Flat sheet direct contact membrane distillation desalination system using temperature-dependent correlations: thermal efficiency via a multi-parameter sensitivity analysis based on Monte Carlo method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, a 1D model of direct contact membrane distillation is presented in which all fluid properties are temperature-dependent. In addition, a...     

Prevalence of Genetically Modified Rice, Maize, and Soy in Saudi Food Products

Qualitative and quantitative DNA-based methods were applied to detect genetically modified foods in samples from markets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Two hundred samples were collected from Al-Qassim, Riyadh, and Mahdina in 2009 and 2010. GMOScreen 35S and NOS test kits for the detection of genetically modified organism varieties in samples were used. The positive results obtained from GMOScreen 35S and NOS were identified using specific primer pairs. The results indicated that all rice samples gave negative results for the presence of 35S and NOS terminator. About 26 % of samples containing soybean were positive for 35S and NOS terminator and 44 % of samples containing maize were positive for the presence of 35S and/or NOS terminator. The results showed that 20.4 % of samples was positive for maize line Bt176, 8.8 % was positive for maize line Bt11, 8.8 % was positive for maize line T25, 5.9 % was positive for maize line MON 810, and 5.9 % was positive for StarLink maize. Twelve samples were shown to contain <3 % of genetically modified (GM) soy and 6 samples >10 % of GM soy. Four samples containing GM maize were shown to contain >5 % of GM maize MON 810. Four samples containing GM maize were shown to contain >1 % of StarLink maize. Establishing strong regulations and certified laboratories to monitor GM foods or crops in Saudi market is recommended.     

An automated algorithm for stability analysis of hybrid dynamical systems

There are many hybrid dynamical systems encountered in nature and in engineering, that have a large number of subsystems and a large number of switching conditions for transitions between subsystems. Bifurcation analysis of such systems poses a problem, because the detection of periodic orbits and the computation of their Floquet multipliers become difficult in such systems. In this paper we propose an algorithm to solve this problem. It is based on the computation of the fundamental solution matrix over a complete period–where the orbit may contain transitions through a large number of subsystems. The fundamental solution matrix is composed of the exponential matrices for evolution through the subsystems (considered linear time invariant in this paper) and the saltation matrices for the transitions through switching conditions. This matrix is then used to compose a Newton-Raphson search algorithm to converge on the periodic orbit. The algorithm–which has no restriction of the complexity of the system–locates the periodic orbit (stable or unstable), and at the same time computes its Floquet multipliers. The program is written in a sufficiently general way, so that it can be applied to any hybrid dynamical system.     

Use of artificial neural network in forecasting optimal distance of enclosures containing PCM-introduced for improving the performance of the evacuated tube solar collectors

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the usefulness of using regression-based methods in estimating the optimal fins distance in a PCM finned enclosure of the evacuated tube...     

Computational and spectral investigation of 5,12-dihydro-5,12-ethanonaphthacene-13-carbaldehyde

A conformational search of 5,12-dihydro-5,12-ethanonaphthacene-13-carbaldehyde predicted the presence of twelve conformations. The geometry of the twelve conformations established at the B3LYP/6-31G* level showed only six unique ones. Vibrational frequencies were calculated at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. The calculated vibrational frequencies enabled us to interpret the appearance of two bands corresponding to the C=O stretching mode of 5,12-dihydro-5,12-ethanonaphthacene-13-carbaldehyde. The first band corresponded to the 5,12-dihydro-5,12-ethanonaphthacene-13-carbaldehyde structure where the aldehyde group O atom was above the benzene or naphthalene ring. The other band was due to the O atom of the aldehyde group pointing out of the benzene or naphthalene ring.     

A dominant subset of V-shaped sequences for a class of single machine sequencing problems

In this note we define a subset of V-shaped sequences, ‘V-shaped about T’, which generalize ‘V-shaped about d’ sequences. We derive a condition under which this subset contains an optimal sequence for a class of single machine sequencing problems. Cost functions from the literature are used to illustrate our results.