16 Articles Published

1. COMPARISON OF SURFACE REFLECTANCE VALUES FROM THE USGS LANDSAT 5 TM CLIMATE DATA RECORD (CDR) WITH VALUES GENERATED USING A SIMPLE DARK OBJECT SUBTRACTION (DOS) METHOD IN AN ALPINE WATERSHED

Authors: H. STEPHEN , P.S. SAWYER

Abstract: Extraction of relevant information from remotely sensed imagery is essential for the identification of changes in the earth’s environment. Methods for converting the data collected at the sensor to surface reflectance have been under constant improvement since the beginning of the Landsat program. The time and effort needed to perform this task has recently been eliminated with the publication of the USGS Landsat CDR. This paper compares the data available from the USGS with a simple dark object subtraction method for determining surface reflectance. Our goal is to determine if the USGS data set is comparable to previous methods. We find that the USGS data set is strongly correlated with the simpler DOS method. While clear differences in absolute surface reflectance are observed in the visible and near-IR bands, the trends in the data over time are consistent. This suggests that previous trend studies using the simpler methods do not need to be revisited using the newer data. The findi

Keywords: Landsat, Thematic Mapper, USGS Climate Data Record, remote sensing, Alpine watershed, climate change, time series Mann-Kendall trend analysis

Pages: 1 - 9 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-87

2. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LIPIDS BIODEGRADATION WITH IMMOBILIZED BACILLUS SPP. CELLS IN A BIOREACTOR WITH MOBILE BED VS. BASKET BIOREACTOR

Authors: ALEXANDRA CARLESCU , ALEXANDRA CRISTINA BLAGA , ANCA IRINA GALACTION , DAN CASCAVAL , LENUTA KLOETZER

Abstract: The olive oil represents about 3% from the worldwide production of vegetable oils, but due to high organic content (lipids 0.2-1%, carboxylic acids 0.5-1.5%, sugars 1-8%, polyphenols and pectins 1-1.5%, tannins, polyalcohols, etc.), the wastewaters resulted from olive oil mills are important pollutants, about 30 million tons of wastewaters are produced per year in the world. The biological processes are the most environmentally compatible and least expensive methods for wastewater treatment. The immobilization of whole cells for the degradation of diferent compounds in wastewater can provide several advantages: high activity, yield, operational stability and possible reuse. Considering this, the aim of this paper is the comparative investigation of the lipids biodegradation from olive mill wastewaters using two different bioreactors containing immobilized mixture of Bacillus spp. (Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus ortoliquefaciens in equal rati

Keywords: lipids, wastewater, Bacillus, bioreactor, diffusion, immobilized cells, effectiveness factor.

Pages: 10 - 10 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-88

3. SELECTIVE EXTRACTION OF FORMIC AND ACETIC ACIDS FROM BIOSYNTHETIC MIXTURE WITH SUCCINIC ACID

Authors: ALEXANDRA CRISTINA BLAGA , ANCA IRINA GALACTION , DAN CASCAVAL , LENUTA KLOETZER , MADALINA POSTARU

Abstract: This work investigates the possibility of selective separation of succinic, formic, and acetic acids from biosynthetic mixture obtained by fermentation with Actinobacillus succinogenes using reactive extraction with tri-n-octylamine (TOA) dissolved in different solvents (dichloromethane, n-butyl acetate and n-heptane). The extraction process was analyzed by means of the extraction degree and the selectivity factor, defined as the ratio between the cumulated extraction degrees of formic and acetic acids and that of succinic acid. It was concluded that the efficiency of the reactive extraction system is influenced by solute acidity, extractant concentration, and solvent polarity. For underlining the effect of solute acidity in the sequence of acid extraction from biosynthetic mixture, the influence of TOA concentration on extraction efficiency was analyzed for each considered solvent. Because succinic acid possesses two stages of ionization, these studies were carried out for two values

Keywords: reactive extraction, selectivity factor, succinic acid, A. succinogenes, tri-n-octylamine

Pages: 11 - 11 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-89

4. BIO-SCAPE ENERGY SOLUTION TO TRANSPORT INDUCED CLIMATE CHANGE IN LAGOS METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Authors: IMMACULATA I C NWOKORO , JOHN O AGWU

Abstract: This paper assessed the potential of integrating marginal land resources and landscape urbanism in biofuel production as a climate change mitigation option in Lagos metropolis. To achieve this view, three level methodological steps were adopted as follows; first, extraction of potential marginal lands from 5 sub-types of land use dataset using Arc GIS mapping system according to a set of criteria, followed by estimation of energy value of the identified marginal lands and lastly, a case scenario analysis of substituting fossil fuel in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The outputs revealed a spatial distribution of combined system of linear utilities with setbacks amounting to over 30,850 hectares. At full planation of Jatropha, the marginal lands yielded approximately 37,020 tonnes of Jatropha oil per year, 3072.2 liters of bio-diesel and a gross profit of N12, 131, 898, 240 annually at N128 diesel pump price. The step 3: showed that on 36,892,800km annual mileage, BRT buses in Lagos consumed 2

Keywords: Bio-scape, biofuel, climate change, energy and Landscape urbanism

Pages: 16 - 22 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-91

5. QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE SONOPHORESIS EFFICIENCY FOR LARGE NANOPARTICLES SONOPHORESIS EFFICIENCY FOR LARGE NANOPARTICLES

Authors: KUN LOONG LEE , YUFENG ZHOU

Abstract: Transdermal drug delivery has a critical contribution to medical practice and some advantages over conventional oral administration and hypodermic injection. Enhancement of percutaneous absorption or penetration of a therapeutic agent by ultrasound (sonophoresis) has been applied and studied for decades. In this study, the penetration percentage through the porcine ear skin specimen was determined quantitatively by measuring the fluorescence from nanoparticles in the size of 60 nm, 220 nm, and 840 nm in the receptor chamber at different sonication parameters. It is found that the sonophoresis efficiency increased with the acoustic intensity, duty cycle, and sonication duration, but decreased with the particle size (62.65.4% for 60 nm vs. 11.91.1% for 840 nm polystyrene nanospheres after 30 min sonication at 0.5 W/cm2 and 100% duty cycle, p 0.05). Although the pore size kept almost the same in scanning electron microscopy, more flakes were observed at the entry site with the progress

Keywords: transdermal drug delivery, sonophoresis, fluorescent nanoparticles, quantitative drug penetration, cavitation

Pages: 23 - 26 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-92

6. A NOVEL APPROACH FOR SURFACTIN PRODUCTION BY LOCALLY ISOLATED BACILLUS SUBTILIS WITH COMMERCIAL POTENTIALS

Authors: G.A. AMIN , O. AL-ZAHRANI

Abstract: Surfactin produced by B.subtilis BDCC-TUSA-3 from Maldex-15 as a growth associated product in conventional batch process. Maldex-15 is a cheap industrial by-product recovered during manufacturing of high fructose syrup from corn starch. Surfactin production was greatly improved in exponential fed-batch fermentation. Maldex-15 and other nutrients were exponentially fed into the culture based on the specific growth rate of the bacterium. In order to maximize surfactin yield and productivity, conversion of different quantities of Maldex-15 into surfactin was investigated in five different fermentation runs. In all runs, most of Maldex-15 was consumed and converted into surfactin and cell biomass with appreciable efficiencies. The best results were obtained with fermentation run supplied with 204 g Maldex-15. Up to 36.1 g.l-1 of surfactin and cell biomass of 31.8 g.l-1 were achieved in 12 hrs. Also, markedly substrate yield of 0.272 g/g and volumetric reactor productivity of 2.58 g.1-1.h-1

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis; Fed-batch cultivation

Pages: 27 - 34 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-93

7. OPEN SOURCE DRUG DISCOVERY FOR CHIKUNGUNYA

Authors: CHETANA SHETTY , DEEPA MOHAN , MAYURI RANE , PADMAVATHI P , SANDHYA S

Abstract: Chikungunya is viral disease is transmitted to human beings by mosquito bite [2]. Chikungunya can cause fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, joint pain, head ache, and swollen in the joints. A cause of Chikungunya is mainly due to the replication of Chikungunya virus in the human body [5]. The protein E1 was used in the study which is monomer with molecular weight 50KDa which is anchored in the membrane of CHIKV. The structure of E1 was retrieved from Protein Data Bank. The PDB ID for E1 was 3N41 , which is responsible for Chikungunya virus replication. CHIKV replication is resistant to inhibition by interferon once RNA replication has been established and that CHIKV actively suppress the antiviral IFN response by preventing IFN-induced gene expression there by making host to shut-off [4,2].The report have shown that the intensity of the infection has increased with every passing year with 45%–63% attack rates in world during outbreaks India is endemic to dengue fever and due to overlappin

Keywords: CHIKV, drug design, OSDD, E1 protein, Efavirenz , Rimantidine

Pages: 40 - 44 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-95

8. BEADS THE INDIAN SPECIFIC MUTATION DATABASE

Authors: ARCHANA V PAWAR , MANASA D A , RESHMA MANE , SUKANYA V K , VIDYA NIRANJAN

Abstract: India is a country with incredible, biological and cultural diversity. Its natural resources attracted to the subcontinent many streams of people at different times, from different directions. This migration brought out a great diversity in human genes and cultures, resulting in a racial admixture of the Indian population. However, till date no database accounting for genetic mutations, abnormalities and variants of genetic diseases specific to the Indian population has been created. We have designed an Indian specific mutation database – BEADS based on SQL and JAVA. It’s easy-to-use web interface will allow a remote user to retrieve (and submit) data on patient-specific mutation spectrum of genetic diseases through interactive web forms. The database will be helpful to the Physicians, Geneticists and other professionals in India as it provides information about the specific mutations pertaining to the Indian population. It will also provide links to other major public databases based

Keywords: Abnormalities, Diversity, Genetic diseases, Incredible, Locus heterogeneity, Mutations, Racial, Subcontinent, Variants.

Pages: 45 - 47 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-96

9. PORTABLE BIOINFORMATICS TOOLS USING BEAGLE BONE

Authors: MANUJ K. S , NAVEEN KUMAR N, , SHASHI KUMAR , VIDYA NIRANJAN

Abstract: Cost, handling the huge data and portability of the devices of the research systems are the major problem in bioinformatics. The lack of synchronization between bioinformatics tools and the advanced hardware creating a gap for the bioinformatics research. Big size of the hardware makes the computation limited to a certain place reduction in the size of hardware makes it a portable device. To overcome all these problems we are integrating bioinformatics tools with a cost effective hardware.

Keywords: Embedded systems, Bioinformatics tools, Beagle bone, Next Generation Sequencing

Pages: 48 - 52 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-97

10. BIOAUGMENTATION OF XENOBIOTIC TREATMENT ACTIVATED SLUDGE DURING START-UP AND SHOCK LOADINGS

Authors: JIE LIANG , KUEI-YEN LIN , NYUK-MIN CHONG

Abstract: Indigenous microbial biomass, such as the municipal wastewater treatment activated sludge, needs a prolonged acclimation period before the sludge can degrade a xenobiotic organic compound. During acclimation, some of the sludge microorganisms are converted into degraders by acquiring specific genetic coding for metabolism of the xenobiotic organic. At activated sludge system start-up and during xenobiotic shocks, activated sludge microorganisms may not have been acclimated to the newly introduced xenobiotic and thus may fail to treat the influent xenobiotic. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of bioaugmentation to activated sludge during the vulnerable times of xenobiotic treatment start-up and shock-loading. Laboratory activated sludge reactors fed biogenic organics were operated and start-up and shock-loading tests were performed with the steady state activated sludge. 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetice acid (2,4-D) replaced biogenic influent in the start-up and shock-

Keywords: Bioaugmentation, activated sludge, xenobiotic, start-up, xenobiotic shock

Pages: 53 - 56 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-98

11. THE INFLUENCE OF IMPURITIES ON THE CHOCKING PROCESS OF SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE PIPELINE

Authors: QING ZHAO , QIUYANG LI , YUXING LI

Abstract: Transportation safety of supercritical CO2 pipeline is a key aspect of Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS). For reducing the high pressure in supercritical pipeline when accidental cases arise, man-made release will be applied using chocking process. The downstream parameters of chocking process can be predicted based on the adiabatic process assumption. The presence of SO2 as an impurity is helpful for increasing the downstream temperatures through the chocking device to prevent the frozen hazard, whereas the presence of N2 as an impurity indicates a lower downstream temperature. The higher initial temperature can prevent the dry ice formation at the outlet of vent pipe when the multistage chocking is applied

Keywords: CCS, carbon dioxide, pipeline transportation, impurity, chocking process

Pages: 57 - 61 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-99

12. SIMULTANEOUS ABSORPTION OF HYDROPHILIC AND HYDROPHOBIC VOCS IN A NOVEL HIGEE-SCRUBBER

Authors: HWAI-SHEN LIU , PEI-SHENG TANG

Abstract: A Higee-scrubber, in the form of a rotating packed bed, has shown dramatic improvement in its absorption performance as compared with a conventional scrubber. But the absorption is often limited to hydrophilic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with water-based solvents, simply because hydrophobic VOCs are relatively insoluble in the aqueous system. In this report, we experimentally demonstrated that this novel Higee-scrubber could handle dual-solvent (e.g. water/silicone oil) properly due to its centrifugal force. Consequently, simultaneous removal of both hydrophobic VOC (e.g. toluene) and hydrophilic VOC (e.g. isopropanol) was efficiently accomplished in a single unit. This Higee-scrubber showed not only the superior absorption performance but also the capability of handling solvents of significant viscosity difference and immiscibility, thus, drastically expanding its applicability.

Keywords: Higee-scrubber, rotating packed bed, dual-solvent absorption, hydrophobic and hydrophilic VOC

Pages: 62 - 65 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-100

13. MORPHOLOGIC DISTORTION PERCOLATOR FOR RADIAL PULSE SIGNAL ACQUISITION TOWARDS WEARABLE MONITORING DEVICE

Authors: CHOI U-HOU , DONG MINGCHUI , FU BINBIN , GUO RAN , MA JIALI

Abstract: Radial pulse waveform contains massive cardiovascular pathophysiological messages from the hemodynamic perspective, which makes it promising in intelligent monitoring of cardiovascular health status. However, the instability of signal sampling leads a series of morphologic distortion causing mistakes in further intelligent analysis. Towards wearable monitoring device to realize intelligent analysis of Sphygmogram (SPG) acquired from radial artery, a morphologic distortion percolator is purposed to obtain qualified SPG. The presented percolator takes advantage of waveform segmentation and similarity analysis through novel reverse order correlation method. 179 stored records of 83 subjects, including 13 normal people and 70 patients, which are collected from our research group and collaborative hospital, were used for evaluation. For the filtration result, the worst error rate and sensitivity of percolator were 11.53% and 96.15%, respectively.

Keywords: morphologic distortion, pulse wave signal, similarity analysis, wearable device

Pages: 66 - 70 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-101

14. A TIMBRE MODEL BASED ON MULTIDIMENSIONAL FEATURES FOR ANALYZING HEART SOUND

Authors: BINBIN FU , GUANGPEI LI , HAIYANG WANG , MINGCHUI DONG

Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are currently the leading cause of deaths worldwide. The traditional auscultation is cost-effective and time-saving for the public to diagnose CVDs early. While many approaches in analysis of the heart sound (HS) signal from auscultation have been utilized successfully, few studies are focused on acoustic perspective to interpret the HS signal. This paper creatively proposes a timbre model to interpret HS with much more attentions on feature extractions combined with medical knowledge. The timbre model based on multidimensional features has three dimensions, which are spectral centroid (SC), log attack time (LAT) and temporal centroid (TC). The simulation experiments indicate that the proposed model is of use in HS feature extraction and its following CVD diagnosis.

Keywords: acoustics, feature extraction, Hilbert transform, spectral centroid, temporal centroid

Pages: 71 - 74 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-102

15. CORALS TRANSPLANTATION USING RACK AND SUBSTRATE METHOD AT BADUL ISLAND UJUNG KULON, INDONESIA

Authors: FAHRI FAHRUDIN , LILY SURAYYA EKA PUTRI

Abstract: Coral transplantation had been conducted to soft coral Sarcophyton sp. dan Nephthea sp. using rack and substrate method at Badul Island, Ujung Kulon, Indonesia. The research aimed at comparing survival rate and growth rate by both transplanted soft corals. It was found that both soft coral had 100% survival rate, but Nephthea transplants grew faster than Sarcophyton transplants. Nephthea transplants had 11,33 mm of width growth and 15,16 mm of length growth. Sarcophyton transplants showed less width and length growth, that was 9,76 mm and 7,37 mm. Overall, the transplants could grow on rack and concrete substrate and reached 100.81 mm (Nepthea) and 54.41 mm (Sarcophyton) in length. Nephtea transplants grew on vertical pattern while Sarcophyton sp grew horizontally. Therefore it can be concluded that rack and concrete substrate can be used as alternative media for soft coral transplantation.

Keywords: coral transplantation, survival rate, growth rate, Sarcophyton sp., Nephthea sp.

Pages: 75 - 78 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-103

16. COMPARING FORMAL SPECIFICATIONS WITH DIAGRAMMATIC NOTATIONS : A CASE-STUDY APPROACH

Authors: JOHN ANDREW VAN DER POLL , KOBAMELO MOREMEDI

Abstract: Formal specification techniques, e.g. Z have been applied in a variety of application areas to provide for clear and unambiguous specifications. Diagrams on the other hand have also been used in various areas and in software engineering they could be used to add a visual component to software specifications. It is plausible that diagrams may also be used to reason in a semi-formal way about the properties of a specification. In this paper we employ a case study approach to determine the extent to which diagrammatic notations can successfully be used to specify system properties. Comparisons on the merits of a diagrammatic notation are presented towards the end of the paper.

Keywords: case study, diagrammatic notation, formal specification, Spider diagrams, Venn diagrams, Z

Pages: 79 - 84 | DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-009-5-104