Pretreatment Of Oil Palm Fronds Using A Solvent-Ionic Liquid (BMIM)Cl To Enhance Glucose Recovery

The potential of oil palm frond (OPF) as glucose source for fuel ethanol production was investigated in this current work. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock with a solvent, ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3 methylimidazolium chloride ((BMIM)Cl) was used to facilitate the conversion of OPF into fermentable sugar (glucose). The pretreatment was accomplished by first subjecting OPF to ionic liquid treatment, followed by regeneration of cellulose using an anti-solvent. The effects of several pretreatment variables, such as temperature, retention time and solid loading on the biomass composition, crystallinity as well as its digestibility by enzyme and glucose recovery after pretreatment were studied

Spontaneous Subtle Expression Detection and Recognition based on Facial Strain

Optical strain is an extension of optical flow that is capable of quantifying subtle changes on faces and representing the minute facial motion intensities at the pixel level. This is computationally essential for the relatively new field of spontaneous micro-expression, where subtle expressions can be technically challenging to pinpoint. In this paper, we present a novel method for detecting and recognizing micro-expressions by utilizing facial optical strain magnitudes to construct optical strain features and optical strain weighted features. The two sets of features are then concatenated to form the resultant feature histogram. Experiments were performed on the CASME II and SMIC databases. We demonstrate on both databases, the usefulness of optical strain information and more importantly, that our best approaches are able to outperform the original baseline results for both detection and recognition tasks. A comparison of the proposed method with other existing spatio-temporal feature extraction approaches is also presented.Comment: 21 pages (including references), single column format, accepted to Signal Processing: Image Communication journa

Costs of screening children for hearing disorders and delivery of hearing aids in China

Contains fulltext : 79593.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: The burden of disease of hearing disorders among children is high, but a large part goes undetected. School-based screening programs in combination with the delivery of hearing aids can alleviate this situation, but the costs of such programs are unknown. AIM: To evaluate the costs of a school-based screening program for hearing disorders, among approximately 216,000 school children, and the delivery of hearing aids to 206 children at three different care levels in China. METHODS: In a prospective study design, screening and hearing aid delivery costs were estimated on the basis of program records and an empirical assessment of health personnel time input. Household costs for seeking and undergoing hearing health care were collected with a questionnaire, administered to the parents of the child. Data were collected at three study sites representing primary, secondary and tertiary care levels. RESULTS: Total screening and hearing aid delivery costs ranged between RMB70,000 (US$9,000) and RMB133,000 (US$17,000) in the three study sites. Health care cost per child fitted ranged from RMB5,900 (US$760) at the primary care level, RMB7,200 (US$940) at the secondary care level, to RMB8,600 (US$1,120) at the tertiary care level. Household costs were only a small fraction of the overall costs. Cost per child fitted ranged between RMB1,608 and RMB2,812 (US$209-US$365), depending on perspective of analysis and study site. The program was always least costly in the primary care setting. CONCLUSION: Hearing screening and the delivery of hearing aids in China is least costly in a primary care setting. Important questions remain concerning its implementation

Riverine sustainment 2012

Student Integrated ProjectIncludes supplementary materialThis technical report analyzed the Navy's proposed Riverine Force (RF) structure and capabilities for 2012. The Riverine Sustainment 2012 Team (RST) examined the cost and performance of systems of systems which increased RF sustainment in logistically barren environments. RF sustainment was decomposed into its functional areas of supply, repair, and force protection. The functional and physical architectures were developed in parallel and were used to construct an operational architecture for the RF. The RST used mathematical, agent-based and queuing models to analyze various supply, repair and force protection system alternatives. Extraction of modeling data revealed several key insights. Waterborne heavy lift connectors such as the LCU-2000 are vital in the re-supply of the RF when it is operating up river in a non-permissive environment. Airborne heavy lift connectors such as the MV-22 were ineffective and dominated by the waterborne variants in the same environment. Increase in manpower and facilities did appreciable add to the operational availability of the RF. Mean supply response time was the biggest factor effecting operational availability and should be kept below 24 hours to maintain operational availability rates above 80%. Current mortar defenses proposed by the RF are insufficient.N

Production of doubly-charged Δ\Delta baryon in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} annihilation at energies from 2.3094 to 2.6464 GeV

The processes $e^{+}e^{-} \to \Delta^{++}\bar{\Delta}^{--}$ and $e^{+}e^{-}\to \Delta^{++} \bar{p} \pi^{-} + c.c.$ are studied for the first time with $179~{\rm pb}^{-1}$ of $e^{+}e^{-}$ annihilation data collected with the BESIII detector at center-of-mass energies from $2.3094$ GeV to $2.6464$ GeV. No significant signal for the $e^{+}e^{-}\to \Delta^{++}\bar{\Delta}^{--}$ process is observed and the upper limit of the Born cross section is estimated at each energy point. For the process $e^{+}e^{-} \to \Delta^{++} \bar{p} \pi^{-} + c.c.$, a significant signal is observed at center-of-mass energies near 2.6454 GeV and the corresponding Born cross section is reported.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Search for a scalar partner of the X(3872)X(3872) via ψ(3770)\psi(3770) decays into γηη′\gamma\eta\eta' and γπ+π−J/ψ\gamma\pi^{+}\pi^{-}J/\psi

Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.93 fb$^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 3.773~GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we search for a scalar partner of the $X(3872)$, denoted as $X(3700)$, via $\psi(3770)\to \gamma\eta\eta'$ and $\gamma\pi^{+}\pi^{-}J/\psi$ processes. No significant signals are observed and the upper limits of the product branching fractions ${\cal B}(\psi(3770)\to\gamma X(3700))\cdot {\cal B}(X(3700)\to \eta\eta')$ and ${\cal B}(\psi(3770)\to\gamma X(3700))\cdot {\cal B}(X(3700)\to\pi^{+}\pi^{-}J/\psi)$ are determined at the 90\% confidence level, for the narrow $X(3700)$ with a mass ranging from 3710 to 3740 MeV/$c^2$, which are from 0.8 to 1.8 $(\times 10^{-5})$ and 0.9 to 3.4 $(\times 10^{-5})$, respectively