Kinetic of CO2 absorption and carbamate formation in aqueous solutions of diethanolamine

The absorption rates of CO₂ into aqueous solutions of Diethanolamine (DEA) with varying concentrations from 0.2 to 4M and temperature range from 293 to 323 K were measured by using a laboratory stirred reactor. The CO₂ partial pressure was varied in a range that the reaction would occur in pseudo first order regime. Experimental data were analyzed and the kinetic parameters associated with the reaction were determined. The activation energy for the deprotonation of the intermediate zwitterion was estimated at about 11.4 kcal/mol. The contribution of carbamate formation to the overall absorbed CO₂ was experimentally evaluated and found to be of the order of 100%.     

The effect of natural and synthetic antioxidants on the oxidative stability of palm diesel

Crude and distilled palm oil methyl esters conveniently known as palm diesel have been successfully evaluated as diesel substitute. Crude palm oil methyl esters are produced from transesterification of crude palm oil with minor components such as carotenes and vitamin E still intact and they are reddish in colour. The distilled palm oil methyl esters are obtained after the recovery of minor components (e.g. Carotenes and vitamin E) From the crude palm oil methyl esters. These valuable minor components are preferably to be recovered as they can be sold as value-added products before they are burnt together with the methyl esters as fuel. Although both possesses fuel characteristics which are comparable to those of petroleum diesel, crude palm oil methyl esters are found to exhibit better oxidative stability (rancimat induction period >25 h) than distilled palm oil methyl esters (about 3.5 h). It is attributed to the presence of vitamin E (about 600 ppm), a natural antioxidant in the former. While the distilled palm oil methyl esters contain practically no vitamin E (<50 ppm) and as a result, they exhibit poor oxidative stability. Thus, the crude palm oil methyl esters meet the european standard for biodiesel (EN 14214) which has set a minimum rancimat induction period of 6 h. In the present study, research was conducted to enhance the oxidative stability of distilled palm oil methyl esters in order to meet the aforementioned standard. Natural and synthetic antioxidants were used in the present study to investigate their effect on the oxidative stability of distilled palm oil methyl esters. It was found that both types of antioxidant showed beneficial effects in inhibiting the oxidation of distilled palm oil methyl esters. Comparatively, the synthetic antioxidants were found to be more effective than the natural antioxidants as lower dosage (17 times less) was needed to achieve the minimum rancimat induction period of 6 h.     

Elastic and optical properties of BeS,BeSe and BeTe under pressure

We have performed the first principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave calculations (FP-LAPW) with density functional theory in local density approximations (LDA), in aim to determine and to predict the pressure dependence of structural and optical properties of zinc-blende BeS, BeSe and BeTe compounds. The elastic constant, refractive index and its variation with hydrostatic pressure are well described.     

Use of perlite as a pozzolanic addition in producing blended cements

There are ∼6700 million tons of perlite reserves in the world and two thirds of this amount takes place in Turkey. Although perlite possesses pozzolanic properties, it has not been so far used in producing blended cements. This study focuses on the use of natural perlites in blended cement production. For this purpose, after examining the suitability of the perlites as pozzolans and their ease of grindability, 16 types of blended cements having 320 m²/kg or 370 m²/kg Blaine fineness were produced by using 20% or 30% perlite additions. Production of the blended cements were accomplished either by intergrinding or separate grinding. The performance of the cements was evaluated by conducting the following tests: particle size distribution by laser diffraction, normal consistency, setting time, soundness and compressive strength. The results showed that perlites possess sufficient pozzolanic characteristics to be used in production of blended cement.     

A new approach of audio emotion recognition

A new architecture of intelligent audio emotion recognition is proposed in this paper. It fully utilizes both prosodic and spectral features in its design. It has two main paths in parallel and can recognize 6 emotions. Path 1 is designed based on intensive analysis of different prosodic features. Significant prosodic features are identified to differentiate emotions. Path 2 is designed based on research analysis on spectral features. Extraction of Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) feature is then followed by Bi-directional Principle Component Analysis (BDPCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural classification. This path has 3 parallel BDPCA + LDA + RBF sub-paths structure and each handles two emotions. Fusion modules are also proposed for weights assignment and decision making. The performance of the proposed architecture is evaluated on eNTERFACE’05 and RML databases. Simulation results and comparison have revealed good performance of the proposed recognizer.     

A rapid test to measure performance,emission and wear of a diesel engine fueled with palm oil diesel

Results of performance, emission and tribological evaluations of palm oil methyl ester and its blends with conventional diesel in an automobile diesel engine test bed are presented. Polymerization and carbon deposits on the fuel injector were monitored. CO, CO₂, O₂, combustion efficiency and temperature of exhaust gases were also measured. Palm oil methyl ester and its blends have great potential as alternative diesel fuel. Performance and exhaust gas emission for palm oil methyl ester and its blends with conventional diesel are comparable with those of conventional diesel fuel. Palm oil methyl ester does not pose a severe environmental problem and will not deteriorate engine and bearing components.     

PM-10 emissions and power of a Diesel engine fueled with crude and refined Biodiesel from salmon oil

Power response and level of particulate emissions were assessed for blends of Diesel-crude Biodiesel and Diesel-refined Biodiesel. Crude Biodiesel and refined Biodiesel or methyl ester, were made from salmon oil with high content of free fatty acids, throughout a process of acid esterification followed by alkaline transesterification. Blends of Diesel-crude Biodiesel and Diesel-refined Biodiesel were tested in a diesel engine to measure simultaneously the dynamometric response and the particulate material (PM-10) emission performance. The results indicate a maximum power loss of about 3.5% and also near 50% of PM-10 reduction with respect to diesel when a 100% of refined Biodiesel is used. For blends with less content of either crude Biodiesel or refined Biodiesel, the observed power losses are lower but at the same time lower reduction in PM-10 emissions are attained.     

An interactive lung field segmentation scheme with automated capability

Feasible clinical application of any automated segmenting methodology demands more than just accuracy. Amendment to the automated delineation is necessary when the algorithm fails, however, integrated solution to such a scenario is largely absent in literature. Hence in this survey we devised an architecture that does both the automated and interactive lung field localizations using a single segmenting engine—random walker algorithm—so that intuitive amendment is only necessary when the automated generated delineation is unsatisfactory. The algorithm proceeds by first extracting 18 intensity profiles running horizontally, each of them equally spacing apart, and in each intensity profile three extreme points denoting the two lungs and the esophagus are determined through profile matching. This done, the algorithm removes profiles that do not intersect with the lung, and the rest of the extreme points are plugged into random walker algorithm to perform segmentation. The achieved accuracy in localization by the above was 0.8875 in terms of overlap measure (the maximum value for this parameter is 1) over 341 images. In the case where unsatisfactory delineation prompts amendment necessary, the user can interactively segment the lung by just a shift on some of the previous-determined points to the desired locations, and random walker algorithm is run again with the amended input. By such a fusion, the benefits of both the automated and interactive segmentation are shared in a single architecture.