushing high-strength waste concrete (TOU) and low-strength waste concrete (PU), and analyzes the effect of porosity, amount of cement, mineral admixture and recycled aggregate on the strength of permeable concrete. The porosity is inversely proportional to the strength, and the amount of cement used is proportional to the strength. The mineral admixture can effectively improve the workability of the mixture. The quality of recycled aggregates had a significant effect on strength. Compared with concrete using "PU" aggregates, the strength of 7d and 28d concrete using "TOU" aggregates increased by 69.0% and 73.3%, respectively. Therefore, the quality of recycled aggregates should be strictly controlled during production, and the mix ratio should be designed according to different use environments and usage requirements. This test prepared a recycled aggregate permeable concrete with a compressive strength of 35.8 MPa, which can be used for light load roads and provides a reference for engineering applications.
Abstract: We here describe the theoretical and philosophical understanding of a long term use and development of algorithmic computer-based tools applied to music composition. The findings of our research lead us to interrogate some specific processes and systems of communication engaged in the discovery of specific cultural artworks: artistic creation in the sono-musical domain. Our hypothesis is that the patterns of auditory learning cannot be only understood in terms of social transmission but would gain to be questioned in the way they rely on various ranges of acoustic stimuli modes of consciousness and how the different types of memories engaged in the percept-action expressive systems of our cultural communities also relies on these shadowy conscious entities we named “Reduced Descriptive Structures”.
Abstract: Obesity and overweight is one of the most common metabolic disorders in industrialized countries and in developing countries. One consequence of pathological obesity is cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. Chemerin is an adipocyne that plays a role in the regulation of the adipocyte function and the metabolism of glucose in the liver and musculoskeletal system. Most likely, chemerin is involved in obesity-related disorders such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Aerobic exercises reduce the level of chemerin and cause macrophage penetration into fat cells and inflammatory factors. Several efforts have been made to clarify the cellular and molecular mechanisms of hypertrophy and muscular atrophy. Myostatin, a new member of the TGF-β family, is a transforming growth factor β that its expression negatively regulates the growth of the skeletal muscle; and the increase of this hormone has been observed in conditions of muscular atrophy. While in response to muscle overload, its levels decrease after the atrophy period, TGF-β is the most important cytokine in the development of skeletal muscle. Myostatin plays an important role in muscle control, and animal and human studies show a negative role of myostatin in the growth of skeletal muscle. Separation of myostatin from Golgi begins on the ninth day of the onset period and continues until birth at all times of muscle growth. Higher levels of myostatin are found in obese people. Resistance training for 10 weeks could reduce levels of plasma myostatin.
Abstract: An automated fibre placement method has been
developed to build through-thickness reinforcement into carbon fibre
reinforced plastic laminates during their production, with the goal
of increasing delamination fracture toughness while circumventing
the additional costs and defects imposed by post-layup stitching
and z-pinning. Termed ‘inter-weaving’, the method uses custom
placement sequences of thermoset prepreg tows to distribute regular
fibre link regions in traditionally clean ply interfaces. Inter-weaving’s impact on mode I delamination fracture toughness
was evaluated experimentally through double cantilever beam tests
(ASTM standard D5528-13) on [±15°]9 laminates made from Park
Electrochemical Corp. E-752-LT 1/4” carbon fibre prepreg tape.
Unwoven and inter-woven automated fibre placement samples were
compared to those of traditional laminates produced from standard
uni-directional plies of the same material system. Unwoven automated fibre placement laminates were found to
suffer a mostly constant 3.5% decrease in mode I delamination
fracture toughness compared to flat uni-directional plies. Inter-weaving caused significant local fracture toughness increases
(up to 50%), though these were offset by a matching overall
reduction. These positive and negative behaviours of inter-woven
laminates were respectively found to be caused by fibre breakage
and matrix deformation at inter-weave sites, and the 3D layering
of inter-woven ply interfaces providing numerous paths of least
resistance for crack propagation.
Abstract: This paper is largely a response/critique of Samuel P. Huntington´s Clash of Civilizations thesis. The overriding argument is that Huntington´s thesis is characterized by failure to distinguish between ´groups´ and ´categories´. Multinational civilizations overcoming their internal collective action problems, which would enable them to pursue a unified strategy vis-à-vis the West, is a rather foundational assumption in his theory. Without assigning sufficient intellectual attention to the processes through which multinational civilizations may gain capacity for concerted action i.e. become a group, he contended that the post-cold-war world would be shaped in large measure by interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. Thus, failure in providing a convincing analysis of multi-national civilizations´ transition from categories to groups is a significant weakness in Huntington´s clash theory. It is also suggested that so-called Islamic terrorism and the war on terror is not to be taken as an expression of presence of clash between a Western and an Islamic civilization, as terrorist organizations would be superfluous in a world characterized by clash of civilizations. Consequences of multinational civilizations becoming a group are discussed in relation to contemporary Western superiority.
Abstract: This paper presents a thirteen-level asymmetrical
cascaded H-bridge single phase inverter. In this configuration, the
desired output voltage level is achieved by connecting the DC sources in
different combinations by triggering the switches. The modes of
operation are explained well for positive level generations. Moreover, a
comparison is made with conventional topologies of diode clamped,
flying capacitors and cascaded-H-bridge and some recently proposed
topologies to show the significance of the proposed topology in terms of
reduced part counts. The simulation work has been carried out in
MATLAB/Simulink environment. The experimental work is also carried
out for lower rating to verify the performance and feasibility of the
proposed topology. Further the results are presented for different loading
conditions.