Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research

6-13

Authors: Tolumoye J. Tuaweri, Ezenwa A. Ogbonnaya

The corrosion inhibitive characteristics of Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter leaf) extract on mild steel in seawater were investigated using gravimetric method. The parameters studied were effects of inhibitor concentration and time on weight loss and corrosion rates (CR) of the coupons. Different inhibitor concentrations ranging from 0-25% were added to the corrosive medium and allowed for specific durations. Investigations carried out revealed that at higher concentrations, CR did not reduce correspondingly. Furthermore, results show that weight loss values for samples tested in solutions without inhibitor were much higher than those in solutions with inhibitor. Furthermore, plots of weight loss and corrosion rate against time of immersion revealed that generally, weight loss was inversely proportional to CR. Although, the CR generally decreased with time for almost all the concentrations investigated, weight loss values consistently increased with time. An indication that the inhibitor was gradually losing its effectiveness with time and requires more inhibitor being added to the corrosive medium at regular intervals if the effectiveness of the inhibitor must be sustained.

27-31

Authors: Muaaz Tariq, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Awais Irshad, Hajra Ahsan, Sumbal Zafar, Hafiz Muhammad Shiraz, Atif Nauman

Solid waste disposal poses a greater problem because it leads to land pollution if openly dumped, water pollution if dumped in low lands and air pollution if burnt. Rural areas are facing serious environmental degradation and public health risk due to uncollected disposal of waste on streets and other public areas, clogged drainage system by indiscriminately dumped wastes and by contamination of water resources near uncontrolled dumping sites. The study is conducted in the district of Gujrat, Pakistan. Researchers have selected rural areas name are Sabour, Jandla, Samarala and KotlaVillage. The primary data is collected using questionnaires to interview one respondent from each selected household. The household selection is done by simple random sampling method. Sample size is 150. It is concluded the disposal methods of solid waste used by residents in the study area were very unsatisfactory. Majority of both nearby and far away residents indicated that the dumpsite is the breeding place for disease vectors, cause diseases, and makes the place dirty. Many disease is spreading in village because of solid waste and it has a bad effect on people health Effected population is considered burden on the society that area cannot progress properly. The result is concluded that if people have more awareness and they look after their health and adopt safety habit for health they can less victim of solid waste disease

36-45

Authors: Süleyman Sefa Bilgilioğlu, Burhan Baha Bilgilioğlu

The municipal solid waste generation is among the most threatening the global environmental health hazards. The problem of environmental pollution due to waste disposal can be overcome by selecting suitable sites. Commonly, because of simultaneous effects of social, environmental, and technical parameters on suitability of a landfill site, landfill site selection is a complex process and depends on several criteria and regulations. The municipal solid waste disposal site (MSWDS) selection process is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem. This study deals with determination of suitable sites for the disposal of waste generated from Aksaray city surrounding areas. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique which is extremely useful for pairwise comparison of multi criterion layers and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques is used to identify suitable MSWDSs. In this study, ten data layers are exploited to detect the most susceptible areas. These factors are as elevation, slope, aspect, lithology, soil map, proximity to the settlement areas, proximity to the road, proximity to the river, proximity to the water surfaces and land use. The relative weights of defined criteria and sub-criteria are also determined applying AHP technique. Next, by overlaying these criteria layers, final map is produced. The produced map shows areas that are suitable for MSWDS. Based on the analysis several sites are identified as highly suitable. Finally, the best site is chosen. The results showed the efficacy of GIS and multi-criteria decision making method in decision making.

52-61

Authors: Senping Wang, Ran Yang, Xinru Zeng, Haiyan Zhang

Livable city ranking problem is studied in this paper. Through the literature material broad selection of Qingdao, Beijing, Shanghai and other five indicators, livable city using rough set theory and grey incidence clustering method of combining the index reasonable classification, screening for related indicators. The evaluation model of multistage fuzzy composite ranking was established by using the improved AHP index weighting. In huaihai economic zone in the eight cities, for example the livability, according to the established urban livability rankings evaluation model, using matlab to calculate, eight city livability rankings are obtained. Finally, the practical significance and application promotion of this paper are illustrated in the conclusion.

68-74

Authors: Sylvie Indah Kartika Sari, Suluh E. Swara, Wisnu Wijayanto Putro

The physical and mental health conditions of the workers in night shift strongly affect the safety program and the quality or productivity of work in the office. The objective of this research is to know the level of health and work load of workers especially in Steam Power Plant. The first step is to study literature about work shifts and their metabolism, and also body rhythms of the human being. Every worker will measure his physiological condition by measuring the average change in heart rate and blood pressure at rest and while working on steam power plant. The workers in the operation department who work three shifts have the highest blood pressure average value 138 mmHg/86 mmHg. Heart rate change before and during work is equal to 2.6 bpm (2.45 kcal/min), can be categorized in light work load. Thus, it can be concluded that workers have poor health condition due to night shift work.

86-91

Authors: Julian Scott Yeomans

In solving many “real world” decision-making applications, it is generally preferable to formulate several quantifiably good alternatives that provide numerous, distinct approaches to the problem. This is because policy formulation typically involves complex problems that are riddled with incongruent performance objectives and possess incompatible design requirements that can be very difficult – if not impossible – to incorporate at the time supporting decision models are constructed. By generating a set of maximally different solutions, it is believed that some of the dissimilar alternatives will provide unique perspectives that serve to satisfy the unmodelled characteristics. This maximally different solution creation approach is referred to as modelling-to-generate-alternatives (MGA). This paper provides a stochastic biologically-inspired metaheuristic simulation-optimization MGA method that can efficiently create multiple solution alternatives to problems containing significant stochastic uncertainties that satisfy required system performance criteria and yet are maximally different in their decision spaces. The efficacy of this stochastic MGA approach is demonstrated on a municipal solid waste case study. It is shown that this new computationally efficient algorithmic approach can simultaneously produce the desired number of maximally different solution alternatives in a single computational run of the procedure.

99-102

Authors: Yi-Jen Mon, Gia-Hun Yeh, Li-Wei Chung, Min-Gung Jou

The SMANFIS includes sliding mode controller (SC) and multitude adaptive network fuzzy inference system (MANFIS). The MANFIS controller can compensate the estimation error then to control the vision robot to follow the desired path. The simulation results show that the proposed SMANFIS controller has good performance for the vision robot.

108-113

Authors: E. Galeana-Olvera, Ma. N. Rojas-Valencia, C. Mendoza-Buenrostro

Agriculture is one of the main sources of solid residues and the banana industry is a good example of this since only the fruit is used. In 2016, 1, 907,822.60 tons of residues were generated in the Mexican Republic. The objective of this work was to evaluate the cellulose nanofibrils obtained from banana rachis residues; and develop from them biomaterials that could substitute synthetic fibers in textiles. This research was divided into two phases: the first phase included waste generation study and sampling at Mexico City's Central Market, according to Mexican Standard NMX-AA-15-1985. The second phase, at laboratory level, was conducted to obtain cellulose nanofibrils from banana rachis residues using the chemical method with sodium hydroxide. The obtained cellulose nanofibrils were first dissolved in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate and N, N-dimethylformamide ionic liquid, then mixed in a solution of PCL with acetone and finally processed in an electrospinning equipment to obtain yarn. The generation study showed that up to 6 tons of banana rachis residues, that can be processed to be used in the textile industry, are generated daily in the Central Market. According to the analyzes of proximate chemical composition and cell walls, banana rachis residues contain 40% of cellulose. The cellulose nanofibrils obtainment process had a yield of 17.75%. As for the making of the yarn through electrospinning, better dissolution results were observed with 16% material by weight. The textile fiber was obtained with a flow of 3.5 to 8 mL / s, a voltage ranging from 15 to 18 Kv and a collector distance from 15 to 20 cm.

123-126

Authors: Md. Anisur Rahman

Bangladesh is recently experiencing climate change impact related to hazards like temperature, rainfall, flood, draught, cyclone etc. Climate variable like temperature is the most important parameter which is linked with agricultural aspects too for this country. This study investigates temporal variability of maximum temperature and anomaly on the South-West part of Bangladesh over the period of 1989- 2016. We estimated mean with standard deviation, trends and anomaly of annual maximum temperature. The annual maximum temperature is found in increasing trends in recent times. In Chuadanga and Jessore areas in the South-Western part of the country, the amount of annual average maximum temperature may be increased abruptly comparing with average normal temperature all over the country. The analysis of temperature reveals a bit different trend for the last three decades. It has been observed that the study region in which the data taken from be 3 stations have negative anomaly while 2 stations have positive anomaly. Therefore the maximum temperature is in increasing trend in recent years due to climate change over Bangladesh.

135-144

Authors: Yasser A. Nada

The goal of this paper to propose an effective automated individual exercise with is yoga mobile application using XML to motivate and encourage people to exercise regularly. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of SGML that is described in this paper. Its goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML So researcher developed this XML program to be used on the mobile, support wide variety of applications and make it easy to write programs which process XML documents which will be human- legible and reasonably clear and easy to create. The application contains videos and illustrations of yoga to explain the steps. This application is designed for yoga training in a simple, easy and enjoyable way. It offers the best trainers in the world and can communicate with them via e-mail as well as with the program designers to avoid any problem and receive comments and suggestions to improve application and performance.

154-163

Authors: Mehmet Karaca, Ayse Gul Ince, Emine Uygur Gocer, Adnan Aydin

Advances in sequencing and computational technologies evoked tremendous amount of genomic and transcriptomic data. Annotated genomic and transcriptomic DNA sequence data make it much easier for researchers to view, sort and analyze sequence contents. Annotated data containing information for regulatory (enhancers, promoters and introns) and gene body entities (exons and untranslated regions, UTRs) could be effectively used to obtain and characterize the distribution and densities of microsatellites. Objectives of this study were to determine distribution and density of microsatellites or microsatellite motif lengths (mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta- and hexa-nucleotides) between each gene entity (promoter, exon, 5’UTR, intron and 3’UTR), and between a gene entity and total entities. This study used 809,682 gene entities extracted from 203,758 unique sequences obtained from nucleotide databases. Results showed that there were 15,321 microsatellites in gene entities. Distribution and density of most microsatellites located in gene entities were statistically significant. Microsatellite densities of promoters were the highest while exons contained the least amount of microsatellites. UTRs at the 5’- terminals contained the second highest microsatellite densities after promoters. The distribution and density of microsatellite motifs were also statistically different among gene entities. Exons contained the highest tri-nucleotides while promoters contained di-nucleotides. Results clearly revealed that microsatellites display nonrandom distribution between promoter and gene body entities confirming that microsatellites involve in transcriptional and translational regulation in plants. Our study also indicated that microsatellite genetic markers located on transcriptomic data definitely lack valuable allelic variations presented in enhancers, promoters, introns and intergenic regions.

173-176

Authors: Antonio Italiano, Ernesto Amato, Daniele Margarone, Jan Psikal, Georg Korn

The production of radionuclides for positron emission tomography through future laser-accelerated proton beams is an interesting perspective. We evaluated the production yields that can be expected according to a new source term based on three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of the laser available at ELI-Beamlines interacting with an innovative cryogenic hydrogen target. Results indicate that 370 MBq activity can be reached within a few minutes of irradiation for the four conventional PET nuclides 18F, 11C, 13N and 15O, and for several heavier positron emitters, such as 60Cu, 62Cu, 63Zn, 68Ga and 73Se, currently used in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

189-194

Authors: Meral KORKMAZ

One of the most important current problems is fulfill the needs of the increasing population for water. In Turkey, there is a lack of irrigation water incertain agricultural areas, while irrigation water is available in high amounts in certain agricultural lands. The optimum irrigation of agricultural lands is very important for Turkish agricultural policies. Efficient and sustainable use of streams is of strategic importance for the national economy. The geographical and climatic conditions in Turkeynecessitate the construction of dams, HEPPs, ponds, irrigation facilities and drinking water projects. Efficient and sustainable use of streams is of strategic importance for the Turkish economy. The present study discusses the significance of a pond that was constructed within the context of Eastern Anatolian Project (EAP) for the regional development. With the increase in population and the emergence of new settlements, the water scarcity problem in the region increases every day. While construction of ponds meets energy needs and increases agricultural activities, it also contributes to the economic development of the region significantly. The dams in the region solve the long-term urban water needsby providing water reserves. In the present study, the case of Elazığ Baskil Odabaşı pond project was used to investigate the effect of hydraulic structures on the regional economy. Elazığ Baskil Odabaşıpond is built to meet a portion of the irrigation water needs in the province. The pond is built on Beşik brook in the Euphrates river basin. The project aims to irrigate a total area of 467 ha. The project alone will not suffice due to irrigation water needs in other neighborhoods of the Baskil district.Completion of the project would contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of the district center. The most important crop cultivated in this region is the apricot. The market share of apricots in Malatya province and Baskil district within the total cultivation in Turkey is considerable. In Baskil district, irrigation usually depends on underground water. Due to high energy costs, cultivation costs are out of the depth of the farmers. As a result, the water required for the growth of the plant cannot be provided, thus, the yield is not satisfactory. As a result, farmers are almost left without income. Consequently, the farmers tend to abandon agricultural activities, leading to agricultural unemployment and a decrease in rural population.

204-210

Authors: Moufida Mhedhbi, Mohamed Khlif, Chedly Bradai

In this study we’re particularly interested in the effect of heat treatment on mechanical properties and the microstructure evolution of A5 aluminum alloy, which has been plastically deformed by cold-rolling at room temperature. Morphological, microstructural, structural and thermal analysis (DSC) of the all samples was investigated by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanical properties were characterized by Vickers microhardness and tensile test. The results show clearly that after Cold-rolling and annealing treatment, the microstructure has a significant elegation, which depends on the rate of reduction. Significant increase in mechanical properties are observed such, yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), elongation (E %), and Vickers microhardness. After the cold rolling and the annealing treatment, the amount of precipitates increases and the material provides good plasticity.

218-225

Authors: Sameeh A. Mansour, Amina R. Ali, Reham I. Mohamed

Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl glycine) and its formulations, such as Roundup®, are the most widely used herbicides all over the world. A number of glyphosate-based formulations containing the surfactant Polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA) at different ratios are sold for the same purposes. Recently, there is a big debate about Glyphosate safety and the presence of POEA in the herbicide formulations has raised concerns regarding its toxicity to mammals, invertebrates and wildlife. The current study was undertaken to provide data on the acute toxicity of two glyphosate-based formulations (namely: Herfosate 36%EC and Glyphoid 48%EC) compared with Glyphosate (95%WP), using five aquatic organisms representing different trophic levels. Chemical analysis revealed presence of POEA in Herfosate and Glyphoid formulations, while the parent Glyphosate was free of POEA. The most toxic herbicide to the five tested organisms was Glyphoid which contained the highest amount of POEA, followed by Herfosate, and then Glyphosate. Based on the obtained LC50 values, the sensitivity of the tested organisms to the three herbicides could be arranged in the following order: i) Herfosate: D. magna ˃ C. pipiens ˃ V. fischeri ˃ B. alexandrina ˃ G. affinis, ii) Glyphoid: D. magna ˃ C. pipiens ˃ V. fischeri ˃ G. affinis ˃ B. alexandrina, and iii) Glyphosate: D. magna ˃ V. fischeri ˃ C. pipiens ˃ B. alexandrina ˃ G. affinis. The present study provides further data that may help pesticide regulatory agencies to undertake proper management towards regulation of glyphosate-based formulations.

236-246

Authors: Ayse Gul Ince, Mehmet Karaca, Emine Uygur Gocer, Adnan Aydin

Microsatellites, also known as simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are very powerful molecular markers due to their high level of polymorphism, co-dominant inheritance, reproducibility and multi-allelic nature. Alleles of genomic- and transcriptomic-microsatellites of cotton and maize as well as published microsatellite data from many other crops species were used to reveal level of polymorphism differences between genomic- and transcriptomic-microsatellites; relationship between number of alleles and polymorphism, between motif length and polymorphism, between number of repeats and polymorphism, and level of fixation index values of genomic- and transcriptomic-microsatellites based on the observed and expected heterozygosity values. Based on 477 microsatellite loci studied, results indicated that polymorphic information content (PIC) values of genomic-microsatellites were higher than transcriptomic-microsatellites. Polymorphism levels of microsatellites increased as the number of allele increased. Although it is expected that loci with more number of repeats could be more polymorphic, there were not clear relationships between the number of repeats and polymorphism, and between motif length and polymorphism. Expected and observed heterozygosity values of genomic- and transcriptomic-microsatellites were different. Results also revealed that genomic and transcriptomic-microsatellite markers produce more null alleles, and occurrences of homoplasy are more frequent among different species. Results indicated that functional markers developed from transcriptomic-microsatellites might not be suitable for phylogenetic studies but they could be very useful in agro-genomic research.

258-264

Authors: Amechi, Bright. U., AMONIEAH, Jiriwari, HORSFALL Opiriyabo. I.

A geoelectrical survey was conducted in parts of Etche local Government Area of Rivers State, aimed at delineating the aquifer zones and overburden layers in the study area and consequently identifying the most economically viable potential portable groundwater areas. Vertical Electrical sounding (VES) technique using the Schlumberger configuration with a maximum current electrode spreads of 600m was used for fifteen locations. The field data were obtained by the use of R-Plus resistivity meter and analyzed using the IPI2Win 1D resistivity inversion program. Four soundings were made at existing boreholes in the area for comparative purposes. Distinct geoelectrical layers overlying a conductive geoelectric basement were identified. Based on the model parameters obtained, zones of groundwater potentials were delineated which were found to consist of fine grained-medium to coarse sands. Variation in the thickness and resistivities of the layers as well as broad water-bearing zones were indicated. The results also revealed that the depth to aquifer level were less than and in some cases equal to 18m in the study area. The water table lies between (8 – 26) m moving towards the hinterland. All these are in close agreement with the existing borehole information of the area. The VES depth explored indicates high prolific aquiferous zones of the area considering the overburden sands delineated.