Assessment of Sustainability in Water Supply-Demand Considering Uncertainties

Water is a vital resource for life on earth; hence its maintenance is very important. Different regions especially in arid and semi-arid areas are facing population growth and subsequent increase in the domestic, industrial and agricultural activities. Planning of water systems in order to be ready for future development conditions needs further studies on the estimation of the sustainable levels of demands based on the sustainable levels of supplies. In this study a threefold approach for estimating sustainability level of supply and demand in Ahachay river basin in northwestern part of Iran as a case study is taken. In the first method, the internal flows and the origins and final uses of the total resources for each subsystem are estimated and planning for sustainability use index is determined by calculating the available water. Second method introduced a simulation model which is utilized to estimate reliability, resiliency, vulnerability and maximum deficit for a river basin to determine a group sustainability index. In the third method, for evaluating the movement toward sustainability, an index is developed. This index includes parameters that are the difference between supply and demand, percentage of the satisfied demand, productivity of water resources and an indicator for evaluating the reduction of aquifer storage. Finally these methods are compared and a hybrid index combining the indices is developed. An uncertainty analysis is also performed to investigate the random nature of variables in estimating water balance and quantifying the water sustainability. This hybrid index can be used for evaluating the planning scenarios and for maintaining and improving the sustainable state of supply-demand for the region.     

Antioxidants and antiradicals in almond hull and shell (Amygdalus communis L.) as a function of genotype

To compare the antioxidant and antiradical activity of Amygdalus communis L. hulls and shells phenolic extracts in different genotypes, 18 A. communis L. genotypes were selected from those in Qooshchi, Qalgachi, Qovarchin Qale, Najaf Abad, Jamal Abad, Kahriz, Sfahlan of West and East Azerbayjan provinces of Iran in 2007. The fruits of these almonds were collected, their hulls and shells dried, ground and then methanolic extracts prepared from these hulls and shells. Total phenolic content was determined using the Folin–Ciocalteu (F–C) method. The extracts’ reducing power and scavenging capacity for radical nitrite, hydrogen peroxide and superoxide were evaluated. Significant differences were found in phenolic content of hulls and shells among various genotypes, radical scavenging capacity percentage varied significantly among genotypes and their hulls and shells. S₃-7 genotype with the highest phenolic content and antioxidant activity in its hulls represents a valuable genotype for procuring antioxidant phenolic compounds.     

Forecasting tunnel geology,construction time and costs using machine learning methods

Neural Computing and Applications - This research intends to use machine learning approaches to predict tunnel geology and its construction time and costs. For this purpose, the Gaussian Process...     

Comprehensive modeling of photo-fermentation process for prediction of hydrogen production

Hydrogen production via modern technologies and without using fossil fuels has been found considerably important recently. Photo-fermentation is introduced as one of the most effective methods without high risk for bio-hydrogen production. In this study, comprehensive modeling and simulation of bio-hydrogen production is carried out through photo-fermentation process. In this way, different applicable models are considered to predict the kinetics of microbial growth. Also, new modified mathematical models are particularly proposed for photo-fermentation to forecast the specific growth rate of microorganisms, substrate consumption and hydrogen production rates. Various combinations of the models are applied and predictions of the models are validated by experimental data related to the growth of Rhodobacter Sphaeroides on malate as the substrate. The combination, entitled as MVA1, is introduced as the best one to predict kinetic factors in photo-fermentation. The presented models can be used as an excellent starting point to accomplish experimental and industrial works.     

Plastic viscosity of fresh concrete – A critical review of predictions methods

Rheological properties of fresh concrete, namely plastic viscosity and yield stress, are critical for the concrete industry because they affect placement and workability. Moreover, these rheological properties influence the productivity and quality of concrete, including mechanical properties and durability. Therefore proper characterization of these properties is needed to control the quality of fresh concrete and ensure sustainability of concrete structures.Fundamental and phenomenological rheological models have been proposed in the literature for characterizing the behaviour of fresh concrete. Establishing a model for predicting the plastic viscosity of concrete based on its composition will be extremely valuable for the concrete industry. This paper provides a critical review of the most prevailing models in concrete technology as well as models proposed in the literature for predicting the plastic viscosity of dense suspensions to a total of eight models. Review has revealed that Mahmoodzadeh and Chidiac models based on the cell method provides a higher degree of correlation to the experimental data as well as a more consistent and reliable predictions in comparison to the models currently proposed in the literature for concrete and/or dense suspensions.     

A magnetic mesoporous chitosan based core‐shells biopolymer for anionic dye adsorption: Kinetic and isothermal study and application of ANN

In this study, Chitosan/Al₂O₃/Fe₃O₄ core‐shell composite microsphere (CAMF) was used as an effective sorbent with high adsorption capacity for the removal of anionic azo dye model from aqueous solution. The obtained composite was characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, and BET analysis. The results showed the high methyl orange (MO) adsorption in a wide pH range of 4–10 and the optimum adsorbent dosage was obtained 0.6 g L^?1. It is indicated that the equilibrium data followed the Langmuir isotherm model and the adsorption kinetic was well fitted with pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model. Also, the adsorption kinetic was controlled by the film diffusion and intra‐particle diffusion, simultaneously. It is revealed that by increasing the particle size from <0.1 μm to ～0.4 μm, the adsorption capacity did not change, significantly. The adsorption capacity of MO on CAMF was predicted by multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network at different initial MO concentration, in which the predictions of MLP model had very good agreement with experimental data. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43466.     

A novel dual stimuli‐responsive thiol‐end‐capped ABC triblock copolymer: synthesis via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer technique,and investigation of its self‐assembly behavior

A novel thermo‐ and pH‐responsive thiol‐end‐capped ABC triblock copolymer, namely poly(acrylic acid)‐block ‐poly(N ‐isopropylacrylamide)‐block ‐poly(? ‐caprolactone)–SH (PAA‐b ‐PNIPAAm‐b ‐PCL‐SH), was synthesized using a combination of ring‐opening polymerization and reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization techniques. The chemical structures of all samples were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared and ¹H NMR spectroscopies. The molecular weight of each segment was investigated using both ¹H NMR spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography. The self‐assembly behavior of the PAA‐b ‐PNIPAAm‐b ‐PCL‐SH triblock copolymer under thermal and pH stimuli was fully investigated by means of fluorescence and UV–visible spectroscopies as well as dynamic light scattering measurements. The critical micelle concentration for the synthesized triblock copolymer was determined to be 0.0178 g L^?1 using the fluorescence probe technique. The average size of PAA‐b ‐PNIPAAm‐b ‐PCL‐SH micelles was determined to be 25 nm using transmission electron microscopy observations, and its lower critical solution temperature was determined to be 41–43 °C using UV–visible spectroscopy. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

Lossless compression of mammographic images with region‐based predictor selection

One of the main tools for early diagnosis of breast cancer is digital mammography. These images require large storage space and are difficult to be transmitted over communication links. In this paper we propose a context‐based method for lossless compression of these images. Some modifications are performed to customize the activity level classification model (ALCM) predictor to work best in mammograms. The function of the modified predictor changes for different main regions of these images. Also, best qualities of two other predictors are exploited and the results of the fittest predictor are selected adaptively for the prediction of a pixel. Moreover, context modeling is used for a better categorization of the prediction errors. The proposed algorithm was tested using images from a well‐known database and the results were compared with two standard compression methods of lossless mode of JPEG2000 and JPEG‐LS. The proposed method was proved to produce better compression results than those of the standard algorithms. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A de novo formulation of metformin using chitosan-based nanomicelles for potential diabetes therapy

A de novo formulation of metformin (MET) was developed through the physical loading of drug into a chitosan-grafted-[poly(acryl amide)-block-poly(acrylic acid)] [CS-g-(PAAm-b-PAA)] terpolymer. For this purpose, CS was functionazed with phthalic anhydride followed by 4-cyano, 4-[(phenylcarbothioyl)sulfanyl]pentanoic acid to produc a macro-RAFT agent (CS-CTA). Afterward, acryl amide and acrylic acid monomers were graft and block copolymerized onto the synthesized CS-CTA through a reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique to afford CS-g-PAAm copolymer and CS-g-(PAAm-b-PAA) terpolymer, respectively. The fabricated CS-g-(PAAm-b-PAA) terpolymer was loaded with MET as an anti-diabetic drug, and its drug release behavior was evaluated in the body simulated environment. As results, it was concluded that the fabricated CS-g-(PAAm-b-PAA) nanosystem has high potential as de novo drug delivery system (DDS) for diabetes therapy, mainly due to controlled drug release profile in comparison with conventional formulations of MET. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48037.