Abstract: Biogas has become an attractive alternative energy source due to the limitation of energy from fossil. In this study, a new type of mixed matrix membrane (MMM) consisting of polyimide-zeolite was synthesized and characterized for biogas purification. The MMM consists of medium concentration of polymer (20 %wt polyimide), 80 % N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and 25 % zeolite 4A in total solid were prepared by a dry/wet phase inversion technique. The fabricated MMM was characterized using SEM, DSC, TGA and gas permeation. Post treatment coating procedure was also conducted. The research showed that surface coating by 3 % silicone rubber toward MMM PI 20 % gave the significant effect to improve membrane selectivity. The ideal selectivity for CO2/CH4 separation increased from 0.99 for before coating to 7.9 after coating for PI-Zeolite MMM, respectively. The results suggest that PI-Zeolite MMM with good post treatment procedure will increase the membrane selectivity and permeability with more saver polymer requirement as well as energy saving due to low energy for mixing.

Abstract: In this paper we propose a new approach for solving Burgers’ Equation [1–3]. We demonstrate our work by testing numerical examples designed to capture the features of the proposed algorithms. Partial differential equations which arise in real-world physical problems are often too complicated to be solved exactly. And even if an exact solution is obtainable, the required calculations may be too complicated to be practical, or it might be diffucult to interpret the outcome.

Abstract: Before the coming of Western education/colonialists, Hausa people in northern Nigeria used mathematics in sorting, ordering, measuring, timing and weighing in their day to day activities. Featuring prominently in this culture are the traditional games/puzzles played by children or adults with the aim of deriving lessons, and for cognitive development. One of such games is wasakwakwalwa, a term derived from the Hausa word “wasa” meaning shaping and “kwakwalwa meaning brain. Therefore, wasakwakwalwa (Hausa puzzles) is a brain shaping game. The main concern of this paper is on the aspect of wasakwakwalwa that involves calculations and to highlight therein the existence of algebra, set theory, trigonometric, coordinate geometry, arithmetic progression and geometry progression. The paper also shows how to translate verbal Hausa statement to mathematical expression and solve them. Furthermore the paper will correct the erroneous believe that there was no mathematics in Hausa land/northern Nigeria before the coming of the colonialists and address those who believe mathematics only starts and ends in the classroom, thereby divorcing the rich cultural elements from the use of mathematics.

Abstract: Error Correction codes are a mean of including redundancy in a stream of information bits to allow the detection and correction of symbol errors during transmission. Forward Error Correcting codes are a new class of codes that can achieve exceptional error performance and energy efficiency at low signal-to-noise ratio. These codes achieve a near-Shannon limit performance. Owing to the computational complexity of these FEC codes they are well suited for optimized implementation using custom hardware in FPGA. As; this allows us more parallelism and less latency.

Abstract: The effect of Ce- addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of melt spun Ni –(92-x) wt. % Al –(x)wt. % Ce ribbon (x=1,2 and 4 wt.%) were investigated. Fcc- Al (?- Al) is the main phase for all composition. By increases Ce- content some phases of orthorhombic Al3Ni and hexagonal Al3Ce were found. The lattice parameter of ?- Al decreases by increasing Ce-content. Grain size of melt spun alloys, , decreases while the dislocation density,?, increases with increasing Ce- content. Vickers hardness, HV, and Young’s modulus of compacted alloys decreases with increasing Ce-content. The effect of ball milling on microstructure and mechanical properties of ball milled Ni –90 wt.% Al–2 wt.% Ce powders were investigated

Abstract: The financial crisis that started with subprime in August 2007 will raise many questions about what Wall Street can be allowed to do in the future and how it will be regulated. Governing the market is a fundamental responsibility given the systemic risks they pose. In 2009, industries struggled to cope with the most severe economic decline in half a century hit by excesses of capitalism and modern finance. Rebalancing the economy so as to rebound is clearly the priority for economies around the world.

Abstract: Regulators blamed the businesses for the groundwater pollution persistence in UK. Planning applications gathered through analysis of Groundwater Vulnerability Map was used to determine regulator’s recommendations to the SME’s in Nottingham area of United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted with managers of nine SME’s companies, and regulators to determine the effort of the regulators and compliances level of the SME’s in Nottingham area of United Kingdom. It can be observed that the Small and Medium Scale businesses, although are yet to comply fully with the regulator’s environmental standard given in the planning approvals, have set out their plan to achieve it. The issue of ever evolving policies which do not permit compliance before another one surfaced was a paramount emphasis of these managers. Thus timely regularization and decisive interpretation of the regulations for local compliance and increased mobilization strategy and further involvement of the stakeholders could lead to higher compliances among the SME’s as evident in the interviews granted.

Abstract: In this study, rumen fluid of animal ruminant was used as inoculums to increase biogas production rate from cattle manure at mesophilic condition. A series of laboratory experiments using 400 ml biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 grams of fresh cattle manure (M) was fed to each biodigester and mixed with rumen fluid (R) and tap water (W) in several ratio resulting six different M:W:R ratio contents i.e. 1:1:0; 1:0.75:0.25; 1:0.5:0.5; 1:0.25:0.75; and 1:0:1 (correspond to 0; 12.5; 25, 37.5; 50, and 100 % rumen, respectively) and six different total solid (TS) contents i.e. 2.6, 4.6, 6.2, 7.4, 9.2, 12.3, and 18.4 %. The operating temperatures were at room temperature. The results showed that the rumen fluid inoculated to biodigester significantly effected the biogas production. Rumen fluid inoculums caused biogas production rate and efficiency increase more than two times in compare to manure substrate without rumen fluid inoculums. The best performance for biogas production was the digester with rumen fluid and TS content in the range of 25-50 % and 7.4 and 9.2 %, respectively. These results suggest that, based on TS content effects to biogas yield, rumen fluid inoculums exhibit the similar effect with other inoculums. Increasing rumen content will also increase biogas production. Due to the optimum total solid (TS) content for biogas production between 7-9 % (or correspond to more and less manure and total liquid 1:1), the rumen fluid content of 50 % will give the best performance for biogas production. The future work will be carried out to study the dynamics of biogas production if both the rumen fluid inoculums and manure are fed in the continuous system.

Abstract: In this paper, we are interesting to show the most famous distributions and their relations to the other distributions in collected diagrams. Four diagrams are sketched as networks. The first one is concerned to the continuous distributions and their relations. The second one presents the discrete distributions. The third diagram is depicted the famous limiting distributions. Finally, the Balakrishnan skew-normal density and its relationship with the other distributions are shown in the fourth diagram.

Abstract: The quantity of waste adding to the mainstream can be simply reduced by home composting. During the year 2007, the Central Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka has introduced compost bins to encourage the home composting and also they launched pilot projects in selected Local Authorities. This research was focused on the understanding of the effectiveness of the household composting bins as a waste management technique for household garbage. In this research, 70 household samples were selected randomly among the 4 Grama Niladhari Divisions in Gampaha Municipal Council Area and a questionnaire survey was carried out to understand the attitudes of the community towards the home composting and to identify the problems associate with the use of compost bin. During the survey to analyze the compost parameters, two compost samples were collected from the top and the bottom of the compost bin. The color, odor and texture of the compost samples were tested visually and the pH was measured by using a calibrated pH meter. Moisture content and the bulk densities were measured by oven dry method. Sieve test procedure was used to measure the particle size variation. Finally the collected data was analyzed statistically by using Minitab 14. According the results of the questionnaire survey, it showed the most widely used waste type was kitchen waste which is about 97% and about 66% of the compost bin owners add waste to their compost bin once a day. Also the finding stated that the most abundant problems associate with the use of compost bin was leachate problems (19%), unpleasant smell (13%) and worm problems (10%). The questionnaire survey indicated that the wastes disposed to the waste collection services were reduced 69% after introducing this technology among the people. Also the research findings revealed that there were no significant differences between the initial stage and the composting stage with respect to pH (Paired t test, P value=0.78), moisture content (Paired t test, P value=0.26), compact bulk densities (Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, P value=0.26) and loose densities (Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, P value=0.22) parameters. This was indicated that the efficiency of the compost bin was low on the basis of composting theories.

Abstract: Microreactor design for ammonia synthesis with electromagnetic (EM) induction is reported. The Y-shape reactor with dimension of 50mm by 120mm has 5 mixing channels. This microreactor was designed using 2D AUTOCAD software. It was fabricated using MAZAK milling machine that operates using a numerical control functionality computer which was interfaced with MASTERCAM software. Aluminum metal plate with 2mm thickness was used as the microreactor. It was milled for 30 minutes with 0.5mm width of the channel. After the milling process was done two inlets and one outlet with pipe connectors were assembled. To reduce the leakage, a gasket paper was placed between the two plates. Hydrogen and nitrogen gas were mixed and flowed (1.2 bar) into the inlet with 0.05g manganese based ferrite used as the nano-catalyst. The reaction was done in ambient condition. The microreactor was placed in a Helmholtz Coils to induced strong EM field. We used Kejldahl method to calculate the 24.9% ammonia yield.