706 research outputs found
Removal of mercury (II) from aqueous solution by using rice residues
Sorption potential of rice residues for Hg(II) removal from aqueous solution was investigated. Rice husk (RH) and rice straw (RS) were selected and treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The raw and modified adsorbents were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and BET surface area measurements. The effects of pH, initial ion concentration, and agitation time on the removal process were studied in batch adsorption experiments. Two simple kinetic models, which are pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order, were tested to investigate the adsorption mechanisms. The kinetic data fits to pseudo second order model with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99 for all adsorbents. The equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir compared to Freundlich isotherm models. Alkali-treated adsorbent obtained larger surface area and RH-NaOH showed highest adsorption capacity followed by RS-Pure > RH-Pure > RS-NaOH. The maximum removal efficiency obtained by RH-NaOH and RS-Pure was 42 mg/l (80%) at pH 6.5 and with 2 days contact time (for 50 mg/l initial concentration and 25 mg adsorbents)
A review of Smart Contract Blockchain Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis: Challenges and Motivations
A smart contract is a digital program of transaction protocol (rules of
contract) based on the consensus architecture of blockchain. Smart contracts
with Blockchain are modern technologies that have gained enormous attention in
scientific and practical applications. A smart contract is the central aspect
of a blockchain that facilitates blockchain as a platform outside the
cryptocurrency spectrum. The development of blockchain technology, with a focus
on smart contracts, has advanced significantly in recent years. However
research on the smart contract idea has weaknesses in the implementation
sectors based on a decentralized network that shares an identical state. This
paper extensively reviews smart contracts based on multi criteria analysis
challenges and motivations. Therefore, implementing blockchain in
multi-criteria research is required to increase the efficiency of interaction
between users via supporting information exchange with high trust. Implementing
blockchain in the multi-criteria analysis is necessary to increase the
efficiency of interaction between users via supporting information exchange and
with high confidence, detecting malfunctioning, helping users with performance
issues, reaching a consensus, deploying distributed solutions and allocating
plans, tasks and joint missions. The smart contract with decision-making
performance, planning and execution improves the implementation based on
efficiency, sustainability and management.
Furthermore the uncertainty and supply chain performance lead to improved
users confidence in offering new solutions in exchange for problems in smart
contacts. Evaluation includes code analysis and performance while development
performance can be under development.Comment: Revie
Thermal comfort survey in office buildings in Bandung, Indonesia
The comfort state of office building’s occupants is crucial since its related to the worker’s productivity. This comfort temperature of people from tropical climate might be different from temperate climate area. This study aimed to investigate thermal comfort and adaptive behaviour of occupants in office buildings with different ventilation modes: air-conditioned, mixed-mode, and free running. On February and March 2015, approximately 400 responses has been obtained through field surveys in three office buildings Bandung, Indonesia. The results has shown quite different comfort range between occupants in three ventilation modes: 24.7 oC, 26.3 oC, and 27.5 oC operative comfort temperature for FR, CL, and MM accordingly
Correlation Between Anti-cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies and the Severity of Clinical Manifestation, Laboratory Manifestation, and Radiological Joint Destruction in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
Background. The second generation anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide test (CCP2) displays sensitivity comparable to that of rheumatoid factor (RF) (approximately 80%) but with superior specificity (98%) . Several observations have indicated that early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with positive anti-CCP may develop a more erosive disease than those without anti-CCP.Objective. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the correlation between anti-CCP antibodies and clinical and laboratory parameters and radiological joint destruction in RA patients.Methods. We studied 31 patients with RA fulfilling the 1987 revised criteria of American College of Rheumatology in Rheumatology Clinic of Saiful Anwar General Hospital, Malang, Indonesia. Clinical parameters were collected such as age, sex, visual analog scale,disease duration and diseases activity score (DAS28-3(CRP)). Laboratory parameters were WBC, hemoglobin, platelet count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and Creactive protein. Analyzed autoantibody profiles were RF and anti-CCP (ELISA methode). Radiological jointdestruction was evaluated from bilateral postero-anterior manus x ray (Sharp score).Results. Anti-CCP antibodies were detected in 48.4% of RA patients with mean antibody concentration was 291.24±143.67 (range 16-523.8) units. Anti CCP level was significantly correlated with duration of RA (month) (p=0.04, r=0.371), RF level (p=0.002, r=0.542) andSharp score (p=0.048, r=0.358), but was not significantly correlated with other clinical and laboratory parameters.Conclusion. Anti-CCP level was correlated with duration of disease, RF, and Sharp score
Synthesized grain size distribution in the interstellar medium
We examine a synthetic way of constructing the grain size distribution in the
interstellar medium (ISM). First we formulate a synthetic grain size
distribution composed of three grain size distributions processed with the
following mechanisms that govern the grain size distribution in the Milky Way:
(i) grain growth by accretion and coagulation in dense clouds, (ii) supernova
shock destruction by sputtering in diffuse ISM, and (iii) shattering driven by
turbulence in diffuse ISM. Then, we examine if the observational grain size
distribution in the Milky Way (called MRN) is successfully synthesized or not.
We find that the three components actually synthesize the MRN grain size
distribution in the sense that the deficiency of small grains by (i) and (ii)
is compensated by the production of small grains by (iii). The fraction of each
{contribution} to the total grain processing of (i), (ii), and (iii) (i.e., the
relative importance of the three {contributions} to all grain processing
mechanisms) is 30-50%, 20-40%, and 10-40%, respectively. We also show that the
Milky Way extinction curve is reproduced with the synthetic grain size
distributions.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Earth, Planets, and
Spac
SMART: Unique splitting-while-merging framework for gene clustering
Copyright @ 2014 Fa et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Successful clustering algorithms are highly dependent on parameter settings. The clustering performance degrades significantly unless parameters are properly set, and yet, it is difficult to set these parameters a priori. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a unique splitting-while-merging clustering framework, named “splitting merging awareness tactics” (SMART), which does not require any a priori knowledge of either the number of clusters or even the possible range of this number. Unlike existing self-splitting algorithms, which over-cluster the dataset to a large number of clusters and then merge some similar clusters, our framework has the ability to split and merge clusters automatically during the process and produces the the most reliable clustering results, by intrinsically integrating many clustering techniques and tasks. The SMART framework is implemented with two distinct clustering paradigms in two algorithms: competitive learning and finite mixture model. Nevertheless, within the proposed SMART framework, many other algorithms can be derived for different clustering paradigms. The minimum message length algorithm is integrated into the framework as the clustering selection criterion. The usefulness of the SMART framework and its algorithms is tested in demonstration datasets and simulated gene expression datasets. Moreover, two real microarray gene expression datasets are studied using this approach. Based on the performance of many metrics, all numerical results show that SMART is superior to compared existing self-splitting algorithms and traditional algorithms. Three main properties of the proposed SMART framework are summarized as: (1) needing no parameters dependent on the respective dataset or a priori knowledge about the datasets, (2) extendible to many different applications, (3) offering superior performance compared with counterpart algorithms.National Institute for Health Researc
Quantum key distribution in terms of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state: multi-key generation
In this paper, we develop a quantum key distribution protocol based on the
Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states (GHZs). The particles are exchanged among
the users in blocks through two steps. In this protocol, for three-particle
GHZs three keys can be simultaneously generated. The advantage of this is that
the users can select the most suitable key for communication. The protocol can
be generalized to users to provide keys. The protocol has two levels
for checking the eavesdroppers. Moreover, we discuss the security of the
protocol against different attacks.Comment: 10 Page, no figures. Comments are most welcom
Radiative effect of clouds on tropospheric chemistry in a global three‐dimensional chemical transport model
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94988/1/jgrd12465.pd
Impact mitigation in environmental impact assessment: paper promises or the basis of consent conditions?
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