COSMO-RS:An ionic liquid prescreening tool for gas hydrate mitigation

Recently ionic liquids(ILs) are introduced as novel dual function gas hydrate inhibitors. However, no desired gas hydrate inhibition has been reported due to poor IL selection and/or tuning method. Trial error as well as selection based on existing literature are the methods currently employed for selecting and/or tuning ILs. These methods are probabilistic, time consuming, expensive and may not result in selecting high performance ILs for gas hydrate mitigation. In this work, COSMO-RS is considered as a prescreening tool of ILs for gas hydrate mitigation by predicting the hydrogen bonding energies(E_(HB)) of studied IL inhibitors and comparing the predicted E_(HB) to the depression temperature(?) and induction time. Results show that, predicted EHBand chain length of ILs strongly relate and significantly affect the gas hydrate inhibition depression temperature but correlate moderately(R = 0.70) with average induction time in literature. It is deduced from the results that, ? increases with increasing IL EHBand/or decreases with increasing chain length. However, the cation–anion pairing of ILs also affects IL gas hydrate inhibition performance. Furthermore, a visual and better understanding of IL/water behavior for gas hydrate inhibition in terms of hydrogen bond donor and acceptor interaction analysis is also presented by determining the sigma profile and sigma potential of studied IL cations and anions used for gas hydrate mitigation for easy IL selection.     

Contrast enhancement dynamic histogram equalization for medical image processing application

Image processing requires an excellent image contrast‐enhancement technique to extract useful information invisible to the human or machine vision. Because of the histogram flattening, the widely used conventional histogram equalization image‐enhancing technique suffers from severe brightness changes, rendering it undesirable. Hence, we introduce a contrast‐enhancement dynamic histogram‐equalization algorithm method that generates better output image by preserving the input mean brightness without introducing the unfavorable side effects of checkerboard effect, artefacts, and washed‐out appearance. The first procedure of this technique is; normalizing input histogram and followed by smoothing process. Then, the break point detection process is done to divide the histogram into subhistograms before we can remap the gray level allocation. Lastly, the transformation function of each subhistogram is constructed independently. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 21, 280‐289, 2011;     

Fast leave-one-out evaluation for dynamic gene selection

Gene selection procedure is a necessary step to increase the accuracy of machine learning algorithms that help in disease diagnosis based on gene expression data. This is commonly known as a feature subset selection problem in machine learning domain. A fast leave-one-out (LOO) evaluation formula for least-squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs) is introduced here that can guide our backward feature selection process. Based on that, we propose a fast LOO guided feature selection (LGFS) algorithm. The gene selection step size is dynamically adjusted according to the LOO accuracy estimation. For our experiments, the application of LGFS to the gene selection process improves the classifier accuracy and reduces the number of features required as well. The least number of genes that can maximize the disease classification accuracy is automatically determined by our algorithm.     

Two-stage hybrid optimization of fiber Bragg gratings for design of linear phase filters

We present a new hybrid optimization method for the synthesis of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with complex characteristics. The hybrid optimization method is a two-tier search that employs a global optimization algorithm [i.e., the tabu search (TS) algorithm] and a local optimization method (i.e., the quasi-Netwon method). First the TS global optimization algorithm is used to find a "promising" FBG structure that has a spectral response as close as possible to the targeted spectral response. Then the quasi-Newton local optimization method is applied to further optimize the FBG structure obtained from the TS algorithm to arrive at a targeted spectral response. A dynamic mechanism for weighting of different requirements of the spectral response is employed to enhance the optimization efficiency. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, the synthesis of three linear-phase optical filters based on FBGs with different grating lengths is described.     

Chronic effects of dietary selenium on juvenile Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus)

The chronic effects of dietary selenium (Se) exposure in juvenile Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus) were investigated in the laboratory. A total of 960 (40 fish per tank, 3 tanks per diet) 7-month-old juvenile splittail were fed one of eight Purified-Casein diets supplemented with selenized yeast for 9 months in a flow-through system. These diets contained the following: 0.4 (control), 0.7, 1.4, 2.7, 6.6, 12.6, 26.0, and 57.6 mg of Se kg(-1) dry weight. Survival, Se tissue concentration, growth, gross morphology, and liver histopathology were assessed at 5- and 9-month of exposure. Mortalities occurred only in the two highest Se treatments and were accounted for 8.3 and 18.3% at 5-month and 10.0 and 34.3% at 9-month, respectively. Liver and muscle Se concentration were significantly correlated with dietary Se concentration. Fish exposed to 0.4-12.6 mg of Se kg(-1) diets had reached equilibrium in liver Se concentration by 5 month. Splittail fed diets at concentrations > or =26.0 mg of Se kg(-1) had not reached equilibrium in liver, and muscle Se concentrations and grew significantly slower (p < 0.05) at 5- and 9-month exposure. Se-induced deformities were observed in fish fed > or =2.7 mg of Se kg(-1) diets at 5-month and in fish fed > or =0.7 mg of Se kg(-1) diets at 9-month. Fish fed 26.0 and 57.6 mg of Se kg(-1) diets had higher liver lesion scores at 5-month while fish fed 6.6 and 57.6 mg of Se kg(-1) diet had higher liver lesion scores at 9-month. Results indicate that survivals, growth, changes of tissue Se concentrations, and histopathology of juvenile splittail were dose-dependent, but their response thresholds to dietary Se concentrations differed and depended on treatment concentrations and duration of exposure. Chronic exposure to 6.6 mg of Se kg(-1) diet induced deleterious health effects that can potentially impact survival of juvenile splittail.     

Empirical Investigation into Factors Affecting Exporting Construction Services in SMEs in Singapore

The Singapore government is encouraging construction enterprises to venture abroad for exporting their services and become global players since the local construction pie is shrinking and the global market is growing. The Building and Construction Authority of Singapore has revamped the contractors registration system with the hope of bringing about merger and acquisition of companies for improving the local contractors’ standing in the global construction scene. To diversify into new markets in a new environment, which is very different from local environment, requires diversification vis-à-vis exporting strategy. This study examines the attitudes and views of contractors, operating in Singapore (excluding foreign contractors), on how the strategic move should be focused for diversification vis-à-vis exporting services. The aim of this study is to establish the survival skills necessary for Singapore’s construction small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to venture abroad. A postal questionnaire survey was conducted and the results show that local construction SMEs who have diversified have reaped the benefits derived from diversification into new markets abroad. The main conclusions are that construction SMEs have to export their services in order to survive and they can enhance their export capabilities by forming a consortium with the help of local government.     

$nhbox{-ZnO}/nhbox{-GaAs}$ Heterostructured White Light-Emitting Diode: Nanoscale Interface Analysis and Electroluminescence Studies

n-ZnO/n-GaAs heterostructured light-emitting diodes have been fabricated by a low-cost ultrasonic spray pyrolysis technique. Nanoscale interface analysis was carried out with scanning transmission electron microscopy. An ~ 8.6-nm-thick amorphous GaAsZnInO was found in the n -ZnO/n-GaAs interface. A strong and broad white electroluminescence band centered at ~ 525 nm and a weak near-infrared emission peaked at ~ 815 nm were observed when n-GaAs was positively biased. The 815-nm emission is believed to be related to the interface layer, and the 525-nm emission is assigned to the recombination of electrons from conduction band to deep-level holes in the ZnO layer.