Differentiating the natural and man-made terraces of Lake Van, Eastern Anatolia, utilizing earth science methods

The Fertile Crescent of the Middle East region, embracing Syria, eastern Turkey and Iraq, marks the region where settled agriculture began, and where the landscape has been shaped for millennia by human activities. The lacustrine and fluvial terraces of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene Eras are common geomorphic features in many areas around Lake Van in eastern Turkey, being sustainably used since the Urartian Period (800–400 years bc ). Fluctuations in the water levels of Lake Van have resulted in the development of widely distributed natural terraces around the Lake. The undulating slopes of these terraces have limited their cultivation, however, leading people to reconstruct terraces as a means for utilizing particular production sites, as anthroscapes (this concept is generally confined to situations where marked differences or deviations from the normal, natural landscapes are attributable to effects/shaping by humans). The region exhibits semiarid climatic conditions and a short crop‐growing season, currently being under the threat of land degradation. Recent mismanagement of these lands as a result of increasing population pressures has led to the degradation of both the natural and the man‐made terraces. Thus, there is an urgent need to conserve and understand the indigenous management and soil quality attributes of these man‐made terraces. To this end, this study examined soil profiles and analysed soil samples for their chemical, physical and mineralogical characteristics, in order to determine the human effects of leaching and/or accumulation. These analyses revealed significant differences between the physical, chemical, microbiological and mineralogical properties of the man‐made/reworked terraces and natural terraces under essentially similar parent materials and environment, thereby providing clues as to the sustainable management of these land surfaces in eastern Turkey. The approaches used in this study provide useful evidence for attempting to explain the historical evolution of land use in similar environments elsewhere, as well as the significance of terraces in combating coastal erosion in lake environments.     

Comparisons of volatile organic chemical content of news, sheetfed, and heatset ink formulations

Volatile organic compound (VOC) contents of news, sheetfed, and heatset inks were evaluated by using different methods, and comparison of data with significant differences is reported. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Method 24, EPA Method 24A, and Bay Area Method 30 were the methods used. Ingredients of news inks were tested with Method 24, and experimental and calculated percentage VOC values of formulated inks were compared. Along with United States Department of Agriculture’s 100% vegetable oil-based inks, commercial vegetable oil-based, and petroleum-based inks were used for comparison. Significant differences between methods, colors, and sources are discussed.     

Modeling the mechanical properties of rubberized concretes by neural network and genetic programming

Using the discarded tire rubber as the concrete aggregate may be a solution to disposal of this waste material. However, presence of the rubber aggregates in the concrete mixture decrease the mechanical properties of such concretes depending mainly on the type and the content of the rubber used. In this paper, neural network (NN) and genetic programming (GEP) based explicit models are proposed for the prediction of mechanical properties of rubberized concretes. Data used in both training and testing of NN and GEP models were obtained from an experimental study containing a total of 70 rubberized concretes. The models were constructed using eight design variables and one response as the inputs and output, respectively. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and static elastic modulus of the concretes were employed as the outputs of the models developed in this study. It is found that both NN and GEP provided high prediction capability with certain accuracy. The proposed formulations also showed perfect agreement with the experimental study, thus leading to beneficial and practical estimation of the mechanical properties of the rubberized concretes.     

Synthesis of Δ2-Isoxazoline fatty acid ester heterocycles

Fatty ester Δ^-2 heterocycles were prepared in good yields and excellent regioselectivity from 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions between methyl 10-undecenoate and nitrile oxides. This methodology provides convenient access to the methyl esters of margaric (4b) and stearic (4c) acids in 63–66% yield that contain the isoxazoline heterocycle between C-10 and C-12. These fatty heterocycle compounds are synthesized in a one-pot sequence in which methyl 10-undecenoate is used to trap the reactive nitrile oxide intermediates that are generated by reacting aldoximes with aqueous sodium hypochlorite and a catalytic amount of triethylamine or by directly reacting hydroximic acid chlorides with a stoichiometric amount of base. The fatty ester Δ²-isozazoline heterocycles represent a versatile synthon that may be useful to obtain oleochemicals with potentially new and interesting properties not easily accessible by other methods.     

Effect of initial curing on chloride ingress and corrosion resistance characteristics of concretes made with plain and blended cements

This paper reports the results of an experimental study conducted to evaluate the effect of initial curing conditions on the chloride ingress characteristics of concretes made with plain and four different blended cements. In addition, the corrosive behavior of steel bars embedded in plain and blended cement concretes were studied through half-cell potential measurements. A total of ten different concrete mixtures having water–cement (w/c) ratios of 0.65 and 0.45 were cast and tested. Test specimens were subjected to three different initial curing conditions, namely uncontrolled, controlled, and wet before exposure to high chloride environment. The research variables included cement type (i.e., plain and blended cements), w/c ratio, and initial curing condition. The results indicated that the initial curing condition had pronounced effects on the related properties: in particular, the most prominent effects were observed on blended cement concretes, which performed extremely well when initially cured in wet conditions. Inadequate or poor initial curing practice resulted in remarkably lower chloride penetration resistance for both plain and especially blended cement concretes.     

Separation by nanoparticles plasmonic resonance with low stress in microfluidics channel (analytical and design)

In this study, nanoparticles near‐field plasmonic resonance is used to improve the traditional cell separation main outputs such as viability and efficiency. The live cells viability is severely depend on stresses, which are applied on cells in the microfluidics channel. Hence, for improving the cell viability, the enforced stresses inside of the structure should be declined. The major factors of the enforced stresses are related to the electric field non‐uniformity, which are attributed to the hurdles and applied voltage magnitude. Therefore, in this study, a new structure is presented and thereby, the magnitude of the applied stresses on live cells is minimised which is contributed to the decreasing the non‐uniformity strength of channel. It should be noted that in the new structure two arrays of nanoparticles were used to produce a short range and localised non‐uniform electrical field because of their near‐field plasmonic resonance. Hence, the enforced stress on the live cell severely decreased at the far‐field and confined at the small section of the channel. It is due to, the near‐field plasmonic amplitude is dramatically disappeared by increasing distance, hence, the cells far from the nanoparticles will be endured the low level but effective amount of the optical force.Inspec keywords: nanoparticles, nanomedicine, plasmonics, cellular biophysics, microfluidics, bioMEMS, electrophoresis, separationOther keywords: optical force, dielectrophoresis, short range localised nonuniform electrical field, cell viability, microfluidics channel, cell separation, near‐field plasmonic resonance, nanoparticles     

Examination of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine polymer coated acrylic resin denture base material: surface characteristics and <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Candida albicans</Emphasis> adhesion

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymer coating with various concentrations onto acrylic resin denture base material on surface characteristics such as contact angle and surface roughness and on Candida albicans adhesion which is the major factor of denture stomatitis. Specimens, prepared from heat-polymerized acrylic denture base material, were divided into control and three test groups, randomly. Surfaces of the specimens in test groups were coated with poly(MPC) (PMPC) by graft polymerization of MPC in different concentrations (0.25?mol/L; 0.50?mol/L and 0.75?mol/L), while no surface treatment was applied to the control group. Contact angles and surface roughness were examined, and chemical composition of the surfaces was analyzed by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to verify the presence of PMPC coatings. Then, specimens were incubated with C. albicans for 18?h and the number of adhered cells was determined. Upon PMPC coating, the contact angle values statistically decreased, but no difference was found in surface roughness values. A statistically significant decrease was observed in C. albicans adhesion in parallel with the increase in the MPC polymer concentration. There was no significant difference between 0.50?mol/L and 0.75?mol/L groups in terms of adhesion. These findings indicated that graft polymerization of MPC on acrylic denture base material reduces the adhesion of C. albicans, and may be evaluated as a coating for prevention of denture stomatitis.     

Experimental and numerical modeling of the effect of solid surface on NOx emission in the combustion chamber of a water heater

A combined experimental and CFD modeling study of the turbulent non-premixed natural gas on a laboratory scale has been performed. Effect of solid surface enhancement in combustion chamber on the flame temperature and NO emission was investigated. The solid surface called as filling material (FM) was cylindrical and was placed coaxially in the center of combustion chamber. The temperature and NO distribution in the combustion chamber were compared for different geometries of the filling material. The diameters of the filling materials were 25 and 30 cm with two lengths of 20 and 40 cm. Experimental study has been carried out on a fire tube water heater. The flame temperature on the center line of the combustion chamber, gas temperature and NO emission in the combustion chamber were measured. The actual geometry of the fire tube water heater and the burner were modeled and then analyzed by the FLUENT code. Turbulent diffusion flames were investigated numerically using a finite volume method for the solution of the conservation and reaction equations governing the problem. The measured values were specified as the boundary conditions. The elemental analysis of the natural gas was taken as a mixture of hydrocarbon and air was the oxidizer. The standard k-ε model was used for the modeling of the turbulence phenomena in the combustor. The non-premixed combustion model was chosen. In the conserved scalar approach, turbulence effects were accounted for with the help of an assumed shape probability density function or PDF. The discrete ordinates (DO) radiation model was used for modeling of the radiative heat transfer in the combustion room. The model results were compared with the experimental results. The model results were in good agreement with the measurements. The filling material provided the recirculation of the cooler gases into the flame. The recirculation reduced the oxygen concentration in the flame and controlled the flame temperature. It was found that the filling material with the diameter bigger than the flame diameter increased the heat transfer rate in the back flow around the flame.     

Pattern information extraction from crystal structures

Determining the crystal structure parameters of a material is an important issue in crystallography and material science. Knowing the crystal structure parameters helps in understanding the physical behavior of material. It can be difficult to obtain crystal parameters for complex structures, particularly those materials that show local symmetry as well as global symmetry. This work provides a tool that extracts crystal parameters such as primitive vectors, basis vectors and space groups from the atomic coordinates of crystal structures. A visualization tool for examining crystals is also provided. Accordingly, this work could help crystallographers, chemists and material scientists to analyze crystal structures efficiently.

Program summary

Title of program: BilKristalCatalogue identifier: ADYU_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADYU_v1_0Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: NoneProgramming language used: C, C++, Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and OpenGL LibrariesComputer: Personal Computers with Windows operating systemOperating system: Windows XP ProfessionalRAM: 20-60 MBNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.:899 779No. of bytes in distributed program, including test date, etc.:9 271 521Distribution format:tar.gzExternal routines/libraries: Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1. For visualization tool, graphics card driver should also support OpenGLNature of problem: Determining crystal structure parameters of a material is a quite important issue in crystallography. Knowing the crystal structure parameters helps to understand physical behavior of material. For complex structures, particularly, for materials which also contain local symmetry as well as global symmetry, obtaining crystal parameters can be quite hard.Solution method: The tool extracts crystal parameters such as primitive vectors, basis vectors and identify the space group from atomic coordinates of crystal structures.Restrictions: Assumptions are explained in the paper. However, none of them can be considered as a restriction onto the complexity of the problem.Running time: All the examples presented in the paper take less than 30 seconds on a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 computer.