• Title/Summary/Keyword: Alberta

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High Value-added Technology of Oil Sand (오일샌드 고부가화기술 동향)

  • Park, Yong-Ki;Choi, Won Choon;Jeong, Soon Yong;Lee, Chul Wee
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.45 no.2
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    • pp.109-116
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    • 2007
  • As conventional light oil resources deplete, it is becoming necessary to develop unconventional resources. To meet the demand for petrochemical industry, heavier sources such as heavy oil and bitumen are being utilized. Bitumens, a complex hydrocarbon made up of a long chain of molecules, are found in oil sand. It is estimated that 830 billion barrels of oil are located in the oil sand in Alberta, Canada. This paper will review briefly (1) the basic concept of oil sand, bitumen, and heavy oil, (2) methods how to extract oil from oil sand, (3) methods how to upgrade to synthetic crude oil, and (4) economic evaluation of technology.

Shaft resistance of bored cast-in-place concrete piles in oil sand - Case study

  • Barr, L.;Wong, R.C.K.
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.119-142
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    • 2013
  • Pile load tests using Osterberg cells (O-cell) were conducted on cast-in-place concrete piles founded in oil sand fill and in situ oil sand at an industrial plant site in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Interpreted pile test results show that very high pile shaft resistance (with the Bjerrum-Burland or Beta coefficient of 2.5-4.5) against oil sand could be mobilized at small relative displacements of 2-3% of shaft diameter. Finite element simulations based on linear elastic and elasto-plastic models for oil sand materials were used to analyze the pile load test measurements. Two constitutive models yield comparable top-down load versus pile head displacement curves, but very different behaviour in mobilization of pile shaft and end bearing resistances. The elasto-plastic model produces more consistent matching in both pile shaft and end bearing resistances whereas the linear elastic under- and over-predicts the shaft and end bearing resistances, respectively. The mobilization of high shaft resistance in oil sand under pile load is attributed to the very dense and interlocked structure of oil sand which results in high matrix stiffness, high friction angle, and high shear dilation.

EFFECT OF ALKALINE HYDROGEN PEROXIDE AND PERACETIC ACID ON IN SACCO RUMINAL DIGESTIBILITY OF ASPEN SAWDUST

  • Myung, K.H.;Kennelly, J.J.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.5 no.4
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    • pp.635-641
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    • 1992
  • The influence of alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) and peracetic acid treatment on in sacco digestion of aspen was evaluated in three non-lactating ruminally cannulated Holstein cows fed a diet containing 90% forage and 10% concentrate on a DM basis. AHP treatment decreased lignin concentration by 40 to 60% resulting in increased concentrations of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and cellulose. Lignin concentrations in peracetic acid treated samples were less than 10% of values for control samples. In sacco disappearance rates of aspen DM, NDF, ADF and cellulose increased (p<.05) with AHP and peracetic acid treatment. Effective degradability of DM, NDF, ADF and cellulose were determined at a ruminal outflow rate of $.05h^{-1}$. Effective degradabilities of AHP treated aspen were approximately three-fold greater and peracetic acid treated samples five-fold greater than untreated control samples. For all parameters measured, peracetic acid treatment resulted in higher (p<.05) digestion coefficients than AHP treated aspen. Results demonstrate that peracetic acid or AHP treatment can enhance the nutritive value of aspen sawdust for ruminants to a level comparable to that reported for many forages.

A Simple Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Method for the Discrimination of Three Chicken Breeds

  • Kubo, Y.;Plastow, G.;Mitsuhashi, Tadayoshi
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.22 no.9
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    • pp.1241-1247
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    • 2009
  • A large number of branded chicken products exist in Japan, and in some cases, the breed of chicken is an important factor used to attract consumer interest in the retail product. In order to establish a simple method for verifying such breed claims we applied the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique to nine chicken breeds (White Cornish, Red Cornish, White Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire, Rhode Island Red, Barred Plymouth Rock, Hinaidori, Tosajidori, Tsushimajidori) to search for molecular markers able to discriminate chicken breeds. Three breed-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were identified, one for each of Hinaidori, Tosajidori, or New Hampshire. A total of 219 individuals from the nine breeds were analyzed using a specific PCR test for each of these SNP. The PCR tests made it possible to discriminate between the breeds of chickens to identify products from these three breeds. This PCR method provides an efficient method for the routine analysis and verification of certified chicken products.

Granular Bidirectional and Multidirectional Associative Memories: Towards a Collaborative Buildup of Granular Mappings

  • Pedrycz, Witold
    • Journal of Information Processing Systems
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.435-447
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    • 2017
  • Associative and bidirectional associative memories are examples of associative structures studied intensively in the literature. The underlying idea is to realize associative mapping so that the recall processes (one-directional and bidirectional ones) are realized with minimal recall errors. Associative and fuzzy associative memories have been studied in numerous areas yielding efficient applications for image recall and enhancements and fuzzy controllers, which can be regarded as one-directional associative memories. In this study, we revisit and augment the concept of associative memories by offering some new design insights where the corresponding mappings are realized on the basis of a related collection of landmarks (prototypes) over which an associative mapping becomes spanned. In light of the bidirectional character of mappings, we have developed an augmentation of the existing fuzzy clustering (fuzzy c-means, FCM) in the form of a so-called collaborative fuzzy clustering. Here, an interaction in the formation of prototypes is optimized so that the bidirectional recall errors can be minimized. Furthermore, we generalized the mapping into its granular version in which numeric prototypes that are formed through the clustering process are made granular so that the quality of the recall can be quantified. We propose several scenarios in which the allocation of information granularity is aimed at the optimization of the characteristics of recalled results (information granules) that are quantified in terms of coverage and specificity. We also introduce various architectural augmentations of the associative structures.

Effects of Increasing Ankle Range of Motion Program on Ambulation and Balance for the Elderly With Balance Disorder (발목관절 가동범위 증진 프로그램이 노인의 보행과 균형능력 향상에 미치는 효과)

  • Lee, Sung-Eun
    • Physical Therapy Korea
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.28-36
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the increasing ankle range motion program on ambulation and balance for the elderly with balance disorder. Eighteen elderly subjects were administered with a timed test twice; approximately 4 weeks apart. The exercise group participated in a fall prevention exercise class at the Y.S. Senior Welfare Center of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The session consisted of a stationary cycle, static stretching ankle joints, balance boards, and progressive resistive exercises using the Thera-band. The results were as follows: Firstly, the increasing ankle range of motion program was effective on the exercise group. Gait-speed was improved (p<.005). Secondly, balance was significantly improved (p<.000). Thirdly, increasing ankle range of motion program was effective in ankle dorsiflexion which was the major risk factor for falls among the elderly. Differences in gait and balance between the groups were examined using a paired t-test (p<.05). The exercise group demonstrated significantly higher values of gait-speed, ankle range of motion, and balance when compared with the non-exercise group. The results of this study suggest that the increasing ankle range of motion program is an effective intervention for the elderly with balance disorder.

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Face Recognition using Fisherface Method with Fuzzy Membership Degree (퍼지 소속도를 갖는 Fisherface 방법을 이용한 얼굴인식)

  • 곽근창;고현주;전명근
    • Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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    • v.31 no.6
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    • pp.784-791
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    • 2004
  • In this study, we deal with face recognition using fuzzy-based Fisherface method. The well-known Fisherface method is more insensitive to large variation in light direction, face pose, and facial expression than Principal Component Analysis method. Usually, the various methods of face recognition including Fisherface method give equal importance in determining the face to be recognized, regardless of typicalness. The main point here is that the proposed method assigns a feature vector transformed by PCA to fuzzy membership rather than assigning the vector to particular class. In this method, fuzzy membership degrees are obtained from FKNN(Fuzzy K-Nearest Neighbor) initialization. Experimental results show better recognition performance than other methods for ORL and Yale face databases.

An integrated approach for structural health monitoring using an in-house built fiber optic system and non-parametric data analysis

  • Malekzadeh, Masoud;Gul, Mustafa;Kwon, Il-Bum;Catbas, Necati
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.14 no.5
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    • pp.917-942
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    • 2014
  • Multivariate statistics based damage detection algorithms employed in conjunction with novel sensing technologies are attracting more attention for long term Structural Health Monitoring of civil infrastructure. In this study, two practical data driven methods are investigated utilizing strain data captured from a 4-span bridge model by Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors as part of a bridge health monitoring study. The most common and critical bridge damage scenarios were simulated on the representative bridge model equipped with FBG sensors. A high speed FBG interrogator system is developed by the authors to collect the strain responses under moving vehicle loads using FBG sensors. Two data driven methods, Moving Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) and Moving Cross Correlation Analysis (MCCA), are coded and implemented to handle and process the large amount of data. The efficiency of the SHM system with FBG sensors, MPCA and MCCA methods for detecting and localizing damage is explored with several experiments. Based on the findings presented in this paper, the MPCA and MCCA coupled with FBG sensors can be deemed to deliver promising results to detect both local and global damage implemented on the bridge structure.

Voluntary Intake, Digestibility and Nitrogen Balance in Spotted Deer (Cervus nippon) Fed Forest By-product Silage, Oak Leaf Hay and Commercial Mixed Ration

  • Jeon, B.T.;Moon, S.H.;Lee, S.M.;Kim, K.H.;Hudson, R.J.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.16 no.5
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    • pp.702-705
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    • 2003
  • Forest by-product silage (FPS) comprised of foliage, shrubs, and wild grasses was prepared to examine feeding value as sole roughage source for spotted (sika) deer. This diet was compared with imported oak leaf hay (OLH) and a commercial mixed ration (CMR) in digestion balance trials with spotted deer. Dry matter intake was highest (p<0.05) on the OLH, whereas intakes of the FPS and CMR were similar (p>0.05). Digestibility of dry matter was highest (p<0.05) for CMR. Digestibility of crude protein was highest in CMR and lowest in OLH and there were significant differences (p<0.05) among diets. Average daily gain, digestible dry matter intake and digestibility of crude fiber did not differ significantly among diets. Nitrogen intake, urinary and digestible nitrogen were highest (p<0.05) in CMR. However, nitrogen retention was not significantly different. Consequently, FPS is a good roughage source for deer having high digestibility, dry matter intake and availability of nitrogen.

Sensor clustering technique for practical structural monitoring and maintenance

  • Celik, Ozan;Terrell, Thomas;Gul, Mustafa;Catbas, F. Necati
    • Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.273-295
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    • 2018
  • In this study, an investigation of a damage detection methodology for global condition assessment is presented. A particular emphasis is put on the utilization of wireless sensors for more practical, less time consuming, less expensive and safer monitoring and eventually maintenance purposes. Wireless sensors are deployed with a sensor roving technique to maintain a dense sensor field yet requiring fewer sensors. The time series analysis method called ARX models (Auto-Regressive models with eXogeneous input) for different sensor clusters is implemented for the exploration of artificially induced damage and their locations. The performance of the technique is verified by making use of the data sets acquired from a 4-span bridge-type steel structure in a controlled laboratory environment. In that, the free response vibration data of the structure for a specific sensor cluster is measured by both wired and wireless sensors and the acceleration output of each sensor is used as an input to ARX model to estimate the response of the reference channel of that cluster. Using both data types, the ARX based time series analysis method is shown to be effective for damage detection and localization along with the interpretations and conclusions.