A System for Measurement of Isokinetic Strength for Estimation of Load Handling Capacity

This note describes a method for measurement of isokinetic strength for prediction of manual materials handling capacity of individuals. The apparatus used in this methodology and measurement technique are illustrated in detail.     

Designing customer-oriented catalogs in e-CRM using an effective self-adaptive genetic algorithm

Analysis of customer interactions for electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) can be performed by way of using data mining (DM), optimization methods, or combined approaches. The microeconomic framework for data mining addresses maximizing the overall utility of an enterprise where transaction of a customer is a function of the data available on that customer. In this paper, we investigate an alternative problem formulation for the catalog segmentation problem. Moreover, a self-adaptive genetic algorithm has been developed to solve the problem. It includes clever features to avoid getting trapped in a local optimum. The results of an extensive computational study using real and synthetic data sets show the performance of the algorithm. In comparison with classical catalog segmentation algorithms, the proposed approach achieves better performance in Fitness and CPU-time.     

Trace Metal Occurrence and Mobility Assessment in Stream Sediments near the Sungun Porphyry Copper Deposit in Northwest Iran

The Sungun porphyry copper deposit is located 100?km northeast of Tabriz in the Azarbaijan province of Iran. The total concentration and chemical fractionation of metals and metalloids (As, Se, Cd, Cr, Ni, Co, and Zn) in sediment downstream of the Sungun mine was investigated. The degree of contamination was evaluated using the sediment pollution index (SPI) and enrichment factor. The concentrations of As, Cd, Se, and Zn in the contaminated sediments were elevated due to anthropogenic activities. According to the SPI, surface sediments in the ephemeral rivers flowing in the vicinity of the Sungun porphyry copper deposit are classified as natural sediment with no ecological risk, while sediments that received contaminated effluents are classified as slightly polluted. Sequential extraction indicated that Co was principally associated with the iron and manganese oxide fraction, while other elements (As, Zn, Cr, Se, and Ni) were mainly distributed in residual phases. Cadmium is the only element that has a high potential for mobility and bioavailability in the sediments and, of the investigated elements, it poses the greatest potential risk to the local aquatic ecosystems. The chemical fractionation pattern of elements appears to be influenced by industrial effluents. Although the bioavailable fraction of most contaminant metals is low due to the freshness of the sediments, over time, the oxidation of sulfide minerals in these sediments could contribute contaminant elements in soluble form.     

Reordering for improving global Arnoldi–Tikhonov method in image restoration problems

This paper discusses the solution of large-scale linear discrete ill-posed problems arising from image restoration problems. Since the scale of the problem is usually very large, the computations with the blurring matrix can be very expensive. In this regard, we consider problems in which the coefficient matrix is the sum of Kronecker products of matrices to benefit the computation. Here, we present an alternative approach based on reordering of the image approximations obtained with the global Arnoldi–Tikhonov method. The ordering of the intensities is such that it makes the image approximation monotonic and thus minimizes the finite differences norm. We present theoretical properties of the method and numerical experiments on image restoration.     

Simultaneous control of rod length and pore diameter of SBA-15 for PPL loading

Mesoporous silica materials are attractive materials for immobilizing enzymes because of their well-ordered structures, large surface area are pore volume. Diffusion of large enzyme molecules such as porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) through the lengthy channels of MPS takes place too slowly. Therefore, the squat of the enzyme at the pore mouth entrance, actually makes the rest of the channel useless. In this study, to overcome this problem, synthesis parameters of SBA-15 were changed, since along with pore diameter increasing, the mesochannel length becomes shorter. The main point to obtain a well-ordered 2D hexagonal pore structure was the pre-hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) before the addition of 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene as a micelle swelling agent. Due to the strong effect of zirconium in changing the morphology of SBA-15 particles, we modified SBA-15 in the presence of a small amount of ZrOCl₂ in the synthesis solution under acidic conditions. As a result, mesochannel length of SBA-15-Zr was shortened from 600 to <200 nm. The morphology of mesoporous silica was also changed from rod-like to platelet, because of the accelerating effect of Zr(IV) on the self-assembly rate of P123 and TEOS condensation. Characteristic results conducted by low angle XRD, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption, confirmed tuning effect of Zr(IV) in SBA-15. Furthermore, it was shown that the number of pore entrances increases with decreasing the length of SBA-15 mesochannels, leading to obvious improvement of enzyme uptake. PPL has been successfully immobilized in the mesoporous channels of SBA-15-Zr. The total amount of lipase adsorbed on the mesoporous SBA-15-Zr was measured by thermal gravimetric analysis. The largest PPL adsorption capacity was 784 mg/g belonging to the SBA-15-Zr with the length of 150 nm and the mean pore size diameter of 9.22 nm.     

Cathodic electrodeposition of Y(OH)3 and Y2O3 nanostructures from chloride bath. Part II: Effect of the bath temperature on the crystal structure,composition and morphology

Ultra-fine nanoparticles, mono-dispersed nanospheres and nanorods of Y(OH)₃ and Y₂O₃ were successfully prepared via electrodeposition from chloride bath at different temperatures of 10, 25, 40 and 80 °C followed by heat-treatments at 600 °C in dry air atmosphere. Thermal behavior of the hydroxide samples was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. The structural and morphological characteristics of the products were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Effects of bath temperature on the mechanism of base electrogeneration and deposit formation on the cathode surface were proposed and discussed. The results showed that the crystal structure, composition and morphology of the products are mainly affected by the temperature of electrodeposition bath.     

Some new practical equations for rapid calculation of J-integral in plates weakened by U-notches under bending

The paper deals with calculations of the J-integral for a plate weakened by U-notches under Mode I bending loading in the case of a material obeying a linear elastic law. The main aim of the study is to suggest some new equations suitable for calculations of the J-integral under bending loading. Although some closed-form solutions exist in the literature based on elliptic integrals, some expressions, simple to be implemented, are useful as a rapid engineering tool.     

Full field measurement at the micro-scale using micro-interferometry

This paper presents micro-interferometry as a measurement technique to extract temperature profiles and/or mass transfer gradients rapidly and locally in micro-devices. Interferometry quantifies the phase change between two or more coherent light beams induced by temperature and/or mass concentration. Previous work has shown that temporal noise is a limiting factor in microscale applications. This paper examines phase stepping and heterodyne phase retrieval techniques with both CCD and CMOS cameras. CMOS cameras are examined owing to the high speed at which images can be acquired which is particularly relevant to heterodyne methods. It is found that heterodyne retrieval is five times better than phase stepping being limited to 0.01 rad or λ/628. This is twice the theoretical limit of λ/1,000. The technique is demonstrated for mixing in a T-junction with a 500 μm square channel and compared favourably to a theoretical prediction from the literature. Further issues regarding application to temperature measurements are discussed.