Evidential reasoning using extended fuzzy Dempster–Shafer theory for handling various facets of information deficiency

This work investigates the problem of combining deficient evidence for the purpose of quality assessment. The main focus of the work is modeling vagueness, ambiguity, and local nonspecificity in information within a unified approach. We introduce an extended fuzzy Dempster–Shafer scheme based on the simultaneous use of fuzzy interval‐grade and interval‐valued belief degree (IGIB). The latter facilitates modeling of uncertainties in terms of local ignorance associated with expert knowledge, whereas the former allows for handling the lack of information on belief degree assignments. Also, generalized fuzzy sets can be readily transformed into the proposed fuzzy IGIB structure. The reasoning for quality assessment is performed by solving nonlinear optimization problems on fuzzy Dempster–Shafer paradigm for the fuzzy IGIB structure. The application of the proposed inference method is investigated by designing a reasoning scheme for water quality monitoring and validated through the experimental data available for different sampling points in a water distribution network. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Impedance cardiography used to assess patterns of cardiovascular response to behavioral stressors

This paper presents two examples of how impedance cardiography may be used to interpret the hemodynamic influences on blood pressures measured during behavioral stress. In Study 1, blood pressure changes which were similar during two tasks were shown to have important differences in their cardiac output and vascular resistance components. During work on a reaction time task having aversive incentives compared with a neutral task, the blood pressure changes were seen to be associated with lowered vascular resistance and raised cardiac activity, a "fight-flight" pattern. In Study 2, blood pressure response differences between two subject groups working on an identical task were found to have blood pressure changes differing in their underlying cardiac and vascular components as measured by impedance. Such uses impedance cardiography have widespread potential application in psychophysiological research with humans.     

Probabilistic risk analysis of corrosion associated failures in cast iron water mains

This paper proposes a method using probabilistic risk analysis for application to corrosion associated failures in grey cast iron water mains. External corrosion reduces the capacity of the pipeline to resist stresses. When external stresses exceed the residual ultimate strength, pipe breakage becomes imminent, and the overall reliability of a water distribution network is reduced. Modelling stresses and external corrosion acting on a pipe involves uncertainties inherent in the mechanistic/statistical models and their input parameters. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were used to perform the probabilistic analysis. The reduction in the factor of safety (FOS) of water mains over time was computed, with a failure defined as a situation in which FOS becomes smaller than 1. The MC simulations yielded an empirical probability density function of time to failure, to which a lognormal distribution was fitted leading to the derivation of a failure hazard function. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the contribution of corrosion parameters to the variability of time to failure was more significant than the combined contributions of all other parameters. Areas where more research is needed are identified.     

Isolation and identification of caffeine-degrading bacteria from coffee plantation area

Decaffeination of food and beverage products is in high demand. In this study, a caffeine-degrading bacterium Burkholderia spp. was isolated from coffee plantation area of Chiang Mai province of Thailand. The bacterial isolates were first identified by morphological, physiological, and biochemical tests followed by 16S rDNA analysis. The bacterial isolate of Burkholderia spp. showed 45.5% of caffeine degradation in caffeine containing media (2.5 g/L) after 110 h of incubation period. Burkholderia spp. showed only 2.6% caffeine degradation when exposed to high concentrations of caffeine containing medium (20 g/L). The growth rate of Burkholderia spp. declined with the increase in the caffeine concentration, which indicated the inhibiting effect of caffeine at very high concentrations. The maximum growth rate of 0.053 h^?1 was observed at 2.5 g/L of caffeine. Overall due to high caffeine tolerance and biodegradation of caffeine, Burkholderia spp. can be effectively used to degrade caffeine from agro-industrial wastes targeted for value added food applications and environmental remediation.     

Emergy-based life cycle assessment (Em-LCA) for sustainability appraisal of infrastructure systems: a case study on paved roads

Civil infrastructure systems are critical assets that are subjected to damage, service-life deterioration, and increasing maintenance and rehabilitation cost. Effective infrastructure management and principles of sustainable development can help to find an optimal compromise between economic growth and environmental protection for all stakeholders. Colloquially, sustainability refers to meeting triple-bottom-line (TBL) performance objectives including environmental protection, economic prosperity, and social acceptability and equity as a result of short- and long-term policy decisions. In this paper, a comprehensive framework based on the integration of emergy synthesis and life cycle assessment (LCA) has been investigated for a public infrastructure system. The main purpose of the applied method, emergy-based LCA (Em-LCA), is to facilitate an informed decision making process for different asset management scenarios, by identifying and quantifying the attributes of TBL impacts over the life cycle of a civil infrastructure system. As a case study, Em-LCA framework has been applied to evaluate the sustainability of two different scenarios for a road construction project in interior British Columbia, Canada. The results indicate that Em-LCA offers a good understanding to address sustainability issues in infrastructure systems and provides quantitative and transparent results to facilitate informed decision making for asset management.     

Synthesis of graphene-supported bimetallic nanoparticles for the sunlight photodegradation of Basic Green 5 dye in aqueous medium

Graphene nanosheets-supported Sn-Pt bimetallic nanoparticles (GNs/Sn-Pt) were prepared by precipitation method. The obtained GNs/Sn-Pt was used as a photocatalyst for photodegradation of Basic Green 5 (BG5) in aqueous solution under sunlight. The morphology and photodegradation study was performed by SEM and UV–VIS spectrophotometry, respectively. The SEM image showed the presence of Sn and Pt on GNs, being confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The photodegradation study of BG5 showed that the dye degradation increases as a function of irradiation time. The degradation of BG5 was found to be pH dependent and maximum degradation was found at higher pH.