• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.297-311
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• 2016

Modeling and simulation of air humidification by hollow fiber membrane contactors are investigated in the current study. A computational fluid dynamic model was developed by solving the k-epsilon turbulence 2D Navier-Stokes equations as well as mass conservation equations for steady-state conditions in membrane contactors. Finite element method is used for the study of the air humidification under different operating conditions, with a focus on the humidity density, total mass transfer flux and velocity field. There has been good agreement between simulation results and experimental data obtained from literature. It is found that the enhancement of air stream decreases the outlet humidity from 0.392 to 0.340 (module 1) and from 0.467 to 0.337 (module 2). The results also indicated that there has been an increase in air velocity in the narrow space of shell side compared with air velocity wide space of shell side. Also, irregular arrangement has lower dead zones than regular arrangement which leads to higher water flux.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2017

In this paper, the effect of normal load on the failure mechanism of echelon joint has been studied using PFC2D. In the first step, calibration of PFC was undertaken with respect to the data obtained from experimental laboratory tests. Then, six different models consisting various echelon joint were prepared and tested under two low and high normal loads. Furthermore, validation of the simulated models were cross checked with the results of direct shear tests performed on non-persistent jointed physical models. The simulations demonstrated that failure patterns were mostly influenced by normal loading, while the shear strength was linked to failure mechanism. When ligament angle is less than $90^{\circ}$, the stable crack growth length is increased by increasing the normal loading. In this condition, fish eyes failure pattern occur in rock bridge. With higher ligament angles, the rock bridge was broken under high normal loading. Applying higher normal loading increases the number of fracture sets while dilation angle and mean orientations of fracture sets with respect to ligament direction will be decreased.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.189-206
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• 2017

Tanks are used to store a wide variety of liquids such as oil, gasoline and water. It is reported that, a large number of tanks have been damaged during severe earthquakes. Therefore, understanding their behavior under earthquake is an important subject for structural engineers. In this paper, a comprehensive study is presented on dynamic response of tanks. A parametric study has been completed on the rectangular storage tanks with aid of finite element method (FEM). Various parameters are investigated, such as; liquid height, density and earthquake with different peak ground acceleration (PGA). When investigating these parameters, modal and time history method is used. Six different earthquake records are used for time history analysis. The analysis results show that when the PGA increases by 10.7 times, the maximum displacements, stress, sloshing and base shear increase by 11.4, 22.6, 5.46 and 17.8 times, respectively and when the liquid height increases by two times, the absolute maximum values of stress, displacements, base shear and sloshing increase 1.65, 2.04, 2.05 and 1.34. Furthermore, values of sloshing increase with decrease in density.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.541-557
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• 2018

This paper presents the influence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness and aspect ratio on the vibrational behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite sandwich annular sector plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundations. The carbon nanotube-reinforced (CNTR) sandwich plate has smooth variation of CNT fraction along the thickness direction. The distributions of CNTs are considered functionally graded (FG) or uniform along the thickness and their mechanical properties are estimated by an extended rule of mixture. In this study, the classical theory concerning the mechanical efficiency of a matrix embedding finite length fibers has been modified by introducing the tube-to-tube random contact, which explicitly accounts for the progressive reduction of the tubes' effective aspect ratio as the filler content increases. Effects of CNT distribution, volume fraction, aspect ratio and waviness, and also effects of Pasternak's elastic foundation coefficients, sandwich plate thickness, face sheets thickness and plate aspect ratio are investigated on the free vibration of the sandwich plates with wavy CNT-reinforced face sheets. The study is carried out based on three-dimensional theory of elasticity and in contrary to two-dimensional theories, such as classical, the first- and the higher-order shear deformation plate theories, this approach does not neglect transverse normal deformations. The sandwich annular sector plate is assumed to be simply supported in the radial edges while any arbitrary boundary conditions are applied to the other two circular edges including simply supported, clamped and free.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.2
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• pp.171-182
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• 2018

For the first time, nonlocal damped vibration and buckling analyses of arbitrary tapered bidirectional functionally graded solid circular nano-plate (BDFGSCNP) are presented by employing modified spectral Ritz method. The energy method based on Love-Kirchhoff plate theory assumptions is applied to derive neutral equilibrium equation. The Eringen's nonlocal continuum theory is taken into account to capture small-scale effects. The characteristic equations and corresponding first mode shapes are calculated by using a novel modified basis in spectral Ritz method. The modified basis is in terms of orthogonal shifted Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind to avoid employing adhesive functions in the spectral Ritz method. The fast convergence and compatibility with various conditions are advantages of the modified spectral Ritz method. A more accurate multivariable function is used to model two-directional variations of elasticity modulus and mass density. The effects of nanoscale, in-plane pre-load, distributed dashpot, arbitrary tapering, pinned and clamped boundary conditions on natural frequencies and buckling loads are investigated. Observing an excellent agreement between results of current work and outcomes of previously published works in literature, indicates the results' accuracy in current work.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.729-735
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• 2003

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of iron supplement for 4 weeks on iron status, immunity, and antioxidant status of national female soccer players (n = 25). This study was performed at summer hard training period right before competition. A single blind design was used to divide the subjects into iron-supplement (IS) or placebo group (P). Iron-supplement group was supplemented with iron (40 mg/d) for 4 weeks. The mean age of the subjects was 23.3 $\pm$ 2.5 years old. Mean height and body weight of the subjects were 164.4 $\pm$ 5.7 em and 57.4 $\pm$ 4.6 kg, respectively. The mean carrier as soccer player was 11.0 $\pm$ 2.6 years and mean training time was 7.0 $\pm$ 1.3 hr/day. The mean hemoglobin, hematocrit, total iron binding capacity and ferritin concentrations before iron supplementation were not different between two groups. After 4 weeks of summer training and iron supplementation, serum ferritin level was significantly increased only in IS group after supplementation. Mean corpuscular volume and total iron binding capacity were significantly decreased in both groups. Meanwhile, hemoglobin and red blood cell count were significantly lowered only in placebo group. The IgM concentration increased significantly in both groups, but IgG concentration had increasing tendency only in IS group (p < 0.064). Therefore, iron supplementation during hard training period may be helpful to improve work capacity of the athletes by improving ferritin status and humoral immune responses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2018

A method is proposed to detect structural damages in the presence of damping using noisy data. This method uses Frequency Response Function (FRF) and Mode-Shapes as the input parameters for a system of Couple Sparse Coding (CSC) to study the healthy state of the structure. To obtain appropriate patterns of FRF for CSC training, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique is adopted to reduce the full-size FRF to overcome over-fitting and convergence problems in machine-learning training. To verify the proposed method, a numerical two-story frame structure is employed. A system of individual CSCs is trained with FRFs and mode-shapes, and then termed ensemble to detect the health condition of the structure. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is accurate in damage identification even in presence of up to 20% noisy data and 5% unconsidered damping ratio. Furthermore, it can be concluded that CSC ensemble is highly efficient to detect the location and the severity of damages in comparison to the individual CSC trained only with FRF data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.6
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• pp.737-748
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• 2018

The current study presents a new technique in the framework of the nonlocal elasticity theory for a comprehensive buckling analysis of Euler-Bernoulli nano-beams made up of bidirectional functionally graded material (BDFGM). The mechanical properties are considered by exponential and arbitrary variations for axial and transverse directions, respectively. The various circumstances including tapering, resting on two-parameter elastic foundation, step-wise or continuous variations of axial loading, various shapes of sections with various distribution laws of mechanical properties and various boundary conditions like the multi-span beams are taken into account. As far as we know, for the first time in the current work, the buckling analyses of BDFGM nano-beams are carried out under mentioned circumstances. The critical buckling loads and mode shapes are calculated by using energy method and a new technique based on calculus of variations and collocation method. Fast convergence and excellent agreement with the known data in literature, wherever possible, presents the efficiency of proposed technique. The effects of boundary conditions, material and taper constants, foundation moduli, variable axial compression and small-scale of nano-beam on the buckling loads and mode shapes are investigated. Moreover the analytical solutions, for the simpler cases are provided in appendices.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.503-512
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• 2010

Anther derived double haploids (DHs) from sweet pepper genotypes ('Special', 'Derby', 'Bossanova', 'Fiesta', 'Debora' and 'Minipaprika') were used to study the agronomic variation in 2006. Ninety-nine successful DHs regenerants (32 from 'Special', 25 from 'Derby', 23 from 'Bossanova', 10 from 'Fiesta', 6 from 'Debora' and 3 from 'Minipaprika') were transplanted at plastic house and studied on their agronomic characters. Variation in agronomic characters was observed within the DHs of each genotype. DHs obtained from 'Derby' and 'Fiesta' exhibited wide variation in fruit yield $plant^{-1}$ whereas averaged fruit yield $plant^{-1}$ was highest in 'Derby' (1608 g) and less variation was observed in DHs of 'Bossanova'. Based on the agronomic characters expressed in DHs population at this environment, SP55, SP56, SP60, and SP116 from 'Special', SP8, SP10, SP14, SP16, and SP34 from 'Derby', SP115, SP119, SP142, SP143, SP196, and SP199 from 'Bossanova', SP41, SP45, and SP114 from 'Fiesta', SP21 from 'Debora' and SP91 from 'Minipaprika' identified as elite inbred lines and these DH lines could be used for commercial hybrids production in sweet pepper. Genetic relationship among the selected inbred lines using molecular markers and their response to diseases are further recommended to study.