Quality Evaluation of Cookies Produced from Blends of Sweet Potato and Fermented Soybean Flour

The study was conducted to evaluate the quality characteristics of cookies produced from sweet potato-fermented soybean flour. Cookies were subjected to proximate and sensory analysis to determine the acceptability of the product. Protein, fat and ash increased as the proportion of soybean flour increased, ranging from 13.8-21.7, 1.22-5.25 and 2.20-2.57 respectively. The crude fibre content was within the range of 3.08-4.83%. The moisture content of the cookies decreased with increase in soybean flour from 3.42- 2.13%. Cookies produced from whole sweet potato flour had the highest moisture content of 3.42% while 30% substitution had the lowest moisture content 2.13%. A nine point hedonic scale was used to evaluate the organoleptic characteristics of the cookies. The sensory analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between the cookies produced even when compared to the control 100% sweet potato cookies. The overall acceptance of the cookies was ranked to 20% soybean flour substitute.

Parametric Study of Confined Turbulent Impinging Slot Jets upon a Flat Plate

In the present paper, a numerical investigation has been carried out to classify and clarify the effects of paramount parameters on turbulent impinging slot jets. The effects of nozzle-s exit turbulent intensity, distance between nozzle and impinging plate are studied at Reynolds number 5000 and 20000. In addition, the effect of Mach number that is varied between 0.3-0.8 at a constant Reynolds number 133000 is investigated to elucidate the effect of compressibility in impinging jet upon a flat plate. The wall that is located at the same level with nozzle-s exit confines the flow. A compressible finite volume solver is implemented for simulation the flow behavior. One equation Spalart-Allmaras turbulent model is used to simulate turbulent flow at this study. Assessment of the Spalart-Allmaras turbulent model at high nozzle to plate distance, and giving enough insights to characterize the effect of Mach number at high Reynolds number for the complex impinging jet flow are the remarkable results of this study.

Population Trend of Canola Aphid, Lipaphis Erysimi (Kalt.) (Homoptera: Aphididae) and its Associated Natural Enemies in Different Brassica Lines along with the Effect of Gamma Radiation on Their Population

Studies regarding the determination of population trend of Lipaphis erysimi (kalt.) and its associated natural enemies in different Brassica lines along with the effect of gamma radiation on their population were conducted at Agricultural Research Farm, Malakandher, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar during spring 2006. Three different Brassica lines F6B3, F6B6 and F6B7 were used, which were replicated four times in Randomized Complete Block Design. The data revealed that aphid infestation invariably stated in all three varieties during last week of February 2006 (1st observation). The peak population of 4.39 aphids leaf-1 was s recorded during 2nd week of March and lowest population of 1.02 aphids leaf-1 was recorded during 5th week of March. The species of lady bird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) and Syrphid fly (Syrphus balteatus) first appeared on 24th February with a mean number of 0.40 lady bird beetle leaf-1 and 0.87 Syrphid fly leaf-1, respectively. At the time when aphid population started to increase the peak population of C. septempunctata (0.70 lady bird beetle leaf- 1) and S. balteatus (1.04 syrphid fly leaf-1) was recorded on the 2nd week of March. Chrysoperla carnea appeared in the 1st week of March and their peak population was recorded during the 3rd week of March with mean population of 1.46 C. carnea leaf-1. Among all the Brassica lines, F6B7 showed comparatively more resistance as compared to F6B3 F6B6. F6B3 showed least resistance against L. erysimi, which was found to be the most susceptible cultivar. F6B7 was also found superior in terms of natural enemies. Maximum number of all natural enemies was recorded on this variety followed by F6B6. Lowest number of natural enemies was recorded in F6B3. No significant effect was recorded for the effect of gamma radiation on the population of aphids, natural enemies and on the varieties.

Meta Random Forests

Leo Breimans Random Forests (RF) is a recent development in tree based classifiers and quickly proven to be one of the most important algorithms in the machine learning literature. It has shown robust and improved results of classifications on standard data sets. Ensemble learning algorithms such as AdaBoost and Bagging have been in active research and shown improvements in classification results for several benchmarking data sets with mainly decision trees as their base classifiers. In this paper we experiment to apply these Meta learning techniques to the random forests. We experiment the working of the ensembles of random forests on the standard data sets available in UCI data sets. We compare the original random forest algorithm with their ensemble counterparts and discuss the results.

Strategic Priority of Green ICT Policy in Korea: Applying Analytic Hierarchy Process

This study considers priorities of primary goals to increase policy efficiency of Green ICT. Recently several studies have been published that address how IT is linked to climate change. However, most of the previous studies are limited to Green ICT industrial statute and policy directions. This paper present Green ICT policy making processes systematically. As a result of the analysis of Korean Green ICT policy, the following emerged as important to accomplish for Green ICT policy: eco-friendliness, technology evolution, economic efficiency, energy efficiency, and stable supply of energy. This is an initial study analyzing Green ICT policy, which provides an academic framework that can be used a guideline to establish Green ICT policy.

FEA-Based Calculation of Performances of IPM Machines with Five Topologies for Hybrid- Electric Vehicle Traction

The paper presents a detailed calculation of characteristic of five different topology permanent magnet machines for high performance traction including hybrid -electric vehicles using finite element analysis (FEA) method. These machines include V-shape single layer interior PM, W-shape single-layer interior PM, Segment interior PM and surface PM on the rotor and with distributed winding on the stator. The performance characteristics which include the back-emf voltage and its harmonic, magnet mass, iron loss and ripple torque are compared and analyzed. One of a 7.5kW IPM prototype was tested and verified finite-element analysis results. The aim of the paper is given some guidance and reference for machine designer which are interested in IPM machine selection for high performance traction application.

Thermophoretic Deposition of Nanoparticles Due Toa Permeable Rotating Disk: Effects of Partial Slip, Magnetic Field, Thermal Radiation, Thermal-Diffusion, and Diffusion-Thermo

The present contribution deals with the thermophoretic deposition of nanoparticles over a rapidly rotating permeable disk in the presence of partial slip, magnetic field, thermal radiation, thermal-diffusion, and diffusion-thermo effects. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations such as continuity, momentum, energy and concentration are transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations using similarity analysis, and the solutions are obtained through the very efficient computer algebra software MATLAB. Graphical results for non-dimensional concentration and temperature profiles including thermophoretic deposition velocity and Stanton number (thermophoretic deposition flux) in tabular forms are presented for a range of values of the parameters characterizing the flow field. It is observed that slip mechanism, thermal-diffusion, diffusion-thermo, magnetic field and radiation significantly control the thermophoretic particles deposition rate. The obtained results may be useful to many industrial and engineering applications.

Stability of Homogeneous Smart Beams based on the First Order Shear Deformation Theory Located on a Continuous Elastic Foundation

This paper studies stability of homogeneous beams with piezoelectric layers subjected to axial load that is simply supported at both ends lies on a continuous elastic foundation. The displacement field of beam is assumed based on first order shear deformation beam theory. Applying the Hamilton's principle, the governing equation is established. The influences of applied voltage, dimensionless geometrical parameter and foundation coefficient on the stability of beam are presented. To investigate the accuracy of the present analysis, a compression study is carried out with a known data.

Nugget Formation during Resistance Spot Welding using Finite Element Model

Resistance spot welding process comprises of electric, thermal and mechanical phenomenon, which makes this process complex and highly non-linear and thus, it becomes difficult to model it. In order to obtain good weld nugget during spot welding, hit and trial welds are usually done which is very costly. Therefore the numerical simulation research has been conducted to understand the whole process. In this paper three different cases were analyzed by varying the tip contact area and it was observed that, with the variation of tip contact area the nugget formation at the faying surface is affected. The tip contact area of the welding electrode becomes large with long welding cycles. Therefore in order to maintain consistency of nugget formation during the welding process, the current compensation in control feedback is required. If the contact area of the welding electrode tip is reduced, a large amount of current flows through the faying surface, as a result of which sputtering occurs.

Endogenous Growth of Small Open Economies in New Europe under Global Imbalance

The strong international competition as the factor of rising economic development efficiency should not turn into destructive force for models of social orientation. What result Europe received from the accelerated integration without a long transition period of the accepted countries. Correlative relationship between the research and development expenditure and labor productivity, inflation and the rate economy's growth of the USA and the euro zone, employment and gross value added between Old and New Europe is analyzed in this article. The article estimates the differences in economic growth of Old and New Europe. Correlation rate between cycles of the euro area and the countries of Central and the Eastern Europe very much differs, though some of these countries have high correlation as members of the Economic and Monetary Union. Besides, the majority of the countries of Central and the Eastern Europe does not correspond to criteria of an optimum currency area.

Study on a Nested Cartesian Grid Method

In this paper, the local grid refinement is focused by using a nested grid technique. The Cartesian grid numerical method is developed for simulating unsteady, viscous, incompressible flows with complex immersed boundaries. A finite volume method is used in conjunction with a two-step fractional-step procedure. The key aspects that need to be considered in developing such a nested grid solver are imposition of interface conditions on the inter-block and accurate discretization of the governing equation in cells that are with the inter-block as a control surface. A new interpolation procedure is presented which allows systematic development of a spatial discretization scheme that preserves the spatial accuracy of the underlying solver. The present nested grid method has been tested by two numerical examples to examine its performance in the two dimensional problems. The numerical examples include flow past a circular cylinder symmetrically installed in a Channel and flow past two circular cylinders with different diameters. From the numerical experiments, the ability of the solver to simulate flows with complicated immersed boundaries is demonstrated and the nested grid approach can efficiently speed up the numerical solutions.

Repairing and Strengthening Earthquake Damaged RC Beams with Composites

The dominant judgment for earthquake damaged reinforced concrete (RC) structures is to rebuild them with the new ones. Consequently, this paper estimates if there is chance to repair earthquake RC beams and obtain economical contribution to modern day society. Therefore, the totally damaged (damaged in shear under cyclic load) reinforced concrete (RC) beams repaired and strengthened by externally bonded carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips in this study. Four specimens, apart from the reference beam, were separated into two distinct groups. Two experimental beams in the first group primarily tested up to failure then appropriately repaired and strengthened with CFRP strips. Two undamaged specimens from the second group were not repaired but strengthened by the identical strengthening scheme as the first group for comparison. This study studies whether earthquake damaged RC beams that have been repaired and strengthened will validate similar strength and behavior to equally strengthened, undamaged RC beams. Accordingly, a strength correspondence according to strengthened specimens was acquired for the repaired and strengthened specimens. Test results confirmed that repair and strengthening, which were estimated in the experimental program, were effective for the specimens with the cracking patterns considered in the experimental program. 

Implementation of the Personal Emergency Response System

The aged are faced with increasing risk for falls. The aged have the easily fragile bones than others. When falls have occurred, it is important to detect this emergency state because such events often lead to more serious illness or even death. A implementation of PDA system, for detection of emergency situation, was developed using 3-axis accelerometer in this paper as follows. The signals were acquired from the 3-axis accelerometer, and then transmitted to the PDA through Bluetooth module. This system can classify the human activity, and also detect the emergency state like falls. When the fall occurs, the system generates the alarm on the PDA. If a subject does not respond to the alarm, the system determines whether the current situation is an emergency state or not, and then sends some information to the emergency center in the case of urgent situation. Three different studies were conducted on 12 experimental subjects, with results indicating a good accuracy. The first study was performed to detect the posture change of human daily activity. The second study was performed to detect the correct direction of fall. The third study was conducted to check the classification of the daily physical activity. Each test was lasted at least 1 min. in third study. The output of acceleration signal was compared and evaluated by changing a various posture after attaching a 3-axis accelerometer module on the chest. The newly developed system has some important features such as portability, convenience and low cost. One of the main advantages of this system is that it is available at home healthcare environment. Another important feature lies in low cost to manufacture device. The implemented system can detect the fall accurately, so will be widely used in emergency situation.

Design and Performance Analysis of a Supersonic Diffuser for Plasma Wing Tunnel

Plasma Wind Tunnels (PWT) are extensively used for screening and qualification of re-entry Thermel Protection System (TPS) materials. Proper design of a supersonic diffuser for plasma wind tunnel is of importance for achieving good pressurerecovery (thereby reducing vacuum pumping requirement & run time costs) and isolating downstream stream fluctuations from propagating costs) and isolating downstream stream fluctuationnts the details of a rapid design methodology successfully employed for designing supersonic diffuser for high power (several megawatts)plasma wind tunnels and numerical performance analysis of a diffuser configuration designed for one megawatt power rated plasma wind tunnel(enthalpy ~ 30 MJ/kg) using FLUENT 6.3® solver for different diffuser operating sub-atmospheric back-pressures.

Comparative Analysis of Commercial Property and Stock-Market Investments in Nigeria

The study analyzed the risk and returns of commercial-property in Southwestern Nigeria and selected stocksmarket investment between 2000 and 2009; compared the inflation hedging characteristics and diversification potentials of investing in commercial-property and selected stock- market investment. Primary data were collected on characteristics, rental and capital values of commercial- properties from their property managers through the use of questionnaire. Secondary data on stock prices and dividends on banking, insurance and conglomerates sectors were sourced from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (2000-2009). The result showed that average return on all the selected stock- investments was higher than that of commercial-property. As regards risk, commercial-property indicated lower risk, compared to stocks. Also the stock-investment had better inflation hedging capacity than commercial-properties; combination of both had diversification potentials. The study concluded that stock-market investment offered attractive higher return than commercial-property although with higher risk and there could be diversification benefits in combining commercial-property with stock- investment.

Non-Isothermal Kinetics of Crystallization and Phase Transformation of SiO2-Al2O3-P2O5-CaO-CaF Glass

The crystallization kinetics and phase transformation of SiO2.Al2O3.0,56P2O5.1,8CaO.0,56CaF2 glass have been investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Glass samples were obtained by melting the glass mixture at 14500С/120 min. in platinum crucibles. The mixture were prepared from chemically pure reagents: SiO2, Al(OH)3, H3PO4, CaCO3 and CaF2. The non-isothermal kinetics of crystallization was studied by applying the DTA measurements carried out at various heating rates. The activation energies of crystallization and viscous flow were measured as 348,4 kJ.mol–1 and 479,7 kJ.mol–1 respectively. Value of Avrami parameter n ≈ 3 correspond to a three dimensional of crystal growth mechanism. The major crystalline phase determined by XRD analysis was fluorapatite (Ca(PO4)3F) and as the minor phases – fluormargarite (CaAl2(Al2SiO2)10F2) and vitlokite (Ca9P6O24). The resulting glass-ceramic has a homogeneous microstructure, composed of prismatic crystals, evenly distributed in glass phase.

Spatial Distribution and Risk Assessment of As, Hg, Co and Cr in Kaveh Industrial City, using Geostatistic and GIS

The concentrations of As, Hg, Co, Cr and Cd were tested for each soil sample, and their spatial patterns were analyzed by the semivariogram approach of geostatistics and geographical information system technology. Multivariate statistic approaches (principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were used to identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals showed that primary inputs of As, Hg and Cd were due to anthropogenic while, Co, and Cr were associated with pedogenic factors. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patters of heavy metals. The high pollution sources evaluated was related with usage of urban and industrial wastewater. The results of this study helpful for risk assessment of environmental pollution for decision making for industrial adjustment and remedy soil pollution.

Model Parameters Estimating on Lyman–Kutcher–Burman Normal Tissue Complication Probability for Xerostomia on Head and Neck Cancer

The purpose of this study is to derive parameters estimating for the Lyman–Kutcher–Burman (LKB) normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model using analysis of scintigraphy assessments and quality of life (QoL) measurement questionnaires for the parotid gland (xerostomia). In total, 31 patients with head-and-neck (HN) cancer were enrolled. Salivary excretion factor (SEF) and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires datasets are used for the NTCP modeling to describe the incidence of grade 4 xerostomia. Assuming that n= 1, NTCP fitted parameters are given as TD50= 43.6 Gy, m= 0.18 in SEF analysis, and as TD50= 44.1 Gy, m= 0.11 in QoL measurements, respectively. SEF and QoL datasets can validate the Quantitative Analyses of Normal Tissue Effects in the Clinic (QUANTEC) guidelines well, resulting in NPV-s of 100% for the both datasets and suggests that the QUANTEC 25/20Gy gland-spared guidelines are suitable for clinical used for the HN cohort to effectively avoid xerostomia.

Simulation of an Auto-Tuning Bicycle Suspension Fork with Quick Releasing Valves

Bicycle configuration is not as large as those of motorcycles or automobiles, while it indeed composes a complicated dynamic system. People-s requirements on comfortability, controllability and safety grow higher as the research and development technologies improve. The shock absorber affects the vehicle suspension performances enormously. The absorber takes the vibration energy and releases it at a suitable time, keeping the wheel under a proper contact condition with road surface, maintaining the vehicle chassis stability. Suspension design for mountain bicycles is more difficult than that of city bikes since it encounters dynamic variations on road and loading conditions. Riders need a stiff damper as they exert to tread on the pedals when climbing, while a soft damper when they descend downhill. Various switchable shock absorbers are proposed in markets, however riders have to manually switch them among soft, hard and lock positions. This study proposes a novel design of the bicycle shock absorber, which provides automatic smooth tuning of the damping coefficient, from a predetermined lower bound to theoretically unlimited. An automatic quick releasing valve is involved in this design so that it can release the peak pressure when the suspension fork runs into a square-wave type obstacle and prevent the chassis from damage, avoiding the rider skeleton from injury. This design achieves the automatic tuning process by innovative plunger valve and fluidic passage arrangements without any electronic devices. Theoretical modelling of the damper and spring are established in this study. Design parameters of the valves and fluidic passages are determined. Relations between design parameters and shock absorber performances are discussed in this paper. The analytical results give directions to the shock absorber manufacture.