Simulation of Water-Soil-Structure Interactions Using Incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

In the present work, an incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) method is introduced to simulate water-soil-structure interactions. In the current calculation, the water is modelled as a Newtonian fluid. The soil is modelled in two different cases. In the first case, the granular material is considered as a fluid where a Bingham type constitutive model is proposed based on Mohr-Coulomb yield-stress criterion, and the viscosity is derived from the cohesion and friction angle. In addition, the fictitious suspension layers between water and soil depending on the concentration of soil are introduced. In the second case, Hooke’s law introduces elastic soil. In ISPH, the pressure is evaluated by solving the pressure Poisson equation using a semi-implicit algorithm based on the projection method and an eddy viscosity for water is modelled by a large eddy simulation with the Smagorinsky model. In the proposed ISPH method, the pressure is stabilized to simulate the multiphase flow between soil and water. Numerical experiments for water-soil suspension flow of Louvain erosional dam break with flat soil foundation, is simulated and validated using 3D-ISPH method. Coupling between water-soil interactions with different solid structures are simulated. The results revealed that, the suspension layers with the Bingham model of soil gives more accurate results in the experiment as compared to the case of the Bingham model without suspension layers. In addition, the elastic soil model by the Hooke’s law can simulate soil hump accurately as compared to the Bingham model. From the simulations, avoiding erosion behind the structure for preventing the structure break during flood are investigated by using an extended structure or a wedge structure.     

Analyzing the Simple Ranking and Selection Process for Constrained Evolutionary Optimization

Many optimization problems that involve practical applications have functional constraints,and some of these constraints are active,meaning that they prevent any solution from improving the objective function value to the one that is better than any solution lying beyond the constraint limits.Therefore,the optimal solution usually lies on the boundary of the feasible region.In order to converge faster when solving such problems,a new ranking and selection scheme is introduced which exploits this feature ...     

Polyamide-based composite membranes: Part 2. Interaction, crystallization and morphology

In this work, the interaction, crystallization and morphology of membranes derived from polyamides/poly (vinylalcohol) (PA/PVA, PA: PA66, PA69, PA610 and PA612) blend materials are studied at various weight fractions and various crystallization temperatures. The experimental work includes differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), polarized optical microscopy (POM) and scanning clectron microscopy (SEM). The equilibrium melting temperatures of polyamides in the blends are obtained using Hoffman-Weeks plots, and the interaction parameters are calculated using the Nishi-Wang equation, which is based on the Flory-Huggins theory. The values of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters χ₁₂ are negative. Significant upward shifts of ν_NH are observed with increasing volume fraction of PVA. The morphology of membranes is impressively complex, diverse, and irregular. All compositions that show nodular morphology are in the μm-scale and the size of the nodules increases with increasing PA6 content. Large void cavities are observed in the substructure for the lower polymer concentrations.     

Molecular Diversity Assessment Using Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) Markers in Vicia faba L.

Sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and relationship among 58 faba bean (Vicia faba L.) genotypes. Fourteen SRAP primer combinations amplified a total of 1036 differently sized well-resolved peaks (fragments), of which all were polymorphic with a 0.96 PIC value and discriminated all of the 58 faba bean genotypes. An average pairwise similarity of 21% was revealed among the genotypes ranging from 2% to 65%. At a similarity of 28%, UPGMA clustered the genotypes into three main groups comprising 78% of the genotypes. The local landraces and most of the Egyptian genotypes in addition to the Sudan genotypes were grouped in the first main cluster. The advanced breeding lines were scattered in the second and third main clusters with breeding lines from the ICARDA and genotypes introduced from Egypt. At a similarity of 47%, all the genotypes formed separated clusters with the exceptions of Hassawi 1 and Hassawi 2. Group analysis of the genotypes according to their geographic origin and type showed that the landraces were grouped according to their origin, while others were grouped according to their seed type. To our knowledge, this is the first application of SRAP markers for the assessment of genetic diversity in faba bean. Such information will be useful to determine optimal breeding strategies to allow continued progress in faba bean breeding.     

The influence of multi-pass friction stir processing on the microstructural and mechanical properties of Aluminum Alloy 6082

Samples with one through three passes with 100% overlap were created using friction stir processing (FSP) in order to locally modify the microstructural and mechanical properties of 6082-T6 Aluminum Alloy. A constant rotational speed and three different traverse speeds were used for processing. In this article, the microstructural properties in terms of grain structure and second phase particles distribution, and also the mechanical properties in terms of hardness and tensile strength of the processed zone were addressed with respect to the number of passes and traverse speeds. The parameter combination which resulted in highest ultimate tensile strength was further compared with additional two rotation speeds. FSP caused dynamic recrystallization of the stir zone leading to equiaxed grains with high angle grain boundaries which increased with increasing the number of passes. The accumulated heat accompanying multiple passes resulted in increase in the grain size, dissolution of precipitates and fragmentation of second phase particles. Increasing the traverse speed on the other hand did not affect the grain size, yet reduced the particles size as well as increased the particle area fraction. Hardness and tensile test results of the stir zone were in good agreement where increasing the number of passes caused softening and reduction of the ultimate tensile strength, whereas, increasing the traverse speed increased the strength and hardness. Increasing the tool rotational speed did not have a significant influence on particle mean diameter, ultimate tensile strength and hardness values of the stir zone, whereas, it caused an increase in mean grain size as well as particle area fraction.     

Robust and secure fractional wavelet image watermarking

This paper presents an efficient fractional wavelet transform (FWT) image watermarking technique based on combining the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and the fractional Fourier transform (FRFT). In the proposed technique, the host image is wavelet transformed with two resolution levels, and then, the middle frequency sub-bands are FRFT transformed. The watermark is hidden by altering the selected FRFT coefficients of the middle frequency sub-bands of the 2-level DWT-transformed host image. Two pseudo-random noise (PN) sequences are used to modulate the selected FRFT coefficients with the watermark pixels, and inverse transforms are finally applied to get the watermarked image. In watermark extraction, we just need the same two PN sequences used in the embedding process and the watermark size. The correlation factor is used to determine whether the extracted pixel is one or zero. The proposed fractional wavelet transform (FWT) image watermarking method is tested with different image processing attacks and under composite attacks to verify its robustness. Experimental results demonstrated improved robustness and security.     

A Novel Way To Radiolabel Human Butyrylcholinesterase for Positron Emission Tomography through Irreversible Transfer of the Radiolabeled Moiety

The enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is known to be involved in the detoxification of xenobiotics in blood plasma and is associated with the progress of neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes type 2, obesity, and diseases of the cardiovascular system. In the present study, we developed carbamate‐based inhibitors serving as positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers with ¹⁸F and ¹¹C as radioisotopes to visualize BChE distribution. These inhibitors are radiolabeled at the carbamate site and transfer this moiety onto BChE, which thus results in covalent and permanent radiolabeling of the enzyme. There are no comparable radiotracers for cholinesterases described to date. By ex vivo autoradiography experiments on mice brain slices and kinetic investigations, selective and covalent transfer of the radiolabeled carbamate moiety onto BChE was proven. These tracers might provide high resolution of BChE distribution in vivo to enable investigations into the pathophysiological mechanisms of diseases associated with alterations in BChE occurrence.     

Modeling the depleting mechanism of urea‐water‐solution droplet for automotive selective catalytic reduction systems

The current work aims to develop a reliable theoretical model capable of simulating the depletion process of urea‐water‐solution (UWS) droplets injected in a hot exhaust stream as experienced in an automotive urea‐based selective catalytic reduction system. A modified multicomponent vaporization model is presented and implemented in the current study to simulate the behavior of UWS droplet in heated environment. Although water depletion is modeled as a vaporization process, urea depletion is modeled using two different approaches: (i) vaporization and (ii) direct thermal decomposition. The suitability of both depletion approaches is assessed in the current study by comparison with experimental data of the decay of a single UWS droplet in a quiescent heated environment. The decay rate of UWS droplet is accurately predicted with the multicomponent vaporization model. The possibility of internal gasification is demonstrated. Based on the complex decomposition behavior of urea, the current study proposes a decomposition mechanism for UWS droplet. The suitability of implementing the rapid mixing approach is assessed through comparison with the diffusion limit approach at various operating conditions and initial UWS droplet sizes. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011     

Class I/Class IIa bacteriocin cross-resistance phenomenon in Listeria monocytogenes

Variants resistant to nisin A (vA), nisin Z (vZ), pediocin PA-1 (vP), divergicin M35 (vD) and to bacteriocin-like compounds produced by Bifidobacterium thermophilum subsp. infantis RBL67 (vB) were developed from Listeria monocytogenes LSD530. Lactic acid production, specific growth rate, potassium ion efflux, susceptibility to 13 antibiotics, cell-envelope fatty acid composition and bacteriocin cross-resistance were evaluated. Lactic acid production decreased to 75% or less of that by strain LSD530 for vP, vD and vB and to 20% or less for vA and vZ. Specific growth rates also decreased for all five variants. Acquired resistance to nisin A or Z increased resistance to pediocin and divergicin while vD showed increased resistance to nisin Z but decreased resistance to nisin A and vP exhibited increased resistance to nisin Z, pediocin and divergicin but decreased resistance to nisin A. Acquired bacteriocin resistance generally decreased antibiotic sensitivity, particularly to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin and tetracycline. Palmitic acid (C(16:0)) in the cell wall fraction of all variants was significantly higher than in strain LSD530, accounting for 18%, 43%, 32%, 26%, 53% and 44% of the total fatty acids for LSD530, vP, vD, vB, vA, and vZ, respectively. The relationship between the acquisition of bacteriocin resistance, cross-resistance and pathogenicity of Listeria monocytogenes should be studied.     

Recent advances in whey processing and valorisation: Technological and environmental perspectives

Whey has several environmental risks if disposed of as waste in watercourses. However, there are numerous valorisation techniques to convert it into valuable and highly nutritious products. Techniques such as membrane filtration may be utilised, but these are not applicable to all categories of whey. Novel methodologies that are agile enough to deal with whey variability can produce valorised products. This review assesses the capability of whey processing techniques, applications and methodologies, discussing pertinent research that can innovate product development further. It focuses on environmental impacts of whey as a waste and ways of minimising it.