Abstract: The influence of axial magnetic field (B=0.48 T) on
the variation of ionization efficiency coefficient h and secondary
electron emission coefficient g with respect to reduced electric field
E/P is studied at a new range of plane-parallel electrode spacing (0<
d< 20 cm) and different nitrogen working pressure between 0.5-20
Pa. The axial magnetic field is produced from an inductive copper
coil of radius 5.6 cm. The experimental data of breakdown voltage is
adopted to estimate the mean Paschen curves at different working
features. The secondary electron emission coefficient is calculated
from the mean Paschen curve and used to determine the minimum
breakdown voltage. A reduction of discharge voltage of about 25% is
investigated by the applied of axial magnetic field. At high interelectrode
spacing, the effect of axial magnetic field becomes more
significant for the obtained values of h but it was less for the values
of g.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results of a
single cylinder Enfield engine using an electronically controlled fuel
injection system which was developed to carry out exhaustive tests
using neat CNG, and mixtures of hydrogen in compressed natural gas
(HCNG) as 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% by energy. Experiments were
performed at 2000 and 2400 rpm with wide open throttle and varying
the equivalence ratio. Hydrogen which has fast burning rate, when
added to compressed natural gas, enhances its flame propagation rate.
The emissions of HC, CO, decreased with increasing percentage of
hydrogen but NOx was found to increase. The results indicated a
marked improvement in the brake thermal efficiency with the
increase in percentage of hydrogen added. The improved thermal
efficiency was clearly observed to be more in lean region as
compared to rich region. This study is expected to reduce vehicular
emissions along with increase in thermal efficiency and thus help in
reduction of further environmental degradation.
Abstract: The healthcare environment is generally perceived as
being information rich yet knowledge poor. However, there is a lack
of effective analysis tools to discover hidden relationships and trends
in data. In fact, valuable knowledge can be discovered from
application of data mining techniques in healthcare system. In this
study, a proficient methodology for the extraction of significant
patterns from the Coronary Heart Disease warehouses for heart
attack prediction, which unfortunately continues to be a leading cause
of mortality in the whole world, has been presented. For this purpose,
we propose to enumerate dynamically the optimal subsets of the
reduced features of high interest by using rough sets technique
associated to dynamic programming. Therefore, we propose to
validate the classification using Random Forest (RF) decision tree to
identify the risky heart disease cases. This work is based on a large
amount of data collected from several clinical institutions based on
the medical profile of patient. Moreover, the experts- knowledge in
this field has been taken into consideration in order to define the
disease, its risk factors, and to establish significant knowledge
relationships among the medical factors. A computer-aided system is
developed for this purpose based on a population of 525 adults. The
performance of the proposed model is analyzed and evaluated based
on set of benchmark techniques applied in this classification problem.
Abstract: The principle concern of this paper is to determine the
impact of solar absorption coefficient of external wall on building
energy consumption. Simulations were carried out on a typical
residential building by using the simulation Toolkit DeST-h. Results
show that reducing solar absorption coefficient leads to a great
reduction in building energy consumption and thus light-colored
materials are suitable.
Abstract: The principal focus of this study is on the
measurement and analysis of labor learnings in Pakistan. The study
at the aggregate economy level focus on the labor productivity
movements and at large-scale manufacturing level focus on the cost
structure, with isolating the contribution of the learning curve. The
analysis of S-shaped curve suggests that learnings are only below one
half of aggregate learning curve and other half shows the retardation
in learning, hence retardation in productivity movements. The study
implies the existence of learning economies in term of cost reduction
that is input cost per unit produced decreases by 0.51 percent every
time the cumulative production output doubles.
Abstract: The review performed on the condition of energy
consumption & rate in Iran, shows that unfortunately the subject of
optimization and conservation of energy in active industries of
country lacks a practical & effective method and in most factories,
the energy consumption and rate is more than in similar industries of
industrial countries. The increasing demand of electrical energy and
the overheads which it imposes on the organization, forces
companies to search for suitable approaches to optimize energy
consumption and demand management. Application of value
engineering techniques is among these approaches. Value
engineering is considered a powerful tool for improving profitability.
These tools are used for reduction of expenses, increasing profits,
quality improvement, increasing market share, performing works in
shorter durations, more efficient utilization of sources & etc.
In this article, we shall review the subject of value engineering and
its capabilities for creating effective transformations in industrial
organizations, in order to reduce energy costs & the results have
been investigated and described during a case study in Mazandaran
wood and paper industries, the biggest consumer of energy in north
of Iran, for the purpose of presenting the effects of performed tasks
in optimization of energy consumption by utilizing value engineering
techniques in one case study.
Abstract: This paper implements the inventory model developed in the first part of this paper in a simplified problem to simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. A comparison between the cost of using the JIT system and using the proposed inventory model shows the superiority of the use of the inventory model.
Abstract: The benefits of rooftop greenery systems (such as
energy savings, reduction of greenhouse gas emission for mitigating
climate change and maintaining sustainable development, indoor
temperature control etc.) in buildings are well recognized, however
there remains very little research conducted for quantifying the
benefits in subtropical climates such as in Australia. This study
mainly focuses on measuring/determining temperature profile and air
conditioning energy savings by implementing rooftop greenery
systems in subtropical Central Queensland in Australia. An
experimental set-up was installed at Rockhampton campus of Central
Queensland University, where two standard shipping containers (6m
x 2.4m x 2.4m) were converted into small offices, one with green
roof and one without. These were used for temperature, humidity and
energy consumption data collection. The study found that an energy
savings of up to 11.70% and temperature difference of up to 4°C can
be achieved in March in subtropical Central Queensland climate in
Australia. It is expected that more energy can be saved in peak
summer days (December/February) as temperature difference
between green roof and non-green roof is higher in December-
February.
Abstract: Certifications such as the Passive House Standard aim to reduce the final space heating energy demand of residential buildings. Space conditioning, notably heating, is responsible for nearly 70% of final residential energy consumption in Europe. There is therefore significant scope for the reduction of energy consumption through improvements to the energy efficiency of residential buildings. However, these certifications totally overlook the energy embodied in the building materials used to achieve this greater operational energy efficiency. The large amount of insulation and the triple-glazed high efficiency windows require a significant amount of energy to manufacture. While some previous studies have assessed the life cycle energy demand of passive houses, including their embodied energy, these rely on incomplete assessment techniques which greatly underestimate embodied energy and can lead to misleading conclusions. This paper analyses the embodied and operational energy demands of a case study passive house using a comprehensive hybrid analysis technique to quantify embodied energy. Results show that the embodied energy is much more significant than previously thought. Also, compared to a standard house with the same geometry, structure, finishes and number of people, a passive house can use more energy over 80 years, mainly due to the additional materials required. Current building energy efficiency certifications should widen their system boundaries to include embodied energy in order to reduce the life cycle energy demand of residential buildings.
Abstract: The flash memory has many advantages such as low power consumption, strong shock resistance, fast I/O and non-volatility. And it is increasingly used in the mobile storage device. The YAFFS, one of the NAND flash file system, is widely used in the embedded device. However, the existing YAFFS takes long time to mount the file system because it scans whole spare areas in all pages of NAND flash memory. In order to solve this problem, we propose a new content-based flash file system using a mounting time reduction technique. The proposed method only scans partial spare areas of some special pages by using content-based block management. The experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the average mounting time by 87.2% comparing with JFFS2 and 69.9% comparing with YAFFS.
Abstract: All around the world pulp and paper industries are the
biggest plant production with the environmental pollution as the
biggest challenge facing the pulp manufacturing operations. The
concern among these industries is to produce a high volume of papers
with the high quality standard and of low cost without affecting the
environment. This result obtained from this bleaching study show
that the activation of peroxide was an effective method of reducing
the total applied charge of chlorine dioxide which is harmful to our
environment and also show that softwood and hardwood Kraft pulps
responded linearly to the peroxide treatments. During the bleaching
process the production plant produce chlorines. Under the trial stages
chloride dioxide has been reduced by 3 kg/ton to reduce the
brightness from 65% ISO to 60% ISO of pulp and the dosing point
returned to the E stage charges by pre-treating Kraft pulps with
hydrogen peroxide. The pulp and paper industry has developed
elemental chlorine free (ECF) and totally chlorine free (TCF)
bleaching, in their quest for being environmental friendly, they have
been looking at ways to turn their ECF process into a TCF process
while still being competitive. This prompted the research to
investigate the capability of the hydrogen peroxide as catalyst to
reduce chloride dioxide.
Abstract: Identifying the nature of protein-nanoparticle
interactions and favored binding sites is an important issue in
functional characterization of biomolecules and their physiological
responses. Herein, interaction of silver nanoparticles with lysozyme
as a model protein has been monitored via fluorescence spectroscopy.
Formation of complex between the biomolecule and silver
nanoparticles (AgNPs) induced a steady state reduction in the
fluorescence intensity of protein at different concentrations of
nanoparticles. Tryptophan fluorescence quenching spectra suggested
that silver nanoparticles act as a foreign quencher, approaching the
protein via this residue. Analysis of the Stern-Volmer plot showed
quenching constant of 3.73 μM−1. Moreover, a single binding site in
lysozyme is suggested to play role during interaction with AgNPs,
having low affinity of binding compared to gold nanoparticles.
Unfolding studies of lysozyme showed that complex of lysozyme-
AgNPs has not undergone structural perturbations compared to the
bare protein. Results of this effort will pave the way for utilization of
sensitive spectroscopic techniques for rational design of
nanobiomaterials in biomedical applications.
Abstract: The objective of this paper was to designing a
ventilation system to enhance the performance of roof solar collector
(RSC) for reducing heat accumulation inside the house. The RSC has
1.8 m2 surface area made of CPAC monier roof tiles on the upper part
and gypsum board on the lower part. The space between CPAC
monier and gypsum board was fixed at 14 cm.
Ventilation system of modified roof solar collector (modified
RSC) consists of 9 tubes of 0.15m diameter and installed in the
lower part of RSC. Experimental result showed that the temperature
of the room, and attic temperature. The average temperature
reduction of room of house used modified RSC is about 2oC. and the
percentage of room temperature reduction varied between 0 to 10%.
Therefore, modified RSC is an interesting option in the sense that it
promotes solar energy and conserve energy.
Abstract: The present study was designed to investigate the
cardio protective role of chronic oral administration of alcoholic
extract of Terminalia arjuna in in-vivo ischemic reperfusion injury
and the induction of HSP72. Rabbits, divided into three groups, and
were administered with the alcoholic extract of the bark powder of
Terminalia arjuna (TAAE) by oral gavage [6.75mg/kg: (T1) and
9.75mg/kg: (T2), 6 days /week for 12 weeks]. In open-chest
Ketamine pentobarbitone anaesthetized rabbits, the left anterior
descending coronary artery was occluded for 15 min of ischemia
followed by 60 min of reperfusion. In the vehicle-treated group,
ischemic-reperfusion injury (IRI) was evidenced by depression of
global hemodynamic function (MAP, HR, LVEDP, peak LV (+) & (-
) (dP/dt) along with depletion of HEP compounds. Oxidative stress
in IRI was evidenced by, raised levels of myocardial TBARS and
depletion of endogenous myocardial antioxidants GSH, SOD and
catalase. Western blot analysis showed a single band corresponding
to 72 kDa in homogenates of hearts from rabbits treated with both the
doses. In the alcoholic extract of the bark powder of Terminalia
arjuna treatment groups, both the doses had better recovery of
myocardial hemodynamic function, with significant reduction in
TBARS, and rise in SOD, GSH, catalase were observed. The results
of the present study suggest that the alcoholic extract of the bark
powder of Terminalia arjuna in rabbit induces myocardial HSP 72
and augments myocardial endogenous antioxidants, without causing
any cellular injury and offered better cardioprotection against
oxidative stress associated with myocardial IR injury.
Abstract: Concrete strength evaluated from compression tests
on cores is affected by several factors causing differences from the
in-situ strength at the location from which the core specimen was
extracted. Among the factors, there is the damage possibly occurring
during the drilling phase that generally leads to underestimate the
actual in-situ strength. In order to quantify this effect, in this study
two wide datasets have been examined, including: (i) about 500 core
specimens extracted from Reinforced Concrete existing structures,
and (ii) about 600 cube specimens taken during the construction of
new structures in the framework of routine acceptance control. The
two experimental datasets have been compared in terms of
compression strength and specific weight values, accounting for the
main factors affecting a concrete property, that is type and amount of
cement, aggregates' grading, type and maximum size of aggregates,
water/cement ratio, placing and curing modality, concrete age. The
results show that the magnitude of the strength reduction due to
drilling damage is strongly affected by the actual properties of
concrete, being inversely proportional to its strength. Therefore, the
application of a single value of the correction coefficient, as generally
suggested in the technical literature and in structural codes, appears
inappropriate. A set of values of the drilling damage coefficient is
suggested as a function of the strength obtained from compressive
tests on cores.
Abstract: The world economic crises and budget constraints
have caused authorities, especially those in developing countries, to
rationalize water quality monitoring activities. Rationalization
consists of reducing the number of monitoring sites, the number of
samples, and/or the number of water quality variables measured. The
reduction in water quality variables is usually based on correlation. If
two variables exhibit high correlation, it is an indication that some of
the information produced may be redundant. Consequently, one
variable can be discontinued, and the other continues to be measured.
Later, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression technique is
employed to reconstitute information about discontinued variable by
using the continuously measured one as an explanatory variable. In
this paper, two record extension techniques are employed to
reconstitute information about discontinued water quality variables,
the OLS and the Line of Organic Correlation (LOC). An empirical
experiment is conducted using water quality records from the Nile
Delta water quality monitoring network in Egypt. The record
extension techniques are compared for their ability to predict
different statistical parameters of the discontinued variables. Results
show that the OLS is better at estimating individual water quality
records. However, results indicate an underestimation of the variance
in the extended records. The LOC technique is superior in preserving
characteristics of the entire distribution and avoids underestimation
of the variance. It is concluded from this study that the OLS can be
used for the substitution of missing values, while LOC is preferable
for inferring statements about the probability distribution.
Abstract: This study was conducted Ismailoglu grape type (Vitis
vinifera L.) and its vine which was aged 15 was grown on its own
root in a vegetation period of 2013 in Nevşehir province in Turkey.
In this research, it was investigated whether the applications of
Control (C), 1/3 cluster tip reduction (1/3 CTR), shoot tip reduction
(STR), 1/3 CTR + STR, TKI-HUMAS (TKI-HM) (Soil) (S), TKIHM
(Foliar) (F), TKI-HM (S + F), 1/3 CTR + TKI-HM (S), 1/3 CTR
+ TKI-HM (F), 1/3 CTR + TKI-HM (S+F), STR + TKI-HM (S), STR
+ TKI-HM (F), STR + TKI-HM (S + F), 1/3 CTR + STR+TKI-HM
(S), 1/3 CTR + STR + TKI-HM (F), 1/3 CTR + STR + TKI-HM (S +
F) on yield and yield components of Ismailoglu grape type. The
results were obtained as the highest fresh grape yield (16.15 kg/vine)
with TKI-HM (S), as the highest cluster weight (652.39 g) with 1/3
CTR + STR, as the highest 100 berry weight (419.07 g) with 1/3
CTR + STR + TKI-HM (F), as the highest maturity index (44.06)
with 1/3 CTR, as the highest must yield (810.00 ml) with STR +
TKI-HM (F), as the highest intensity of L* color (42.04) with TKIHM
(S + F), as the highest intensity of a* color (2.60) with 1/3 CTR
+ TKI-HM (S), as the highest intensity of b* color (7.16) with 1/3
CTR + TKI-HM (S) applications. To increase the fresh grape yield of
Ismailoglu grape type can be recommended TKI-HM (S) application.
Abstract: In 3D-wavelet video coding framework temporal
filtering is done along the trajectory of motion using Motion
Compensated Temporal Filtering (MCTF). Hence computationally
efficient motion estimation technique is the need of MCTF. In this
paper a predictive technique is proposed in order to reduce the
computational complexity of the MCTF framework, by exploiting
the high correlation among the frames in a Group Of Picture (GOP).
The proposed technique applies coarse and fine searches of any fast
block based motion estimation, only to the first pair of frames in a
GOP. The generated motion vectors are supplied to the next
consecutive frames, even to subsequent temporal levels and only fine
search is carried out around those predicted motion vectors. Hence
coarse search is skipped for all the motion estimation in a GOP
except for the first pair of frames. The technique has been tested for
different fast block based motion estimation algorithms over different
standard test sequences using MC-EZBC, a state-of-the-art scalable
video coder. The simulation result reveals substantial reduction (i.e.
20.75% to 38.24%) in the number of search points during motion
estimation, without compromising the quality of the reconstructed
video compared to non-predictive techniques. Since the motion
vectors of all the pair of frames in a GOP except the first pair will
have value ±1 around the motion vectors of the previous pair of
frames, the number of bits required for motion vectors is also
reduced by 50%.
Abstract: In the Top Right Access point Minimum Length Corridor (TRA-MLC) problem [1], a rectangular boundary partitioned into rectilinear polygons is given and the problem is to find a corridor of least total length and it must include the top right corner of the outer rectangular boundary. A corridor is a tree containing a set of line segments lying along the outer rectangular boundary and/or on the boundary of the rectilinear polygons. The corridor must contain at least one point from the boundaries of the outer rectangle and also the rectilinear polygons. Gutierrez and Gonzalez [1] proved that the MLC problem, along with some of its restricted versions and variants, are NP-complete. In this paper, we give a shorter proof of NP-Completeness of TRA-MLC by findig the reduction in the following way.
Abstract: The practical implementation of audio-video coupled speech recognition systems is mainly limited by the hardware complexity to integrate two radically different information capturing devices with good temporal synchronisation. In this paper, we propose a solution based on a smart CMOS image sensor in order to simplify the hardware integration difficulties. By using on-chip image processing, this smart sensor can calculate in real time the X/Y projections of the captured image. This on-chip projection reduces considerably the volume of the output data. This data-volume reduction permits a transmission of the condensed visual information via the same audio channel by using a stereophonic input available on most of the standard computation devices such as PC, PDA and mobile phones. A prototype called VMIKE (Visio-Microphone) has been designed and realised by using standard 0.35um CMOS technology. A preliminary experiment gives encouraged results. Its efficiency will be further investigated in a large variety of applications such as biometrics, speech recognition in noisy environments, and vocal control for military or disabled persons, etc.