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Cellulosic fibre composites from agriculture waste product bast fibre such Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) oil palm has lower cost than normal softwood fibre and they are great alternative to be considered in insulation papermaking. For this purpose, EFB fibre, kenaf fibre and their blend were used to fabricate electrical presspaper samples through a laboratory papermaking process. The study of physical, mechanical and electrical properties such as cellulosic structure, tensile strength, AC voltage breakdown and lightning impulse breakdown strength were conducted according to the standard testing method of insulation IEC60243-1:2013. From this research, the physical structure, mechanical and electrical behaviour of mixed EFB and kenaf fibre insulation paper are comparable to Kraft paper and qualified the basic criterion to be an electrical insulation paper as required by IEC60641-2 standard. The purposes of this insulation paper produced is to be use in electrical transformers, therefore the same test should be repeated to the insulation paper that have undergone aging process at normal and accelerated operating temperatures.

The current study revolves around development of paper from dhaincha fiber (Sesbania aculeata). Dhaincha is a basically cultivated for improvisation of soil quality. Due to deforestation worldwide, various sources of raw materials are used in paper industries. Indian pulp and paper industry is the world's major paper industry. In this study extraction of dhaincha fiber was done followed by retting, combing, chemical analysis and by making of pulp with dhaincha fiber. The dhaincha pulp was then used for making a paper from dhaincha fiber. The thickness of the dhaincha paper was then tested with paper thickness tester. By doing further processing dhaincha paper can be used commercially by paper industry.

We developed a novel glucose sensor that enabled simple visual screening of specific glucose concentrations in urine. This non-invasive glucose biosensor integrated a disposable, paper-based sensing strip and a simple amplifier circuit with a visual readout. The paper sensor consisted of five enzyme-functionalized electrodes which were individually connected to a specifically designed LED indicator circuit with a predefined threshold value regarding glucose levels. The device features (i) low-cost paper-based glucose oxidase (GOX)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) sensing electrodes, (ii) simple signal amplification and (iii) on-site, rapid and visual detection. The sensor showed reliable, discrete visual responses for determination of five glucose levels (1, 2, 3, 4 and higher than 4 mM) in urine in less than 2 minutes. This sensor will address the limitations of conventional glucose measurements.

The data on nanocellulose preparation from organosolv kenaf pulp and its application in the production of corrugating paper are reported. The influence of technological factors on the properties of nanocellulose films was determined The obtained nanocellulose films had to 1.4 g/cm3density, 78 % transparency, 80 % crystallinity degree and 77 MPa tensile strength. Other properties of nanocellulose were studied by means of XRD, AFM and TGA methods. The corrugating paper with a coating consumption of 5 g/m2nanocellulose has mechanical properties 18-34% higher than paper without the use of surface treatment. The use of obtained nanocellulose as coating layer has great potential to improve fiber-based mechanical and barrier properties of corrugating paper.

In this study, a new screening process called "bacterial SELEX" was reported to screen favorable aptamers targeting four common nosocomial and antibiotics-resistant bacteria, including Acinetobacter baumannii, vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), Escherichia coli, and multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The new bacterial SELEX system performed three critical selecting stages for screening of bacteria-specific aptamers. A paper-based microfluidic system was further developed by using the selected specific aptamers and a biotin-streptavidin color reaction for rapid detection of these four bacteria. The proposed paper-based microfluidic chip has several advantages, such as compactness in size, ease to handle, high specificity and capability to detect multiple pathogens simultaneously. It may be promising for point-of-care applications in the near future.

We demonstrate the use of a paper-based sensing platform for rapid and high-throughput characterization of microbial electricity-generating capabilities. For the first time, a 48-well microbial fuel cell (MFC) array was fabricated on paper substrates, providing 48 high-throughput measurements and highly comparable performance characteristics in a reliable manner. Spatially distinct 48 wells of the sensor array were prepared by patterning 48 hydrophilic reservoirs in paper with hydrophobic wax boundaries. The paper-based platform exploited the ability of paper to quickly wick fluid and promote bacterial attachment to the gold anode pads, resulting in an instant current generation upon loading of bacterial inoculum and catholyte. This paper-based 48-well MFC array does not require external pumps/tubings and represents the most rapid and the highest throughput test platform for electrogenic bacterial screening.

Bacterial infections are commonly found on paper towels and other paper products leading to the potential spread of bacteria and consequent health concerns. The objective of this in vitro study was to introduce antibacterial properties to paper towel surfaces by coating them with selenium nanoparticles. Results showed that the selenium nanoparticle coated paper towels inhibited the growth of Staphyloccocus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 80%~90% after 72 hours compared with the uncoated paper towels. Thus, the study showed that nano-selenium coated paper towels may lead to an increased eradication of bacteria to more effectively clean a wide-range of clinical environments, thus, improving health.

We propose a binary message passing decoding algorithm for product codes based on generalized minimum distance decoding (GMDD) of the component codes, where the last stage of the GMDD makes a decision based on the Hamming distance metric. The proposed algorithm closes half of the gap between conventional iterative bounded distance decoding (iBDD) and turbo product decoding based on the Chase–Pyndiah algorithm, at the expense of some increase in complexity. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm entails only a limited increase in data flow compared to iBDD.

This paper presents a study on the effect of beating on the physical and mechanical properties of untreated kenaf based insulation paper for application in transformers. The paper was developed based on kenaf bast fibers through soda pulping process. The pulps were subjected to beating process up to 9000 revolutions where the thickness, density and tensile index of paper were measured. It is found that the tensile index and the density of the paper increases while the thickness of the paper decreases with beating revolutions.

Load shedding is critical for facilities that have cogeneration capability to prevent collapse of the cogeneration assets. Fast load shedding requires sub-cycle speed to manage thousands of distributed loads within a facility. This paper describes the experience of applying such a fast load shedding scheme across a wide array of relays provided by various vendors and potentially a large quantity. The system described in this paper utilizes a proven fast load shed system and makes it easy to configure larger and more complex load shed schemes. The paper proposes the architecture of a central fast load shed controller interfaced with local feeder protection relays over IEC 61850 GOOSE and additional fast load shed aggregators if total GOOSE is more than 64. One of the challenges with a large-scale load shed scheme deployment is the configuration of devices, and especially the IEC 61850 GOOSE engineering process which may add further complexity. This paper proposes a simple to configure IEC 61850 GOOSE scheme with high-speed performance requirements. Lessons learned from the fast load shed deployment are also discussed.

Indonesia produces over 350Mt of clean coal in 2012 and is the second largest coal exporter to Japan, accounting for 30 Mt/y. Almost of the coal produced is from open cut mines. Mining operation of open cut mines gives serious impacts on surrounding environment. Therefore, an appropriate rehabilitation program has to be taken into consideration when the mine plan is designed. The basic concept of rehabilitation in open cut mines is the creation of a stable and self-sustaining land surface in post mine surface involved the creation of conditions suitable for the establishment and permanent development of a dense cover of vegetation. Hence, the soil characteristics in rehabilitation area and adequate selection of species to plant in there have to be considered. This paper describes the current situations in rehabilitation area at one of open cut coal mine in Indonesia and then discusses the application of Paper Mulberry as one of effective species planted in post mine surface based on the laboratory tests.

Alpha-amylase enzyme is a desirable biocatalyst in starch hydrolysis process. It can perform its catalytic activity in either soluble or immobilized form. Immobilization of this enzyme is a chief strategy to make starch hydrolysis process more robust and cost effective. In this study alpha-amylase bioactive paper (AABP) was produced using a desktop inkjet printer, commercial alpha-amylase enzyme and selected commercial cellulosic papers. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) analysis showed that the inkjet printing strategy was successful in immobilizing alpha-amylase enzyme on paper surface. Functionality and recyclability of AABPs were successfully evaluated using starch-iodine assay and UV/Vis spectrophotometry. It was found that AABP2 exhibited the highest relative activity (80-90%) and was able to be recycled up to three times without notable activity loss and structural defect. Therefore, we have highlighted the durability, functionality and recyclability of AABPs which potentially contribute to low cost sugar industries.

Bacterial infections are commonly found on paper towels and other paper products leading to the potential spread of bacteria and consequent health concerns. The objective of this in vitro study was to introduce antibacterial properties to standard paper towel surfaces by coating them with selenium nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy was used to measure the size and distribution of the selenium coatings on the paper towels. The amount of selenium precipitated on the paper towels was measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy. In vitro bacterial studies with S. aureus were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the selenium coatings at inhibiting bacterial growth. Results showed that the selenium nanoparticles coated on the paper towel surfaces were well distributed and were semi spherical 50nm in diameter. Most importantly, the selenium nanoparticle coated paper towels inhibited S. aureus growth by 90% after 24, 48 and 72 hours compared with uncoated paper towels. Thus, this study showed that nano-selenium coated paper towels may lead to an increased eradication of bacteria to clean a more wide-range of clinical environments and for the food industry, thus, improving health.

Sarawak has a long tradition in the industry of processing flour from the sago palm, Metroxylon sagu Rottboll and is the main exporting State in Malaysia in this commodity. Therefore, the industry has abundant sago waste such as the bark and fiber of extracted sago flour in which the locals use the barks of the trunk as timber fuel, wall materials, ceiling and fence. Fiber of extracted sago flour has also been used as animal feed. However, most are otherwise disposed into the river as waste and become a pollutant. The sago bark and fibers waste materials have been experimentally processed into eco-friendly kraft paper of various textures using a technology of a simple chemically-free kraft paper process. The kraft paper was developed into various types. The cardboard type was found to be suitable for making gift boxes of various designs with uniform consistency and rigidity. Similarly, the paper was found to be suitable for making envelopes, note book cover and souvenir paperbags with good quality. The quality of the bleached sago kraft paper fulfilled the attributes as a media for watercolour painting in terms of its furnish, colour, weight, finish, sizing and dimensions and permanence using watercolour concluded as being able to provide a stable surface media for art and craft works. The demonstration that utilities of sago by-product waste can be converted into kraft paper with good qualities has commercial potential. Thus the the sago waste will not be disposed into the river, thereby reduce the environmental pollution.

Recently, paper based biosensors have been studied in the fields of biology, chemistry, pharmacology and medicine. The main advantages of paper based biosensors are low cost, biocompatibility, portability and environmental compatibility. The process of cell immobilization on paper is an important step for the development of disposable paper based biosensors with a whole-cell electrochemical electrode. The major problem of this process is poor cell viability on paper. In this work, we study the viability of HC04 human hepatocyte cells immobilized on filter papers coated with gelatin and fibronectin. HC04 cells were cultured on uncoated and coated papers in a 5% CO 2 incubator for 6 and 24 hrs. Cell viability was then detected by tryphan blue and propidium iodide staining. The results show that % cell viability on gelatin and fibronectin coated paper are more than that on uncoated one. Therefore, the developed gelatin and fibronectin coated paper is promising for cell based biosensor applications.

DNA barcoding is widely used in fields, such as taxonomy and species identification. Conventional DNA barcoding sequences employ uninformative or repeat nucleotides in known groups of taxa within a monophylum. Herein, we propose a decision theory-based DNA barcode that tests for the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase gene (rbcL). The proposed method can generate shorter DNA barcodes called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) tags, which shorten rbcL sequences from their full length (400–654 bp) to 25-bp DNA tags. These DNA tags are then represented by quick response (QR) codes containing the species names, accession numbers, and DNA tag sequences. Our proposed method can efficiently reduce data storage and provide DNA barcoding for various plant species.

Spectral acquisitions contain rich information and thus, are promising modalities for early detection of gastric diseases. In this study, we analyze the diffuse reflectance of the gastric inflammatory lesions induced by the bacterium H. pylori in the mouse stomach. A pipeline has been designed to characterize and classify spectra acquired on mice. The pipeline is based on a band clustering algorithm followed by the computation of meaningful division and subtraction features and by classification with a linear SVM classifier. Currently, the pipeline is able to recognize inflamed stomach's spectra with an accuracy of 98%. These results are promising and the same pipeline could be adapted for the study of gastric pathologies in humans.

The ensemble of odorant receptors on the antenna of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster acts as an encoder for chemical molecules. Chemically similar odorants elicit activity in similar subsets of the receptors, spanning a so-called chemotopic feature space that enables chemical similarity search. A compound signal of receptor activity can be read out by calcium imaging of the antenna, yet without revealing corresponding receptors on different antennae. Employing Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) for multiple sets, we show that a consensus feature space can nevertheless be recovered from a group of variable antenna sensors that all respond to a common sequence of odorants. In the chemotopic consensus feature space, properties of novel odorants can be inferred, demonstrating how fruit fly antenna chemosensors may be employed as an alternative to electronic noses.

Cotton fibres, kenaf bast fibres, and leaf fibres have been evaluated as replacements for wood fibres in the manufacture of electric insulating paper and press board. Emphasis is placed on the use of O-A non-wood fibres to produce electric insulating paper. The results obtained indicate that kenaf bast fibre and cotton fibre can completely or partly replace NUKP pulp in the production of electric insulating press board and paper. Its physics is as good as that of NUKP pulp. >

The hot-ageing of electrical insulating paper made of oxygen-alkali (O-A) kenaf bast fibre was investigated. After hot kinetic stress, the mechanical strength of the kenaf bast fibre decreases somewhat, but the electrical properties do not change throughout the whole process. Either in air or in a transformer, the kenaf bast fibre electric insulating paper and press board's deterioration rate of the hot-ageing property is similar to that of NUKP electric insulating paper and press board. Because the initial value of this property is greater for the kenaf bast fibre pulp, its absolute value after ageing is also greater. >

According to statistics and analysis of the papers in the Science Citation Index published during 2009–2013 in Guangzhou, we investigated the authors of papers in the Science Citation Index. Then we found some conclusion including the performance of papers about science and technology in Guangzhou. Finally, we made some suggestions-speeding the construction of the major innovation platform; giving grant support to the outstanding young scientists and so on. And we hope it can improve quantity and quality of the published papers in Guangzhou.

In this work, we created a stackable, 3-D, paper-based, bacteria-powered battery for potentially powering on-chip paper-based biosensors. The battery generated power from microbial respiration with one drop of bacteria-containing liquid. An air-cathode was also created on paper with activated carbon on the Nickel electrode that was sprayed on the paper. By applying paper-folding techniques, the four on-chip batteries were connected in series to obtain a high operating voltage (0.1V) under a 470kΩ external resistor. Shewanella oneidensis were loaded on to the folded battery stack, through which the bacterial cells were transported into each battery. For operation, the battery stack was unfolded to expose all air-cathodes to the air, thereby maximizing their cathodic reactions.

Fiber seaweed Rhodophyceae class has a high of potential to be developed as a paper-making raw material is Gracilaria verrucosa. Gracilaria is very easy to be cultivated and the harvest time is relatively short time. Gracilaria verrucosa showed that this species is easily cultivated in the aquatic environment with fluctuating conditions. Gracilaria verrucosa has adaptability on light very well. Paper is an indispensable requirement for all people in the world. Paper is a body composed mainly by cellulose fibers, in addition to other auxiliary materials. Paper-making use the cellulose in pulp from the tree and it cause shrinking forest. One effect is the shrinking forest area that will affect the environmental balance. Environmental balance is closely related to the global warming issue is increasingly. Seaweed revitalization through seaweed cultivation on a large scale which will be promoted, especially in this paper industry, will improve the welfare of farmer if the processing technology (post-harvest) of seaweed can immediately be realized in the business world of Indonesian seaweed. The paper industry also will require workers who come from local communities, so that people can increase income and be able to drive the economy of Indonesian society.

One of the companies under Algaetech, Sasaran Biofuel Sdn. Bhd. Malaysia, provides project management, technology transfer and technical expertise to develop a solution to minimize and mitigate Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions through the diversion of the CO 2 to open algal ponds and enclosed photo-bioreactors as algal propagation technologies to consume CO 2 waste stream. The company is presently consulting a listed company from Indonesia to address the technology know-how and implementation of microalgae development from the flue gas of the Group's power plants. Nowadays, one of the aspects that contribute to the air pollution is the emission of flue gases from the factories. So, we provide a system that can reduce the emission of flue gas to the atmosphere and at the same time, cultivate certain strain of algae. With the technology, Algae Integrated Management System (AIMS), it will be for sure a new beginning for way to reduce air pollution. The Utilization of power plant resources for growing selected microalgae at a low energy cost for valuable products and bio-fuels while providing CO 2 sequestering. In the same time, it also a low cost algae agriculture. By doing so, it provides all year algae production which can be an income. This residual energy used CO 2 produced from power stations and industrial plants to feed the process (CO 2 recycling and bio-fixation) in cultivation of algae. This will be a low cost flue gas (CO 2 ) to the developer. In a nutshell, CO 2 Sequestration by algae reactors is a potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission by using the CO 2 in the stack gases to produce algae.

This study aims to evaluate the ageing performance of Kraft and Kenaf insulation press-paper in Natural Ester (NE), which could be applied in a power transformer. Kenaf fiber was produced by Kraft pulping process is considered as potential insulation press-paper due to higher cellulose. Due to environmental concerns, NE uses have been considered an alternative to mineral oil. In this experiment, an accelerated ageing test was carried out with transformer insulation press-paper. Kraft and Kenaf press-paper were impregnated in NE with a copper strip of 90°C and 140°C for 10,20 30 days. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) result showed that O-H's absorption intensity decreased, while C-H, C=O, and C-O bond increased with the ageing time. The viscosity measurements have been used to compare the stability of aged NE with Kraft and Kenaf press-paper at different ageing time. It is found that the viscosity results showed aged NE with Kraft press-paper is higher than Kenaf presspaper as the duration of ageing increase.

Phytopigments are essential indicators of plant growth. However, current methodologies use expensive laboratory devices. In this study, a low-cost approach of lettuce leaf phytopigments profiling is employed using a consumer-grade camera and integrated computational intelligence via paper chromatography. Hybrid neighborhood component analysis and ReliefF selected the blue reflectance extracted from chromatography to have the most significant impact with other leaf biophysical signatures. Chl $b$ exhibits more complex reflectance spectrum than other pigments and considered as strong indicator of energy absorbance variations. Xanthophyll and carotenoid have the strongest and weakest retardation factor and retention time, respectively. Chl a-b has weak affinity to acetone and their average blue reflectance is confirmed to absorb the highest number of photons in white light cultivation. Leaf absorbance varies by $\pm 1307.04\ \mu \mathrm{mol\ m}^{-2}\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ PPFD per ±0.1 of blue reflectance. Among other machine learning models, Gaussian processing regression bested out multigene symbolic genetic programming and recurrent neural network in predicting the average chloroplast photosystems I and II blue reflectance with R2 of 0.9974. This developed approach extends the application of paper chromatography from segmenting to phytopigment profiling.

Palawan was one of the leading exporters of mangoes in the Philippines but because of the unprecedented spread of the Mango Pulp Weevil (MPW), it placed Palawan under quarantine. The MPW is an aggressive pest that mates seasonally according to the cycle of the mango fruit. They can damage mangoes from within, leaving no physical evidence on the outside. The goal of this paper is to extract the characterized frequency of MPW pupa with respect to its activities to become the baseline data for future studies. This paper also contains the study of two machine learning algorithms used and compared to each other, properly classifying and characterizing inputs of frequency that may contain MPW pupa activities.

The clarification process is an important part of sugarcane production. This process is used for separating sediment and sugarcane juice by adding flocculant. The addition of quantity and concentration of flocculant directly affects the settling rate and turbidity of sugarcane juice. This paper proposes a model for forecasting quantity and concentration of flocculant by using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Neural Network. Input data consists of green cane, burn cane, turbidity, and rainfall. Output data includes quantity and concentration of flocculant. Raw data was collected from top sugarcane factory and meteorological department in Thailand. The results are the forecast of the quantity and concentration of flocculant for one day in advance. The performance of LSTM is compared to the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), recurrent neural network (RNN), and gated recurrent unit (GRU) using root mean square error and mean absolute percent error. The result indicates that LSTM has the best performance. The forecast helps the operator in clarification process to prepare the flocculant.

This research is about gasifying the biomass char in a fluidized bed gasifier and yielding Syngas. Biomass char was obtained after pyrolysis of Pongamia in a fixed bed reactor. During the gasification, air was used as an oxidizing agent. The resulting gas contained a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and monoxide, methane, ammonia, oxygen, low concentrations of elevated hydrocarbon emissions, pollutants, including small bits of char etc. The hydrogen thus produced is taken out and can be used as a potential fuel because of a source of clean energy and an alternative carbon supply. In today's scenario, the generated syngas has many applications. This paper explores the biomass air-steam gasification dynamics of a fluidized bed. Several studies were carried out to explore effects from reactor temperature, vapor to biomass ratio (S/B) and biomass particulate content, gas emission, vapor and low heating (LHV). The findings indicate that a higher temperature contributed to a higher percentage of hydrogen production. There has also been evidence that a smaller particle is more suitable for higher gas and levels of LHV.

Twenty-three fungal strains were isolated from solid waste generated in the processing of alpaca and sheep wool from the company Inca Tops S. A. in Arequipa-Peru, as well as from cow rumen. Quantitative analyzes were carried out resulting in the selection of 5 microbial strains: Aspergillus sp., Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus sp., Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium sp. An experimental dry anaerobic digestion (DAD) reactor with 20L capacity was built, the configuration of which was made taking into account a one-stage batch system with feed recirculation and biomass ratio of 2:1 working at room temperature. Evaluation of the dry anaerobic digester was performed comparing the initial and final biomass after 60 days operation time, resulting in a decrease in the percentage of total solids from 37.91% to 28.82%, volatile solids percentage from 19.64% to 15.71%, chemical oxygen demand from 2 080.19 mg/Kg to 1414.63mg/Kg, and pH from 7.35 to 7.15.

Water hyacinth (E. cressipes), and Cogon Grass (Imperata cylindrica) fibers have long been used for different purposes such as paper, crafts, and insulation because of their abundances as pest plants and the fibers’ characteristics (Bhuvaneshwari, 2016; Kassim et al., 2015). Previous studies have investigated and assessed water hyacinth regarding thermal insulation. However, cogon grass has not yet been studied regarding its insulating characteristics. Both plants may be used as eco-friendly materials in replacement of the synthetic fibers used in thermal insulation. In this study, the insulation panels were made in different compositions to test effectivity among the different samples in terms of insulating heat and compatibility among the fibers. Five compositions of panels were made: 100% hyacinth only, 75% hyacinth 25% cogon, 50% hyacinth 50% cogon, 25% hyacinth 75% cogon and 100% cogon. Fibers were obtained by boiling, trimming, and blending the stalks and leaf blades. The panel boards were formed and shaped according to the stipulated ratios in metal trays separated by sheets of aluminum foil. The heat test was conducted under the sun from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm to simulate the heat from the peak of the day’s heat on thermal insulation. A heat test, density test, ANOVA, and T-test were conducted. Since the F comp value was greater than the critical value, ANOVA results showed that panels with 25% cogon and 50% cogon compositions may have been effective in insulating the heat surrounding them and all were comparatively in line with standard thermal insulation may it be synthetic or hyacinth insulation from other studies. The comparison of hyacinth insulation and all the other panels utilized a two-way t-test, the 50:50 hyacinth-cogon composite was still the best performing panel in insulating heat due to the balance of qualities possessed by cogon and hyacinth fibers. Although this paper shows the compatibility of these natural components as thermal insulation, there may still be many characteristics regarding insulation to be tackled and improved upon. Further studies should be done on different types of local pest plants for thermal insulation testing and prototype development.

The objective of work is to investigate alternative eco-friendly insulating fluids from non-edible vegetable oil to overcome existing environmental issue raised by conventional fluid (Mineral oil). Preparation of natural ester from non-edible vegetable oil (Pongamia Pinnata) is carried out in two stages; in the first stage removal of free fatty acids is carried, and trans-esterification is done in second stage. The formation of natural ester is confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectra (GC-MS) as per EN14103. The amount of unsaturation is confirmed by iodine number as per EN14111. The obtained natural esters with and without additives are characterized by critical parameters such as kinematic viscosity, total acidity (TAN), interfacial tension (IFT), flash/fire point, breakdown voltage (BDV), tan-delta and resistivity. Natural ester with and without additive shows improved insulating properties than crude pongamia pinnata oil (CPPO). The advantage of using non-edible vegetable oil is that; it does not compete on the food market while also being renewable and environmental friendly.

This work examine the effect of 4- Dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DM) antioxidant and jatropha biodiesel on the performance of a multi cylinder diesel engine. Later 30%, 35% and 40% of biodiesel blends (B30, B35 and B40) and DM antioxidant at concentration of 1000 ppm were investigated. The physical properties such as viscosity, density, calorific value and flash point were investigated and found closely matched with the values of diesel fuel. Engine performance of brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake power (BP), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), indicated power (IP), indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) and mechanical efficiency (ME) were studied at different speeds and loads. Higher BP and lower BSFC were observed for D65B35DM and D70B30DM fuel blends at engine speed of 1750 rpm compared to D60B40DM blend. BTE of 47.7% was observed at engine speed of 2000 rpm with D70B30DM blend. It is concluded that 4-Dimethylaminobenzaldehyde antioxidant addition to jatropha biodiesel enhances engine performance.

After the discovery of the existence of mango pulp weevil in Palawan the island has been under quarantine for exporting mangoes. Detection of the pest prove to be a difficult task as the pest do not leave a physical sign that a mango has been damaged by the pests. Infested mangoes are wasted as it cannot be sold due to the damages. This study serves as a base study for a non-invasive mango pulp weevil detection by using machine learning and audio feature extraction tools of MATLAB. Audio is recorded using a MEMS microphone and is placed inside a soundproof chamber to minimize the noise. The study was able to achieve a high accuracy on characterizing the adult mango pulp weevil activity by using MFCC as features extraction for identifying its activity.

This paper presents a system that can reduce the water percentage of stingless bee honey with a microcontroller to control the drying process employing temperature, drying air speed, relative humidity, and optimized honey exposure surface. The main objective is to reduce water content in stingless bee honey at 22 % in order to prevent rapid fermentation and delay crystallization. This water reduction process is important to preserve the quality and extend the storage period of honey. The system comprises of a programmed microcontroller, a main insulated container, a 12 V and 400 ml/min peristaltic pump, a 2800 Watt hair dryer, a temperature and relative humidity sensor, an exhaust fan, a relative humidity control system made of a smaller insulated container and a thermoelectric Peltier cooler module, a perforated stainless steel tray, and a switching circuit / a controller circuit. In this system, the temperature control was achieved using an on-off controller. The results showed that stingless bee honey samples between 2 and 8 kg was processed, where the percentage of water dropped from between 29 – 28 % to 21.2% with dehydration rate of 53.39 g/h.

This paper proposes a temperature monitoring system as an IoT application. The system is designed for temperature monitoring of koji which is an important material for sake, Japanese rice wine, brewing and investigating brewing environment. The system has been installed in a brewery and is being used to monitor koji making from steamed rice and koji mold to finished koji. We demonstrate that koji temperature transition can be observed in real time and logged by the system.

This paper reports the investigation of Persea americana oil (PAO) as an alternative replacement of mineral insulating oil (MIO) in electrical insulation and especially in high voltage power transformers. Persea americana oil has several advantages that recommend both its production and usage over that of MIO. It has high biodegradability, higher fire safety guarantee, non-toxicity and is renewable. Experiments to investigate the key physicochemical (i.e water content, viscosity, acidity, pour point, oxidation stability flash point...) and electrical (dielectric strength, dissipation factor) properties of PAO were conducted. The Ageing characteristics (dissipation factor, resistivity, total acidity) were also explored after accelerated ageing using open beaker method. Food grade extra virgin and refined Persea americana oil was used for this investigation. For comparison, the corresponding properties of mineral insulation oil (MIO) in the same experimental conditions were also measured. The obtained results show that the average electrical and physicochemical properties of PAO meet the IEC and IEEE specifications for new natural liquid insulation oils. The obtained results show that the average AC breakdown voltage of PAO is 74kV and that of MIO is 65kV. This may suggest that Persea americana oil can be used as an alternative transformer liquid insulation.

Insulating oil is used as insulant and coolant in transformers and other such electrical equipments. Presently, mineral oils are widely used in transformers and electrical equipments as insulating oils. These mineral oils are less biodegradable. Hence, from the environment point of view, vegetable oils are used as alternative to mineral insulating oils. This paper investigates the performance of critical characteristics of crude pongamia oil. This non-edible pongamia oil is extracted from seeds. It is a source of sustainable and environment-friendly insulating oil. Crude oil is processed by esterification and alkali neutralization methods to enhance the performance properties for better insulation efficiency. Also processing methods, such as esterification and alkali neutralization, are compared. It is found that esterification the process shows better performance with respect to acidity and electrical performance, but reduces flash and fire point properties. Alkali neutralized process also show similar performance but retains high flash point and fire point values. Further processed oils are evaluated for rapid thermo-oxidative conditioned oils.

Pectin, a thickening additive widely used in food, is present in a large amount in the passion fruit peel. The extraction of pectin for the industrial applications would give the economic efficiencies from waste peel and decrease the risk of pollution. However, traditional extraction methods are energy-consuming procedures that affect the purpose of scrap utilization. In the current work, we reported a method to overcome drawbacks by using an aqueous two-phase-extraction. The appropriate conditions for maximization of pectin yield were the use of a system of potassium carbonate (19.93%, w/w); ethanol (28.77%, w/w); water (51.30%, w/w); passion peel extract (0.0200 g/mL) at room temperature. The application of these parameters for the extraction procedure delivered pectin in a 70.91% yield.

This work describes methods for the preparation of pulp from non-wood plant materials, nanocellulose, for capacitive and resistive humidity sensors. The properties of nanocellulose from organosolvent pulps from wheat straw, kenaf, miscanthus, and reed were described. The nanocellulose was obtained by two methods – by hydrolysis of sulfuric acid and by oxidation of TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-l-oxyl). The response of capacitive and resistive humidity sensors based on nanocellulose was in the range of 0, 61-21nF and in the range of 1,3$\ast10^{1}$ – $2,1\ast10^{4}$ correspondingly in depend on initial raw materials, method of nanocellulose obtaining as well as weight of it on sensitive surface. The maximum value of sensitivity for both types of sensors reached up to 0,14 (% RH)$^{-1}$.

Biorefining process has the goal to convert lignocellulose biomass to biofuels and value-added products and to reduce burning activities of agricultural wastes after harvesting seasons. Pretreatment of lignocellulose biomass by using inorganic salt has been demonstrated to be an efficient method to improve process productivity, yet its efficiency is inhibited by salt residues in hydrolysis. In this study, the mechanisms of inhibitory effects caused by inorganic salts, NaCl and KCl, on kinetic activities of commercial cellulase were revealed using Michaelis-Menten model. Three different types of cellulose and lignocellulose substrates, CMC, Avicel, and sugarcanes bagasse, were enzymatic hydrolyzed. Using Lineweaver-Burk plot, the results showed that the inhibitory effect of KCl and NaCl residues were non-competitive and mixed inhibition, respectively. Due to their inhibitory effect, inorganic salt residues reduced reducing sugar yields released from CMC and Avicel, however, the yield obtained from sugarcanes bagasse increased for 1.51 fold when adding 1.0 M NaCl. The finding in this research suggested the alternative method to use sugarcane bagasse for biofuel conversion and reduction of agricultural combustion.

The disinfection of recirculating nutrient solution is essential to avoid disasters due to the dispersal of pathogens in a closed soilless culture system. In this work, a disinfection technique using pulsed electric field (PEF) has been investigated. A system was designed to implement continuous disinfection treatment of nutrient solution. The system mainly includes two parts: 1) a pulsed power generator that produces repetitive pulses with amplitude of between 0 kV and 5 kV with a pulse duration of $10\ \mu\mathrm{s}$ and a pulse repetition frequency of 50 Hz and 2) a parallel-plate treatment chamber used to realize continuous processing. In order to verify the efficacy of PEF treatment Fusarium oxysporum, being amongst the most destructive root-borne diseases, was selected as the object of study and therefore the nutrient solution was inoculated with this pathogen. The results indicate that PEF treatment deactivated most of the Fusarium oxysporum in the nutrient solution, achieving a maximum disinfection efficiency of 99%. At the same time, no obvious changes of the inorganic compositions in the PEF-treated nutrient solution were observed. The overall system is simple and convenient to be operated, worked stably and was capable of achieving a continuous treatment. This work therefore clearly demonstrates the feasibility of continuous PEF disinfection treatment in real soilless culture systems, opening the door for implementation in various agricultural applications.

Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) is a growing environmental problem and is characterized by acidic, heavy metal-laden water. Here we consider the use of algae to remediate ARD and heavy metal pollution. Algae species candidates that remediate heavy metals from impacted waters with a 90% efficiency while sustaining highly acidic, metal-laden conditions were explored. The following phycoremediation candidates were selected, cultivated, and intended to be tested for their metal-sorption capacity and ideal operational conditions: Spirulina platensis, Cladophora glomerata, a sample from mine water, and a sample local to New Orleans, Louisiana. Due to the unexpected remote-only working constraints, only the local sample was tested for its metal removal efficiency on synthetic multi-metal mine water and at only one operational condition: contact time. Optimum contact times varied upon the different metals: 75 minutes (Al), 15 minutes (As), 60 minutes (Cu), and 30 minutes (Fe, Mn, and Zn).After practicing phycoremediation in the lab, a full-scale system for mass-cultivation of algae and treatment of acid rock drainage with an influent flow rate of 10 GPM was designed. An ORWP was selected for the mass-cultivation of the algae and the required pond area was determined to be 700 m 2 . For the treatment system, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) design was selected with three batch reactors each with a volume of 1500 gallons to account for a 10 GPM flow per tank per cycle. To separate the biomass from the treated mine water, a concurrent inclined settling system and flocculant was chosen. A mass balance was applied to the system to find the flow of biomass exiting and the amount of truckloads per year required for disposal of the biomass. From a cost analysis, the estimated capital and annual costs of a full-scale ARD treatment phycoremediation system is estimated to be $361,943 and $244,821/year, respectively.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria is one of the major biological contaminant of water in developing countries. According to WHO nearly 4 billion cases of diarrhoea and 2.2 million deaths in developing countries is because of E. coli. chlorination is an effective and scalable way of decontaminating and making water potable. The correct amount of chlorination is crucial; under-chlorination does not deactivate the E. coli completely and over-chlorination results in poor quality of water. Knowledge of the degree of contamination (measured in cfu) can be effectively used by local administration to decontaminate water by using exact amount of chlorine. Recently, Mobile Water Kit (MWK) has been proposed which can detect the presence of E. coli in water rapidly by manual inspection of pathogenic strains of E. coli. In this paper, we propose a robust and automatic method to quantify E. coli in water using image processing techniques. The choice of pre-processing techniques and identification of specific color based features makes the technique robust. Experimental results on 16 real images of water contaminated by E. coli taken by a mobile phone camera demonstrate the relevance of the features selected to identify the degree of contamination. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of an appropriate image color and structural features to estimate the degree of contamination.

Agarwood is a resinous heartwood and Aquilaria is one of many species that grows a lot in Asia. Traditionally, the quality of agarwood oil is based on color, odor, high fixative properties and consumer perception. This quality grading is performed by trained human graders using sensory panels. Human sensory panels has limitation such as fatigue. Therefore, this study focuses on chemical compounds of Agarwood oil. Using this compounds together with artificial intelligence technique, a new grading system will be proposed. This paper discusses only on the statistical analysis of the chemical compounds. 106 compounds were acquired using GC-MS analysis. To remove insignificant compounds, missing values ratio was computed and out of 109 only 19 compounds remained. These compounds were transformed using natural logarithm to improves the distribution of data.