Prediction of sand mass and organic matter distribution via in situ measured wet sediment bulk density profile

The objective of the study is to develop a spatial prediction model of sand mass and organic matter distribution in an urban stormwater holding pond using in situ measured wet sediment bulk density profile data to spatially distinguish the most likely contaminated sediment deposit areas. The wet bulk density profiles of deposited sediment at 25 locations in the Berembang (Malaysia) stormwater holding pond were measured using a single-probe nuclear density gauge. The sand and organic matter compositions of the surface sediment sample, 5 cm thickness from the bed surface, were determined. Discriminant analysis (DA) was conducted to generate two Fisher’s linear discriminant functions for the prediction of sand mass and organic matter composition areas, respectively. The linear discriminant functions generated better area classifications of surface organic matter composition compared to the sand mass distribution using wet sediment bulk density data measured at more than 15 cm depth levels.     

An ANFIS-based approach for predicting the bed load for moderately sized rivers

A total of 346 sets of bed-load data obtained from the Kinta River, Pari River, Kerayong River and Langat River were analyzed using four common bed-load equations. These assessments, based on the median sediment size (d₅₀), show that the existing equations were unable to predict the measured bed load accurately. All existing equations over-predicted the measured values, and none of the existing bed-load equations gave satisfactory performance when tested on local river data. Therefore, the present study applies a new soft computing technique, i.e. an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), to better predict measured bed-load data. Validation of the developed network (ANFIS) was performed using a new set of bed-load data collected at Kulim River. The results show that the recommended network can more accurately predict the measured bed-load data when compared to an equation based on a regression method.     

Examination of Aschaffenburg and Drewry procedure for determination of Non-Casein-Proteins of milk by discontinuous polyacrylamide electrophoresis

Summary Non-casein protein fractions of raw skim med milk, obtained according to the Aschaffenburg and Drewry procedure, were studied by discontinuous polyacrylamide electrophoresis.Differences between the electropherograms obtained and the data of the above authors were observed in the fractions non-casein nitrogen minus proteose peptone nitrogen and total albumin nitrogen plus non-protein nitrogen.In the first fraction, instead of immunoglobulin, proteose-peptone was present and in the second fraction, besides the total albumin, immunglobulin and proteose-peptone were present. In our opinion the differences observed in the two fractions are due to incomplete salting out.

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Überprüfung der Aschaffenburg und Drewry-Bestimmungsmethode der Nicht-Casein-Proteine durch Polyacrylamid-Elektrophorese

Zusammenfassung Es wurden Nicht-Casein-Protein-Fraktionen von roher Magermilch, die nach der Aschaffenburg- und Drewry-Methode getrennt wurden, discelektrophoretisch untersucht. Unterschiede zwischen den erhaltenen Elektropherogrammen und den Angaben der oben genannten Autoren wurden bei den Fraktionen Nicht-Casein-Stickstoff minus Proteose-Pepton-Stickstoff und Totalalbumin-Stickstoff plus Nicht-Protein-Stickstoff festgestellt.Bei der ersten Fraktion wurde das Proteose-Pepton anstatt Immunglobulin erhalten, und bei der zweiten Fraktion erhielt man neben dem Totalalbumin auch Immunglobulin und Proteose-Pepton. Nach unserer Auffassung sind die bei den beiden Fraktionen festgestellten Abweichungen auf unvollständiges Aussalzen zurückzuführen.

     

Evaluation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Contamination in the Sediments of the Johor Strait,Peninsular Malaysia

In May 2013, sediment samples were collected from five stations in the Straits of Johor, near the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia, in order to evaluate the distribution and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The concentrations of 16 United States Environmental Protection Agency PAHs varied from 650.5 to 1441.2 ng g ^?1 dry weight (dw) with a mean value of 985.5 ng g ^?1 dw. PAHs can be classified as moderate level pollution in the collected samples. When comparing PAHs in this study with that of the sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), it was found that the total PAHs, low molecular weight (LMW), and high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs might incur minimal adverse biological effects. The diagnostic ratios of individual PAHs indicated both petrogenic and pyrogenic origins with predominantly pyrogenic sources, the findings of which are further supported by the results from principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results reveal contributions of 44.44%, 32.3%, and 18.96% for traffic-related, coal combustion, and petroleum-related products, respectively. These findings indicate that the effective monitoring and significant improvement resulting from the implementation of environmental regulations in Malaysia might have caused a shift in the source of petroleum hydrocarbons in the Straits of Johor's aquatic ecosystems from petrogenic to pyrogenic origins.     

Effect of sintering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of alloy titanium-wollastonite composite fabricated by powder injection moulding process

Composite biomaterials are in high demand in the medical field of today. The combination of bioactive wollastonite (WA) glass ceramic with the biocompatibility of alloy titanium (Ti6Al4V) could be a good candidate for implant applications. The rheological properties of Ti6Al4V/WA feedstock show a pseudoplastic behaviour with low activation energy. The feedstock was successfully injected as a green part with no defects. The green part was solvent debound for 6?h in heptane and thermal debound in an argon environment for 1?h. The brown part was successfully sintered at 1300?°C for 3?h with 5?°C/min heating and cooling rates. The average sintered density was 4.12?g/cm³; which is 97.5% from the theoretical density. The highest Young's modulus obtained was 18.10?GPa; which is in the range of human bone strength. EDX analysis shows that by increasing sintering temperature, the level of oxygen decreased. Cell viability test shown an absorbance increased with days increasing indicated that the cellular were proliferated on the composite Ti6Al4V/WA composite which also proved that the composite was non-toxic. This indicates that the Ti6Al4V/WA composite is suitable for bone implant applications.     

Restoration of shadows in multispectral imagery using surface reflectance relationships with nearby similar areas

The presence of shadows in optical satellite images limits the application of remote-sensing technology. It is important to restore shadow radiance information for improving information extraction from remote-sensing images. Several shadow-restoration methods have been developed using complex statistical relationships between shadowed areas and their nearby sunlit areas. In this study, a simple shadow-restoration approach was proposed based on the surface reflectance equality relationship (RER) under the assumption that the surface reflectance of a feature in the shadowed area is equal to that of the same feature in the nearby sunlit area. This approach reduces the number of parameters, thus reducing the error propagated by the uncertainties of extra parameters. The new RER method was tested with three multispectral images with different shadow features. By comparing RER with the widely used mean and variance transformation, the RER was shown to be capable of restoring the image colours, texture, tone, and brightness of the shadowed areas to a visually satisfactory level. Quantitative analysis suggests that RER can help to restore the reflectance of shadow features accurately and has robust performance for a variety of land-surface types. Moreover, RER can be effectively used to restore the spectral shape information of shadow features, which is particularly important when applying RER to the restoration of multispectral imagery for the purpose of image classification.     

Genetic algorithms for match-up rescheduling of the flexible manufacturing systems

Scheduling plays a vital role in ensuring the effectiveness of the production control of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). The scheduling problem in FMS is considered to be dynamic in its nature as new orders may arrive every day. The new orders need to be integrated with the existing production schedule immediately without disturbing the performance and the stability of existing schedule. Most FMS scheduling methods reported in the literature address the static FMS scheduling problems. In this paper, rescheduling methods based on genetic algorithms are described to address arrivals of new orders. This study proposes genetic algorithms for match-up rescheduling with non-reshuffle and reshuffle strategies which accommodate new orders by manipulating the available idle times on machines and by resequencing operations, respectively. The basic idea of the match-up approach is to modify only a part of the initial schedule and to develop genetic algorithms (GAs) to generate a solution within the rescheduling horizon in such a way that both the stability and performance of the shop floor are kept. The proposed non-reshuffle and reshuffle strategies have been evaluated and the results have been compared with the total-rescheduling method.     

Working Together Apart? Building a Knowledge‐Sharing Culture for Global Virtual Teams

A new impetus for greater knowledge‐sharing among team members needs to be emphasized due to the emergence of a significant new form of working known as ‘global virtual teams’. As information and communication technologies permeate every aspect of organizational life and impact the way teams communicate, work and structure relationships, global virtual teams require innovative communication and learning capabilities for different team members to effectively work together across cultural, organizational and geographical boundaries. Whereas information technology‐facilitated communication processes rely on technologically advanced systems to succeed, the ability to create a knowledge‐sharing culture within a global virtual team rests on the existence (and maintenance) of intra‐team respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and positive individual and group relationships. Thus, some of the inherent questions we address in our paper are: (1) what are the cross‐cultural challenges faced by global virtual teams?; (2) how do organizations develop a knowledge sharing culture to promote effective organizational learning among culturally‐diverse team members? and; (3) what are some of the practices that can help maximize the performance of global virtual teams? We conclude by examining ways that global virtual teams can be more effectively managed in order to reach their potential in this new interconnected world and put forward suggestions for further research.