paddy de-awning using a de-awner increases the uniformity and flow rate of paddy grains through the orifices of hoppers, bucket elevators and chutes. in this study the effects of paddy variety, rotational blade speed and moisture content on performance of a prototype de-awner machine were investigated. the experiment was conducted in a factorial design with three factors, variety (hashemi and b...

The adoption of Health IT has been argued to bring about improvements in adopting hospitals. However, examining a panel of hospitals for the adoption of IT, we find that close to 50% of hospitals that adopt a health IT system go on to stop using it during the duration of our panel.1 We find that smaller hospitals and hospitals that are located in areas that have low IT-Intensity are more likely...

The enormity of the problem of deteriorating pipeline infrastructure is widely apparent. Since a complete rebuilding of the piping system is not financially realistic, municipal and utility operators require the ability to monitor the condition of buried pipes. Thus, reliable pipeline assessment and management tools are necessary to develop long term cost effective maintenance, repair, and reha...

BACKGROUND Water pipe smoking is increasing in Eastern Mediterranean Region. The objective of this study was to investigate any relationship between water pipe smoking and health-related quality of life in the general population of Bandar Abbas, Iran. METHODS Using a multistage sampling method, a random sample of 1675 individuals aged 15 years and over was studied from June through July 2007....

Pipe network layout optimization is an important and difficult problem in pipe network engineering. Differing from the previously proposed approaches for various optimization formulations, the authors use a methodology for pipe network optimization consisting of network layout optimization coupled with pipe sizing analysis. The methodology is based on a novel heuristic optimization algorithm in...

An analytical investigation and conceptual design of a disk-shaped asymmetric heat pipe is presented in this work. Using the conservative formulations for the steady incompressible vapor and liquid flow for a disk-shaped heat pipe, an in-depth integral analysis is applied. Analytical results for the asymmetric vapor velocity profile, the vapor and liquid pressure distributions, and the vapor te...

BACKGROUND Smoking tobacco preparations in a water pipe (hookah) is widespread in many places of the world and is perceived by many as relatively safe. We investigated biomarkers of toxicant exposure with water pipe compared with cigarette smoking. METHODS We conducted a crossover study to assess daily nicotine and carcinogen exposure with water pipe and cigarette smoking in 13 people who wer...