This thesis presents the design and development of a battery charger for an electric vehicle (EV). Battery charger is composed of three-phase motor windings, the inverter semiconductor elements of the EV. The circuit is operated in a buck-boost converter mode. The proposed system is capable of transferring energy from mains to the battery during the whole period of sine wave. The MATLAB- SIMULINK simulation and experimental result carried out using an ADMC331 DSP chip reveal that a power factor as high as 0.99 can be obtained.

This research is the feasible study for the combination process of steaming and drying for parboiling aromatic rice using superheated steam fluidized bed drying. The effects of soaking times and drying times on the head rice yield, color, white belly, cooking quality , pasting viscosity of rice flour and gelatinization are considered. In the experiments, paddy with initial moisture content of 15.7% d.b. was soaked by hot water at temperature of 80 ๐ C for 0.5 - 3 hours. Next, paddy was dried at 150 ๐ C for 0.5 - 7 minutes, superheated steam velocity of 3.0 m/s and bed height of 10 cm. Experimental results foud the soaking time of 3 hour and drying time of 2 minutes provide considerable increase in head rice yields which lines in the rang of 67.9%. Moreover, whiteness are the good criteria; however, it will be reduced with increase in soaking and drying time. White belly of all condition are increased more than rice refference. In the texture test, the cooked rice is moderately hardened and flaked with increase in drying time. Besides, the peak and the final viscosity are reduced, but the pasting temperature will be increased. For the gelatinization analysis by DSC, paddy with soaking time of 3 hours and drying 2 minutes appears to have the gelatinization more than paddy of soaking time of 2 hours and drying 2 minutes (Degree of gelatinization of 88.5 and 78% for soaking time of 3 and 2 hours respectively).

Sex education curriculum has historically been a controversial topic in the United States because for many Americans, sex education is not just an issue of teaching about sexuality but also an issue of which morals and values our society should promote. Meanwhile, 9 in 10 adolescents are sexually active by the time they graduate high school and the United States has the highest teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates of any developed nation. This study examines the effects of specific sex education curricula on adolescent sexual risk taking behavior. The results indicate that curricula have virtually no impact on the decision to be sexually active but that self-efficacy and abstinence-only mandates have important relationships with the decision to use contraception. The results also indicate that demographic and cultural variables are influential in adolescent sexual decision-making. Therefore the conclusions recommend that sex education curricula do not include abstinence-only mandates and consider including self-efficacy components at an early age. Moreover, the recommendation calls for a sex education policy that is implemented at the state-level rather than the federal-level and curricula that are tailored to the community in which they are implemented.

Geological investigations of the Ore Fault mineral occurrence located in the Archean Bird River greenstone belt, southeastern Manitoba show that several northwest-trending faults intersect mineralized komatiitic to tholeiitic basalts and are truncated by an 8 m-wide northeast-trending shear zone. The Ore Fault occurrence is underlain by hydrothermally altered basalt, mafic tuff and feldspathic arenite that experienced multiple deformation episodes and are metamorphosed to lower amphibolite facies. Each of the basaltic rocks has undergone several evolutionary processes that have induced separate sulphide and oxide assemblages that include: Cu-Ni-Po with PGM and Cr, Cu-Zn along with trace amounts of Au, Ag, Pb, Mo, Co, and Ni, and Mag-Py-Ti. The mineral assemblages are in association with: 1) fractionation of mafic magma; 2) mixing of magmatic fluids; 3) ascent of hydrothermal fluids; and 4) tectonism. The deposition of the mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Ore Fault occurred as part of regional processes within the Bird River greenstone belt and are related to island arc subduction (volcanism), plutonic intrusions (Bird River sill and granite batholiths) and subsequent fluid conduits (faulting and shears). Mineralization occurred before and during tectonic deformation that occurred during and after peak metamorphism.

This research is a study of cooked rice drying for producing instant rice by using superheated steam, heat pump, hot air and combined techniques. Drying conditions were as follows: hot air temperatures of 50, 60, 70, 140, 150 and 160°C, superheated steam temperatures of 140, 150 and 160°C, initial and final moisture contents of the products were in range of 198-219 and 6-8 %d.b. respectively, Cook rice qualities considered in this study were shrinkage, color, texture, rehydration, and sensory. The experimental results of long grain-Thai jasmine cooked rice drying using hot air and superheated steam at temperatures of 140, 150 and 160°C showed that moisture change of the rice was classified as a falling drying rate. The higher temperature resulted in the higher drying rate and the effective diffusion coefficient could be descrided by Fick's second law equation. Shrinkage of dried cooked rice was found to be not affected by drying temperature, however, the shrinkage was influenced by cooked rice moisture content. The cooked rice with lower moisture content had a higher degree of shrinkage than that with higher moisture content. The color of dried product was generally dependent of drying time and temperature. L value of dried product decreased with increasing drying time and temperature whereas a and b values were vice versa. Considering textural attribute, hardness was independed upon temperature. Concerning stricki-ness of the cooked rice, there was no obvious conclusion. The comparative drying of cooked rice using 140, 150 and 160°C hot air and superheated steam showed that at the same moisture content, superheated steam drying caused the quicker color change whilst the hardness of rehydrated cooked rice was insignificantly different as compared to that dried by hot air and heat pump. However, of the same value at moisture content and temperature, color property of product dried by heat pump dryer has whiter color than that dried by hot air whereas the textural attribute were insignificantly different.

The objective of this research was to develop mathematical model for biomass distibution prediction in sludge blanket of anaerobic hybrid reactor at any gas production rate. Model was formulated base on the motion of particle through fluid by applying Newton's law. To model, biomass was considered as small particle which moved upward from bed to blanket due to its gas production. Mathematical equations were developed to express the motion of biomass particle. There were two groups of adjusted parameters in these sets of equation that were gas yield and gas- particle separation probability. MATLAB program was used for model calculation. The calculation results showed that this model could partly represent biomass concentration profile. The model provided the same trend of biomass concentration