Phycoremediation using botryococcus sp. as nutrients removal in organic wastewaters coupled with hydrocarbon production

Rapid population growth and industrial development are expected to contribute extremely to the world environmental crisis due to the excessive wastewater generation, global warming, climate change and increased use of petroleum fuels. In response to the problems, new technology via phycoremediation to reduce the wastewater contamination coupled with production of sustainable hydrocarbon has received much interest worldwide. Thus, the aim of the study is to produce the hydrocarbon from microalgae, Botryococcus sp. combined with phycoremediation of domestic wastewater (DW) and food processing wastewater (FW). The Botryococcus sp. locally isolated from the tropical rainforest. The optimisation study proved that the Botryococcus sp. grew well in the temperature of 23-33°C, the light intensity of 243 μmol m-2s-1 and 24 hours of light exposure. In fact, this Botryococcus sp. much more tolerated with the outdoor condition when integrated with wastewater phycoremediation in term of biomass productivity and wastewaters bioremediation. The best microalgae concentration was performed at 106 cells/mL for both wastewaters. The highest removal of nutrients (TP, TN and TOC) in DW and FW up to 100% and 92.8%, respectively under outdoor condition; while 95.4% and 76.4%, respectively under indoor condition. Selected heavy metal (Zn, Fe, Cd, Mn) study showed a very significant reduction (p<0.05) for both wastewaters as influenced by culture conditions. In flocculation harvesting, alum indicated the best coagulant to recover microalgae biomass from DW with efficiency up to 99.3% while chitosan showed a good candidate to harvest Botryococcus sp. from FW with efficiency about 94.9%. This study notably found that different culture media used in cultivation produced difference kinds of hydrocarbon compounds. As known, the biggest contribution of this algae oil as biofuel feedstock that potentially contributes to the development of renewable energy technology. Moreover, the hydrocarbon compounds obtained also have bright perspective to be used as a chemical value added in any related industry

Quasiparticle undressing in a dynamic Hubbard model: exact diagonalization study

Dynamic Hubbard models have been proposed as extensions of the conventional Hubbard model to describe the orbital relaxation that occurs upon double occupancy of an atomic orbital. These models give rise to pairing of holes and superconductivity in certain parameter ranges. Here we explore the changes in carrier effective mass and quasiparticle weight and in one- and two-particle spectral functions that occur in a dynamic Hubbard model upon pairing, by exact diagonalization of small systems. It is found that pairing is associated with lowering of effective mass and increase of quasiparticle weight, manifested in transfer of spectral weight from high to low frequencies in one- and two-particle spectral functions. This 'undressing' phenomenology resembles observations in transport, photoemission and optical experiments in high T_c cuprates. This behavior is contrasted with that of a conventional electron-hole symmetric Holstein-like model with attractive on-site interaction, where pairing is associated with 'dressing' instead of 'undressing'

A novel method for the absolute fluorescence yield measurement by AIRFLY

One of the goals of the AIRFLY (AIR FLuorescence Yield) experiment is to measure the absolute fluorescence yield induced by electrons in air to better than 10% precision. We introduce a new technique for measurement of the absolute fluorescence yield of the 337 nm line that has the advantage of reducing the systematic uncertainty due to the detector calibration. The principle is to compare the measured fluorescence yield to a well known process - the Cerenkov emission. Preliminary measurements taken in the BFT (Beam Test Facility) in Frascati, Italy with 350 MeV electrons are presented. Beam tests in the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA with 14 MeV electrons have also shown that this technique can be applied at lower energies.Comment: presented at the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escorial - Madrid, Spain, 16 - 20 September 200

Temperature and Humidity Dependence of Air Fluorescence Yield measured by AIRFLY

The fluorescence detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays requires a detailed knowledge of the fluorescence light emission from nitrogen molecules over a wide range of atmospheric parameters, corresponding to altitudes typical of the cosmic ray shower development in the atmosphere. We have studied the temperature and humidity dependence of the fluorescence light spectrum excited by MeV electrons in air. Results for the 313.6 nm, 337.1 nm, 353.7 nm and 391.4 nm bands are reported in this paper. We found that the temperature and humidity dependence of the quenching process changes the fluorescence yield by a sizeable amount (up to 20%) and its effect must be included for a precise estimation of the energy of ultra high energy cosmic rays.Comment: presented at the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escorial - Madrid, Spain, 16 - 20 September 2007, to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Methods

Records management in the business community in Malaysia A study of the understanding of concepts and practice and the development of a model

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX213643 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The Effect of Lubrication on the Vibration of Roller Bearings

Proper lubrication is crucial to ensure smooth operation in machineries. In rolling bearing, the improper lubrication may induce high friction and vibration level due to metal to metal contact between the rolling elements. In this study, the roller bearings with and without lubrication are investigated. the natural surface degradation of the roller bearing is monitored and the surface roughness is measured for the lubricant film thickness calculation. the film thickness is determined by the Hamrock-Dowson equation which showed that the grease lubricated bearing operated under the elastro-hydrodynamic lubrication, with the ratio of lubrication film thickness to the surface roughness of λ in the range of 0.9 to 3.65. the un-lubricated bearing was damaged after 20 minutes whereas the grease lubricated bearing continued to operate for 6600 minutes. the observation under microscope showed that the surface underwent smoothening process where the surface roughness decreases initially (running-in state) followed by roughening at the steady state where the surface roughness increases. At damage, the value of λ = 0.9 can be associated with the high level of the bearing vibration. the increase of vibration level becomes rapid at the critical value of λ = 1.6. As such the overall vibration level of the bearing can be related to the surface degradation and low film thickness

The Effect of Lubrication on the Vibration of Roller Bearings

Proper lubrication is crucial to ensure smooth operation in machineries. In rolling bearing, the improper lubrication may induce high friction and vibration level due to metal to metal contact between the rolling elements. In this study, the roller bearings with and without lubrication are investigated. the natural surface degradation of the roller bearing is monitored and the surface roughness is measured for the lubricant film thickness calculation. the film thickness is determined by the Hamrock-Dowson equation which showed that the grease lubricated bearing operated under the elastro-hydrodynamic lubrication, with the ratio of lubrication film thickness to the surface roughness of λ in the range of 0.9 to 3.65. the un-lubricated bearing was damaged after 20 minutes whereas the grease lubricated bearing continued to operate for 6600 minutes. the observation under microscope showed that the surface underwent smoothening process where the surface roughness decreases initially (running-in state) followed by roughening at the steady state where the surface roughness increases. At damage, the value of λ = 0.9 can be associated with the high level of the bearing vibration. the increase of vibration level becomes rapid at the critical value of λ = 1.6. As such the overall vibration level of the bearing can be related to the surface degradation and low film thickness

T-Test for visualizing frequently used Arabic words

The aim of visualizing the frequently used words is to solve the problem of reading comprehension. This is referring to the case of the non-Arabic speakers of the Muslim community, reading or reciting extensively an Arabic document (the Quran) without comprehension. This study outline an experiment testing whether there is any significant difference on the level of comprehension when images are used as part of the reading material of the Arabic text. It was found that using text only translation, resulted in no significant difference of the level of comprehension and the expected values. However, there is significant difference on the level of comprehension between Arabic text translation of the frequently used words and the text image of the frequently used word. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Rock point load test (PLT index) and its correlation with rock coring rate of bored pile machine

Rock socketed cast in-situ bored pile has getting more common in the local foundation industry due to high load carrying capacity to support the increasingly large superstructure load. The estimation of bored pile production rate based on rock strength is vital for piling contractor in terms of project planning, site work done forecasting and management of resources. Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of rocks is a useful parameter needed for analytical and designing purpose for rock structure, as well as classification of rock strength. Owing to the timeconsuming, tedious and expensive testing procedure of UCS, point load test (PLT) on irregular lump samples has appeared to be the best alternative test to ascertain rock strength, which can be performed on-site or off-site. This research was conducted to establish the correlation between rock PLT index and rock coring rate of bored pile machine, where the PLT results and rock coring data were collected from manual recording at respective project site. Graphical relationship was derived for PLT index against rock coring rate for several pile size categories. As rock UCS is typically adopted for foundation design purpose, the conversion factor between PLT index and UCS was derived for the typical bedrock formation encountered in Kuala Lumpur, namely Granitic rock and Limestone. This study also depicts the estimation of mobilized rock unit shaft friction with respect to the corresponding UCS value, using a recommended empirical formula. From this research study, it was justified that PLT could serve as a cost-effective and straightforward field test which provides invaluable guidance for piling production rate estimation as well as better engineering judgement in foundation design

Visualization systems supporting the reading of arabic document for non arabic speakers

This study addresses a reading comprehension problem and visualization as the suggested solution. When one read, one would intend to understand the text being read. It is absolutely an exception in the context of one Arabic document called the Quran. Thus, visualization techniques are then useful to support the understandability of the document for non-Arabic speakers such as the Malaysian and Indonesians. Descriptions and review of four prototype systems that use visualization techniques: scatter plot, trivariate plot, network diagrams, directory approach and hyperbolic. This study discusses reading and visualization theories, the problems encountered while reading the Arabic document (the Quran), comparative discussions on the prototype systems and functional requirement proposed to enhance the prototype. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information