Determination of Sliced Pineapple Drying Characteristics in a Closed Loop Heat Pump Assisted Drying System

Pineapple (Ananascomosus) slices were dried with the aid of a heat pump assisted dryer (HPD). During this process, air velocity was kept constant at 1m/s, while air temperatures were changed as 37°C, 40°C and 43°C. The drying air was also circulated by using an axial fan in a closed cycle and fresh air was not allowed into the system. The drying rate and drying time were significantly influenced by drying temperature. It was observed that drying temperatures had significant effects on the drying rate and drying time. During the conduct of the study, pineapple slices were dried at 37, 40 and 43°C for 465, 360 and 290 min, respectively. The specific moisture extraction ratio (SMER) values were observed to change as drying temperatures were changed. The drying rate curves indicated that the whole drying process occurred in the falling rate period. Seven well-known thin-layer models (Lewis, Henderson &Pabis, Logarithmic, Page, Midilli & Kucuk, Weibull and Aghbashlo et al.) were employed to make a prediction about drying kinetics through nonlinear regression analysis. The Midilli & Kucuk and Aghbashlo et al. models were consistent with the experimental data. Fick\u27s second law of diffusion was used to determine the moisture diffusivity coefficient ranging from 3.78×10–9 to 6.57×10-9 m2/s the each of the above mentioned temperatures. The dependence of effective diffusivity coefficient on temperature was defined by means a fan Arrhenius type equation. The activation energy of moisture diffusion was found to be 75.24kJ/mol. Article History: Received: July 18th 2017; Received: October 27th 2017; Accepted: January 16th 2018; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Tunçkal, C., Coşkun, S., Doymaz, I. and Ergun, E. (2018) Determination of Sliced Pineapple Drying Characteristics in A Closed Loop Heat Pump Assisted Drying System. International Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 7(1), 35-41.https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.1.35-4

Divergent in situ expression of IL‐31 and IL‐31RA between bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) and pemphigus vulgaris (PV) are two major autoimmune blistering skin diseases. Unlike PV, BP is accompanied by intense pruritus, suggesting possible involvement of the pruritogenic cytokine IL-31. However, the underlying mechanisms of the clinical difference between BP and PV in terms of pruritus are not fully understood. To compare the expression levels of IL-31 and its receptor IL-31RA in the lesional skin, including peripheral nerves in BP and PV patients, immunohistochemical staining for IL-31 and IL-31RA was performed in skin samples of BP and PV patients and healthy controls (HC). The IL-31RA-expressing area in epidermis and peripheral nerves was analysed using ImageJ and the percentage of positive cells for IL-31/IL-31RA in dermal infiltrating cells was manually quantified. Quantitative analyses revealed that IL-31/IL-31RA expressions in the epidermis and dermal infiltrate were significantly increased in BP compared to PV and HC. The difference between BP and PV became more obvious when advanced bullous lesions were compared. Peripheral nerves in BP lesions presented significantly higher IL-31RA expression compared to PV lesions. In conclusion, we found significantly augmented expressions of IL-31/IL-31RA in BP lesions, including peripheral nerves, in comparison to PV. These results suggest a possible contribution of IL-31/IL-31RA signalling to the difference between BP and PV in the facilitation of pruritus and local skin inflammation, raising the possibility of therapeutic targeting of the IL-31/IL-31RA pathway in BP patients

A hardware-implemented truly random key generator for secure biometric authentication systems

Recent advances in information security requires strong keys which are randomly generated. Most of the keys are generated by the softwares which use software-based random number generators. However, implementing a True Random Number Generator (TRNG) without using a hardware-supported platform is not reliable. In this paper, a biometric authentication system using a FPGA-based TRNG to produce a private key that encrypts the face template of a person is presented. The designed hardware can easily be mounted on standard or embedded PC via its PCI interface to produce random number keys. Random numbers forming the private key is guaranteed to be true because it passes a two-level randomness test. The randomness test is evaluated first on the hardware then on the PC by applying the full NIST test suite. The whole system implements an AES-based encryption scheme to store the person's secret safely. Assigning a private key which is generated by our TRNG guarantees a unique and truly random password. The system stores the Wavelet Fourier-Mellin Transform (WFMT) based face features in a database with an index number that might be stored on a smart or glossary card. The objective of this study is to present a practical application integrating any biometric technology with a hardware-implemented TRNG

Determination of Sliced Pineapple Drying Characteristics in A Closed Loop Heat Pump Assisted Drying System

Pineapple (Ananascomosus) slices were dried with the aid of a heat pump assisted dryer (HPD). During this process, air velocity was kept constant at 1m/s, while air temperatures were changed as 37°C, 40°C and 43°C. The drying air was also circulated by using an axial fan in a closed cycle and fresh air was not allowed into the system. The drying rate and drying time were significantly influenced by drying temperature. It was observed that drying temperatures had significant effects on the drying rate and drying time. During the conduct of the study, pineapple slices were dried at 37, 40 and 43°C for 465, 360 and 290 min, respectively. The specific moisture extraction ratio (SMER) values were observed to change as drying temperatures were changed. The drying rate curves indicated that the whole drying process occurred in the falling rate period. Seven well-known thin-layer models (Lewis, Henderson &Pabis, Logarithmic, Page, Midilli & Kucuk, Weibull and Aghbashlo et al.) were employed to make a prediction about drying kinetics through nonlinear regression analysis. The Midilli & Kucuk and Aghbashlo et al. models were consistent with the experimental data. Fick’s second law of diffusion was used to determine the moisture diffusivity coefficient ranging from 3.78×10–9 to 6.57×10-9  m2/s the each of the above mentioned temperatures. The dependence of effective diffusivity coefficient on temperature was defined by means a fan Arrhenius type equation. The activation energy of moisture diffusion was found to be 75.24kJ/mol.   Article History: Received: July 18th 2017; Received: October 27th 2017; Accepted: January 16th 2018; Available online How to Cite This Article: Tunçkal, C., Coşkun, S., Doymaz, I. and Ergun, E. (2018) Determination of Sliced Pineapple Drying Characteristics in A Closed Loop Heat Pump Assisted Drying System. International Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 7(1), 35-41. https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.1.35-4

Impact of pressure and composition on the mechanical behavior of InxGa1-xAs1-yPy and AlxIn1-xSb1-yPy quaternary alloys

Property of matter of the semiconductors quaternary was investigated by the density functional theory and paralleled to the foretelling of the linear elasticity theory. In addition, quaternary alloys of InxGa1-xAs1-yPy lattice matching GaAs substrate and AlxIn1-xSb1-yPy lattice matching InSb substrate for x and y = (0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1) compositions were studied. The elastic constants C-11, C-12, C-44, and bulk, Young's, and shear modulus are also calculated. Meanwhile, the results were analyzed data in different pressure. The comparison between the calculated results and the available published data for quaternary alloys displayed that they had worthy accordance at pressure p = 0 and the results at P > 0 may be required as an acceptable reference