SYSTEMS ANALYSIS FOR SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT OF BIOGAS AND BIO-CH4 PRODUCTION FROM FOOD WASTE AND DAIRY MANURE MIXTURES IN THE US

The purpose of the dissertation is to relate systems analysis for bioenergy to identify optimum configurations for improved scenarios and to make better decisions in a systems perspective. Chapter 1 is a review of the literature to identify the state of the knowledge in terms of systems analysis for anaerobic digestion (AD) bioenergy systems. The key outcomes from this review showed that anaerobic digestion of mixtures of food waste and animal manure has great potential to achieve economic and environmental benefits compared to other treatments of organic waste materials, such as landfilling or conventional manure management. Chapter 2 focuses on carbon footprint of one particular bio-CH4 production facility. This study developed consequential methodology to address the environmental impacts of system parameters such as avoiding landfilling and manure management. The key results from this LCA show that the AD Bio-CH4 pathway has 15.5% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the prior practice of composting of food waste and manure in Denver, CO. Then chapter 3 provides opportunities for additional studies in bioenergy environmental and economic performance. The objective of this chapter is to gain a system level understanding of the integration of bioenergy crops into rotations with food grains. This study combines both environmental and economic impacts into a single decision assessment. The key results in this chapter show the system parameter yield is the deciding parameter in finding the most optimum crop rotations with integration of bioenergy crops. In Chapter 4 the objective is to understand enzyme accessibility inside woody biomass and its role in controlling the rate of conversion of cellulose to glucose. The goal of this study was to measure the cellulose accessibility due to the effect of dilute acid pretreatment (DAP) and enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) time of Populus biomass. The last chapter of the dissertation presents a novel systems sustainability analysis framework that evaluates the optimum locations, sizes, and the number of plants for AD biogas power production in Wisconsin accounting for both the profits from the biopower supply chain and carbon credits. This dissertation ends with overall conclusions and recommendations for future research

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM BASED ON RANKING AND REVIEWS

Objective: In many organizations, employee data have to be maintained and utilized for many purposes. Here, in this paper, we are going to use such data to calculate an employee's performance.Methods: This employee data may be converted into useful information using data mining techniques such as K-means and decisions tree. K-means is used to find the rank of the employee means that the employee may come under in his criteria. Decision tree is used to find the review of an employee means that the employee needs improvement or he/she meets expectation.Results: This algorithm when utilized can identify the top employee who can be considered for appraisal or the eligible candidates for promotion. Hence, these algorithms such as K-mean and decision tree that help to find best employees for any association and help us to take a good decision in less time.Conclusion: There are various factors which should be considered and are limited to this algorithm, so human intervention is required to consider those factors. However, ranking and appraisal are seen in many companies, and this algorithm will definitely identify the potential candidates

IGF-I RELEASING PLGA SCAFFOLDS FOR GROWTH PLATE REGENERATION

Growth plate is a highly organized cartilaginous tissue found at the end of long bones and is responsible for longitudinal growth of the bones. Growth plate fracture leads to retarded growth and unequal limb length, which might have a lifelong effect on a person’s physical stature. This research is a tissue engineering approach for the treatment of growth plate injury. Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), which can stimulate cartilage formation, was encapsulated within PLGA microspheres that were then used to form porous scaffolds. The release profile of the IGF-I from the PLGA scaffold showed a biphasic release pattern. In vitro studies were done by seeding rat bone marrow cells (BMCs) on the top of IGF-I encapsulated PLGA scaffolds, and the results showed an increase in cell multiplication and glycosaminoglycan content. The final in vivo studies were conducted by creating growth plate injury and implanting scaffolds in the tibiae of the New-Zealand white rabbits. Histological analysis of tissue sections showed regeneration of cartilage, albeit with disorganized structure, at the site of implantation of IGF-I encapsulated scaffolds. This work will be a significant step towards tissue engineering of growth plate cartilage

Development of a Multilayered Association Polymer System for Sequential Drug Delivery

As all the physiological processes in our body are controlled by multiple biomolecules, comprehensive treatment of certain disease conditions may be more effectively achieved by administration of more than one type of drug. Thus, the primary objective of this research was to develop a multilayered, polymer-based system for sequential delivery of multiple drugs. This particular device was designed aimed at the treatment of periodontitis, a highly prevalent oral inflammatory disease that affects 90% of the world population. This condition is caused by bacterial biofilm on the teeth, resulting in a chronic inflammatory response that leads to loss of alveolar bone and, ultimately, the tooth. Current treatment methods for periodontitis address specific parts of the disease, with no individual treatment serving as a complete therapy. The polymers used for the fabrication of this multilayered device consists of cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) complexed with Pluronic F-127 (P). After evaluating morphology of the resulting CAPP system, in vitro release of small molecule drugs and a model protein was studied from both single and multilayered devices. Drug release from single-layered CAPP films followed zero-order kinetics related to surface erosion property of the association polymer. Release studies from multilayered CAPP devices showed the possibility of achieving intermittent release of one type of drug as well as sequential release of more than one type of drug. Mathematical modeling accurately predicted the release profiles for both single layer and multilayered devices. After the initial characterization of the CAPP system, the device was specifically modified to achieve sequential release of drugs aimed at the treatment of periodontitis. The four types of drugs used were metronidazole, ketoprofen, doxycycline, and simvastatin to eliminate infection, inhibit inflammation, prevent tissue destruction, and aid bone regeneration, respectively. To obtain different erosion times and achieve appropriate release profiles specific to the disease condition, the device was modified by increasing the number of layers or by inclusion of a slower eroding polymer layer. In all the cases, the device was able to release the four different drugs in the designed temporal sequence. Analysis of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory bioactivity showed that drugs released from the devices retained 100% bioactivity. Following extensive studies on the in vitro sequential drug release from these devices, the in vivo drug release profiles were investigated. The CAPP devices with different release rates and dosage formulations were implanted in a rat calvarial onlay model, and the in vivo drug release and erosion was compared with in vitro results. In vivo studies showed sequential release of drugs comparable to those measured in vitro, with some difference in drug release rates observed. The present CAPP association polymer-based multilayer devices can be used for localized, sequential delivery of multiple drugs for the possible treatment of complex disease conditions, and perhaps for tissue engineering applications, that require delivery of more than one type of biomolecule

Study on Transient Thermal Analysis of a Disc Brake During Braking and Releasing Periods

Automobile braking system is considered as one of the most important safety systems in modern vehicles as its main intention is to stop or decelerate the vehicle. The frictional heat generated between the pads and disc during the braking application can cause various negative impacts, such as brake fade, thermal cracks, disc thickness variation and wear. This project studied the transient thermal behavior of a disc brake system during the braking phase and the followed releasing period. A three-dimensional finite element model with a moving heat source was developed with COMSOL Multiphysics to predict the temperature distribution in the disc braking system, including two pads, a rotor disc, bolts, and a section of the shaft. The maximum surface temperature on the contact surface has been found to increase in the braking period and then decrease as the rotor slows down and further decrease during the releasing period. The maximum temperature on the contact surface depends on both the car velocity and deceleration rate. The effects of convective and radiative heat transfer are also studied. It is found that heat is mainly dissipated through convective heat transfer at the disc surfaces

A SURVEY ON PRIVACY PRESERVING TECHNIQUES FOR SOCIAL NETWORK DATA

In this era of 20th century, online social network like Facebook, twitter, etc. plays a very important role in everyone's life. Social network data, regarding any individual organization can be published online at any time, in which there is a risk of information leakage of anyone's personal data. So preserving the privacy of individual organizations and companies are needed before data is published online. Therefore the research was carried out in this area for many years and it is still going on. There have been various existing techniques that provide the solutions for preserving privacy to tabular data called as relational data and also social network data represented in graphs. Different techniques exists for tabular data but you can't apply directly to the structured complex graph  data,which consists of vertices represented as individuals and edges representing some kind of connection or relationship between the nodes. Various techniques like K-anonymity, L-diversity, and T-closeness exist to provide privacy to nodes and techniques like edge perturbation, edge randomization are there to provide privacy to edges in social graphs. Development of new techniques by  Integration to exiting techniques like K-anonymity ,edge perturbation, edge randomization, L-Diversity are still going on to provide more privacy to relational data and social network data are ongoingin the best possible manner.Â

A Geo-illustration Studies of Nagamangala, Mayasandra, Yediyur area of Chitradurga Schist belt, Dharwar Craton, Southern India

In recent times the Precambrian shields of the world have became nerve centers of global research aimed mainly at decipher the early history of the Earth. Various agencies like the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Ministry of Mines (MoM), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), research institutes and universities of not only India but from the other countries also are involved in this task. As such the craton portion of Karnataka has been gaining lot of importance in recent years on account of its unique geo-illustration. The present study area covers southern extensions of the Chitradurga schist belt, which includes the parts of Nagamangala, Mayasandra and Yadiyur schist belts and associated gneissic terrain with enclaves of mafic and ultramafic rocks exposed around Nagamangala town. Both the Nagamangala and Mayasandra schist belts are correlated to the Sargur Group ( 3400 my) while the Yadiyur schist belt to Dharwar Super Group. The present area is better suited for above mentioned studies as in this area the various litho units belonging to two stratigraphic units are well exposed and lie almost side by side. The present study of the area around the parts of Nagamangala, Mayasandra and Yadiyur dykes of Chitradurga schist belts of Dharwar Craton and is situated in Mandya and Tumkur district of Karnataka State. Sampling has been done so as to include all the noted variations in the field characters and to have a good geographic coverage. Satellite imagery has helped in picking up a number of major and minor lineaments cutting across the schist belts and gneisses. The geological map produced here has been prepared on the basis of the detailed observations in the field using Geoinformatics tools. The representative samples have been examined using geological microscope and the rocks have been classified on the basis of their mineral assemblages and textural features. The extensive igneous activity undergone by the study area is represented by the numerous dykes. A detailed geological characterization of the environs in the Nagamangala, Mayasandra and Yadiyur area on the basis of field observations has tried to give not only an unified illustration of the geology of the area but also has commented on the possible modes of advancement of the different necessary components like topography, climate, rainfall, drainage, soil and lithology of the study area

What have we learned from C5 palsy - A short communication

A study group on C5 palsy retrospectively reviewed 1001 cervical operations at their institutions in order to understand the incidence, prognosticators, pathogenesis, and outcome of C5 palsy after cervical operations. Three studies are summarized. C5 palsy was higher after posterior versus anterior operations. C4-C5 foraminotomy and age were the strongest predictors of C5 palsy after posterior surgeries and anterior cervical decompression-fusion, respectively. Among patients undergoing C4-C5 posterior laminoforaminotomy with instrumented fusion, cord shift on postoperative imaging was thought to be implicated in the pathogenesis of C5 palsy. Among affected patients, 81.4% recovered. Median time to resolution of C5 palsy was between 6 months to 1 year

RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION FOR IT PROJECTS-- RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION FOR IT PROJECTS--A SUPPLY CHAIN APPROACH

Software service organizations (SSOs) execute Information Technology (IT) projects and provide skilled human resources to client organizations. For a given IT project, a SSO may be required to provide their clients with IT professionals having a specific combination of software and/or hardware and/or managerial skills and with a specific level of expertise in each of those skills. However the actual number of people who meet all the required conditions for an IT project would be small. SSOs aim to achieve a balance between high growth and high utilization; the former requires keeping a pool of available resources to be deployed at growth opportunities. However if this pool becomes too large, utilization suffers, lowering profitability. Thus, the key to IT project execution lies in human resource optimization— putting together the optimal mix of human resources at the correct location at the correct time at the correct price. However, SSOs have not been very successful in this regard, with low utilization ratios being common in the industry. The objective of this study is to provide an optimal human resource management model that maximizes profitability by taking into account factors peculiar to SSOs