Search results for: maintenance efficiency

Authors: Akhila Konala, Jagadeeswara Reddy Vennapusa, Sujay Chattopadhyay

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The energy consumption of humankind is growing day by day due to an increase in the population, industrialization and their needs for living. Fossil fuels are the major source of energy to satisfy energy needs, which are non-renewable energy resources. So, there is a need to develop green resources for energy production and storage. Phase change materials (PCMs) derived from plants (green resources) are well known for their capacity to store the thermal energy as latent heat during their phase change from solid to liquid. This property of PCM could be used for storage of thermal energy. In this study, a composite with fatty acid (caprylic acid; M.P 15°C, Enthalpy 179kJ/kg) as a phase change material and expanded perlite as support porous matrix was prepared through direct impregnation method for thermal energy storage applications. The prepared composite was characterized using Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The melting point of the prepared composite was 15.65°C, and the melting enthalpy was 82kJ/kg. The surface nature of the perlite was observed through FESEM. It was observed that there are micro size pores in the perlite surface, which were responsible for the absorption of PCM into perlite. In TGA thermogram, the PCM loss from composite was started at ~90°C. FTIR curves proved there was no chemical interaction between the perlite and caprylic acid. So, the PCM composite prepared in this work could be effective to use in temperature maintenance of buildings.

Keywords: caprylic acid, composite, phase change materials, PCM, perlite, thermal energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Abdessalam Hijab, Hafida Boulekbache, Eric Henry

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According to several research studies, the city as a whole is a complex, spatially organized system; its modeling must take into account several factors, socio-economic, and political, or geographical, acting at multiple scales of observation according to varied temporalities. Sustainable management and protection of the environment in this complex system require significant human and technical investment, particularly for monitoring and maintenance. The objective of this paper is to propose an intelligent approach based on the coupling of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools in order to integrate the inhabitants in the processes of sustainable management and protection of the urban environment, specifically in the processes of household waste collection in urban areas. We are discussing a collaborative 'city/inhabitant' space. Indeed, it is a geo-collaborative approach, based on the spatialization and real-time geo-localization of topological and multimedia data taken by the 'active' inhabitant, in the form of geo-localized alerts related to household waste issues in their city. Our proposal provides a good understanding of the extent to which civil society (inhabitants) can help and contribute to the development of complementary solutions for the collection of household waste and the protection of the urban environment. Moreover, it allows the inhabitant to contribute to the enrichment of a data bank for future uses. Our geo-collaborative model will be tested in the Lamkansa sampling district of the city of Casablanca in Morocco.

Keywords: geographic information system, GIS, information and communications technology, ICT, geo-collaboration, inhabitants, city

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Benmoussa Dennai, H. Benslimane, A. Helmaoui

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Photovoltaic conversion is the direct conversion of electromagnetic energy into electrical energy continuously. This electromagnetic energy is the most solar radiation. In this work we performed a computer modelling using AMPS 1D optimization of hetero-junction solar cells GaInP / GaAs configuration for p / n. We studied the influence of the thickness the base layer in the cell offers on the open circuit voltage, the short circuit current and efficiency.

Keywords: optimization, photovoltaic cell, GaInP / GaAs AMPS-1D, hetetro-junction

Procedia PDF Downloads 518

Authors: Chong-Yang Qiao

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Mobile augmented reality (MAR) tracking targets from the surroundings and aids operators for interactive data and procedures visualization, potential equipment and system understandably. Operators remotely communicate and coordinate with each other for the continuous tasks, information and data exchange between control room and work-site. In the routine work, distributed control system (DCS) monitoring and work-site manipulation require operators interact in real-time manners. The critical question is the improvement of user experience in cooperative works through applying Augmented Reality in the traditional industrial field. The purpose of this exploratory study is to find the cognitive model for the multiple task performance by MAR. In particular, the focus will be on the comparison between different tasks and environment factors which influence information processing. Three experiments use interface and interaction design, the content of start-up, maintenance and stop embedded in the mobile application. With the evaluation criteria of time demands and human errors, and analysis of the mental process and the behavior action during the multiple tasks, heuristic evaluation was used to find the operators performance with different situation factors, and record the information processing in recognition, interpretation, judgment and reasoning. The research will find the functional properties of MAR and constrain the development of the cognitive model. Conclusions can be drawn that suggest MAR is easy to use and useful for operators in the remote collaborative works.

Keywords: mobile augmented reality, remote collaboration, user experience, cognition model

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Hongtao Zhu, Dezhi Sun

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Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential nutrients for biomass growth. But excessive nitrogen and phosphorus can contribute to accelerated eutrophication of lakes and rivers. Constructed wetland is an efficient and eco-friendly wastewater treatment technology with low operating cost and low-energy consumption. Because of high affinity with ammonium ion, zeolite, as a common substrate, is applied in constructed wetlands worldwide. Another substrate seen commonly for constructed wetlands is steel slag, which has high contents of Ca, Al, or Fe, and possesses a strong affinity with phosphate. Due to the excellent ammonium removal ability of zeolite and phosphate removal ability of steel slag, they were considered to be combined in the substrate bed of a constructed wetland in order to enhance the simultaneous removal efficiencies of nitrogen and phosphorus. In our early tests, zeolite and steel slag were combined with each other in order to simultaneously achieve a high removal efficiency of ammonium-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorus. However, compared with the results when only zeolite was used, the removal efficiency of ammonia was sharply decreased when zeolite and steel slag were used together. The main objective of this study was to establish an overview of the interaction of steel slag and zeolite on ammonium nitrogen removal. The CaO dissolution from slag, as well as the effects of influencing parameters (i.e. pH and Ca2+ concentration) on the ammonium adsorption onto zeolite, was systematically studied. Modeling results of Ca2+ and OH- release from slag indicated that pseudo-second order reaction had a better fitness than pseudo-first order reaction. Changing pH value from 7 to 12 would result in a drastic reduction of the ammonium adsorption capacity on zeolite, from the peak at pH7. High Ca2+ concentration in solution could also inhibit the adsorption of ammonium onto zeolite. The mechanism for steel slag inhibiting the ammonium adsorption capacity of zeolite includes: on one hand, OH- released from steel slag can react with ammonium ions to produce molecular form ammonia (NH3∙H2O), which would cause the dissociation of NH4+ from zeolite. On the other hand, Ca2+ could replace the NH4+ ions to adhere onto the surface of zeolite. An innovative substrate filling configuration that zeolite and steel slag are placed sequentially was proposed to eliminate the disadvantageous effects of steel slag. Experimental results showed that the novel filling configuration was superior to the other two contrast filling configurations in terms of ammonium removal.

Keywords: ammonium nitrogen, constructed wetlands, steel slag, zeolite

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Pajaree Naramitpanich, Natchanok Jansawang, Panwilai Chomchid

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The aims of this are compared between the students’ logical thinking abilities of their learning for designing the 5-lesson instructional plans of the 2-instructional methods, namely; the STEM Education and the Creative Learning Process (CLP) for developing students’ logical thinking abilities that a sample consisted of 90 students from two chemistry classes of different learning outcomes in Wapi Phathum School with the cluster random sampling technique was used at the 11th grade level. To administer of their learning environments with the 45-experimenl student group by the STEM Education method and the 45-controlling student group by the Creative Learning Process. These learning different groups were obtained using the 5 instruments; the 5-lesson instructional plans of the STEM Education and the Creative Learning Process to enhance the logical thinking tests on Mineral issue were used. The efficiency of the Creative Learning Processes (CLP) Model and the STEM Education’s innovations of these each five instructional lesson plans based on criteria are higher than of 80/80 standard level with the IOC index from the expert educators. The averages mean scores of students’ learning achievement motives were assessed with the Pre and Post Techniques and Logical Thinking Ability Test (LTAT) and dependent t-test analysis were differentiated between the CLP and the STEM, significantly. Students’ perceptions of their chemistry classroom environment inventories with the MCI with the CLP and the STEM methods also were found, differently. Associations between students’ perceptions of their chemistry classroom learning environment inventories on the CLP Model and the STEM Education learning designs toward their logical thinking abilities toward chemistry, the predictive efficiency of R2 values indicate that 68% and 76% of the variances in students’ logical thinking abilities toward chemistry to their controlling and experimental chemistry classroom learning environmental groups with the MCI were correlated at .05 levels, significantly. Implementations of this result are showed the students’ learning by the CLP of the potential thinking life-changing roles in most their logical thinking abilities that it is revealed that the students perceive their abilities to be highly learning achievement in chemistry group are differentiated with the STEM education of students’ outcomes.

Keywords: design, the lesson instructional plans, the stem education, the creative learning process, logical thinking ability, different, learning outcome, student, chemistry class

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: M. B. Ricardo De Oliveira, A. Borghi-Silva, L. Di Thommazo, D. Braatz

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Prototypes can be understood as representations of a product concept. Furthermore, prototyping consists in an important stage in product development and results in better team communication, decision making, testing and problem solving through feedback. Although there are several methods of prototyping suggested by recent studies for designers to choose from, some methods present different advantages, such as cost and time reduction, performance and fidelity, which should be taken in account during a product development project. In this multidisciplinary study, involving areas of physiotherapy, engineering and computer science (hardware and software), we compared four developed prototypes of an ergometric step: a virtual prototype, a 3D printed prototype, a bricolage prototype and a prototype manufactured by a third-party company. These prototypes were evaluated in a comparative-qualitative approach for their contribution to the concept’s maturation of the product, the different prototyping methods used and the advantages and disadvantages of each one based on the product’s design specifications (performance, safety, materials, cost, maintenance, usability, ergonomics and portability). Our results indicated that despite prototypes show overall advantages, all of them have limitations, thus being crucial to have different methods of testing and interacting with the product. Additionally, virtual and 3D printed prototypes were essential at early stages of the project due to their low-cost and high-fidelity representation of the product, while the prototype manufactured by a third-party company and bricolage prototype introduced functional tests in real scenarios, allowing more detailed evaluations. This study also resulted in a patent for an ergometric step.

Keywords: Product Design, Product Development, Prototypes, Step

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Shashank Tiwari

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The most common method of drug delivery is the oral solid dosage form, of which tablets and capsules are predominant. The tablet is more widely accepted and used compared to capsules for a number of reasons, such as cost/price, tamper resistance, ease of handling and packaging, ease of identification, and manufacturing efficiency. Over the past several years, the issue of tamper resistance has resulted in the conversion of most over-the-counter (OTC) drugs from capsules to predominantly all tablets.

Keywords: capsule, drug delivery, dosages, solid, tablet

Procedia PDF Downloads 439

Authors: Mohammad A. U. Khan, Tariq M. Khan, Yinan Kong

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Fingerprint image enhancement is one of the most important step in an automatic fingerprint identification recognition (AFIS) system which directly affects the overall efficiency of AFIS. The conventional fingerprint enhancement like Gabor and Anisotropic filters do fill the gaps in ridge lines but they fail to tackle scar lines. To deal with this problem we are proposing a method for enhancing the ridges and valleys with scar so that true minutia points can be extracted with accuracy. Our results have shown an improved performance in terms of enhancement.

Keywords: fingerprint image enhancement, removing noise, coherence, enhanced diffusion

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Authors: Mohammad Nehal Hasnine, Md Kamrul Hasan Chayon, Md Mobasswer Rahman

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Organizational tendencies towards computer-based information processing have been observed noticeably in the third-world countries. Many enterprises are taking major initiatives towards computerized working environment because of massive benefits of computer-based information processing. However, designing and developing information resource management software for small and mid-size enterprises under budget costs and strict deadline is always challenging for software engineers. Therefore, we introduced an approach to design mid-size enterprise software by using the Waterfall model, which is one of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycles), in a cost effective way. To fulfill research objectives, in this study, we developed mid-sized enterprise software named “BSK Management System” that assists enterprise software clients with information resource management and perform complex organizational tasks. Waterfall model phases have been applied to ensure that all functions, user requirements, strategic goals, and objectives are met. In addition, Rich Picture, Structured English, and Data Dictionary have been implemented and investigated properly in engineering manner. Furthermore, an assessment survey with 20 participants has been conducted to investigate the usability and performance of the proposed software. The survey results indicated that our system featured simple interfaces, easy operation and maintenance, quick processing, and reliable and accurate transactions.

Keywords: end-user application development, enterprise software design, information resource management, usability

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Authors: Ewa M. Laskowska, Jorn Vatn

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Industry 4.0 focuses on digital optimization of industrial processes. The idea is to use extracted data in order to build a decision support model enabling use of those data for real time decision making. In terms of predictive maintenance, the desired decision support tool would be a model enabling prognostics of system's health based on the current condition of considered equipment. Within area of system prognostics and health management, a commonly used health indicator is Remaining Useful Lifetime (RUL) of a system. Because the RUL is a random variable, it has to be estimated based on available health indicators. Health indicators can be of different types and come from different sources. They can be process variables, equipment performance variables, data related to number of experienced failures, etc. The aim of this study is the analysis of performance variables of emergency shutdown valves (ESV) used in oil and gas industry. ESV is inspected periodically, and at each inspection torque and time of valve operation are registered. The data will be analyzed by means of machine learning or statistical analysis. The purpose is to investigate whether the available data could be used as a health indicator for a prognostic purpose. The second objective is to examine what is the most efficient way to incorporate the data into predictive model. The idea is to check whether the data can be applied in form of explanatory variables in Markov process or whether other stochastic processes would be a more convenient to build an RUL model based on the information coming from registered data.

Keywords: emergency shutdown valves, health indicator, prognostics, remaining useful lifetime, RUL

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Inuwa Abdu Ibrahim

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Public officials are required to posses certain values to adequately protect public interest, by being leaders that are servants of the people. The reality in Nigeria is that leaders rule as masters of the people rather than servants. The paper looked at control and control systems of administration in Nigeria, its resultant consequences and ways of achieving true control of administrators and administration. Secondary source of data was adopted for the research. It concludes that the keys to administrative efficiency and effectiveness through control are implementation of the already existing procedures and laws, as well as commitment on the part of public officials.

Keywords: Accountability, Fraud, Administration, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: Salah E. El-Metwally, Marwan Abdo, Basem Abdel Wahed

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Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars have been proposed as an alternative to conventional steel bars; hence, the use of these non-corrosive and nonmetallic reinforcing bars has increased in various concrete projects. This concrete material is lightweight, has a long lifespan, and needs minor maintenance; however, its non-ductile nature and weak bond with the surrounding concrete create a significant challenge. The behavior of concrete elements reinforced with FRP bars has been the subject of several experimental investigations, even with their high cost. This study aims to numerically assess the viability of using FRP bars, as longitudinal reinforcement, in comparison with traditional steel bars, and also as prestressing tendons instead of the traditional prestressing steel. The nonlinear finite element analysis has been utilized to carry out the current study. Numerical models have been developed to examine the behavior of concrete beams reinforced with FRP bars or tendons against similar models reinforced with either conventional steel or prestressing steel. These numerical models were verified by experimental test results available in the literature. The obtained results revealed that concrete beams reinforced with FRP bars, as passive reinforcement, exhibited less ductility and less stiffness than similar beams reinforced with steel bars. On the other hand, when FRP tendons are employed in prestressing concrete beams, the results show that the performance of these beams is similar to those beams prestressed by conventional active reinforcement but with a difference caused by the two tendon materials’ moduli of elasticity.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, nonlinear finite element analysis, fiber-reinforced polymer, ductility

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Authors: Alaa H. Thabet, Ehab F. Badran, Moustafa H. Aly

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With the rapid expand of wireless digital communications, demand for wireless systems that are reliable and have a high spectral efficiency have increased too. FBMC scheme based on the OFDM/OQAM has been recognized for its good performance to achieve high data rates. Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) has been used to produce the orthogonal sub-carriers. Due to the drawbacks of OFDM -FFT based system which are the high peak-to-average ratio (PAR) and the synchronization. In this paper, Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) is used in the place of FFT, and show better performance.

Keywords: OQAM-OFDM, wavelet packet transform, PAPR, FFT

Procedia PDF Downloads 460

Authors: Nishu Atrey, Priyanka Singh, G. P. Talwar, Jagdish Gupta, Alka Kriplani, Rohini Sehgal, Indrani Ganguli, Soni Sinha

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Background: Vaginosis is a widely prevalent syndrome in India and elsewhere. Recurrence is frequent in women treated with antibiotics, whose vagina pH remains above 5.0 indicative of the loss of resident lactobacilli. The objective of the present trial was to determine whether a Polyherbal microbicide BASANT can regress Vaginosis. Another objective was to determine whether the three selected strains of Probiotics endowed with making high amounts of lactic acid can colonise and restore the pH of the vagina to the acidic healthy range. Materials and Procedure: BASANT, was employed in powder form in veg (cellulose) capsules. TRF#36 strain of Lactobacillus fermentum, TRF#8 strain of L.gasseri, and TRF#30 strain of L.salivarius (combination termed as Pro-vag-Health) were employed at 3x109 bacilli lyophilized, packaged in capsules. The trials were conducted in women suffering from vaginosis with vaginal pH above 5.0. Women were given intravaginally either BASANT, Pro-vag-Health or a combination of the two intravaginally for seven days and thereafter once weekly as a maintenance dose. Results: BASANT cleared vaginosis in 14/20 women and Pro-vag-Health in 13/20 women. Interestingly, the combination of BASANT plus Pro-vag-Health was effective in 19/20 women, in contrast to Placebo capsules effective only in 1/20 women. Interpretation and Conclusion: The combination of BASANT and Pro-veg-Health Probiotics taken together intravaginally for seven days relieves 19 out of 20 women from vaginosis to restore acidic pH and healthy vagina. Extension of trial with this combination in larger number is indicated.

Keywords: microbicide, probiotics, vaginal pH, vaginosis

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Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan

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This abstract focuses on the advancements in mathematical modeling and optimization techniques that play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and performance of these systems. In this era of rapidly evolving technology, mathematical modeling and optimization offer powerful tools to tackle the complex challenges faced by control, signal processing, and energy systems. This abstract presents the latest research and developments in mathematical methodologies, encompassing areas such as control theory, system identification, signal processing algorithms, and energy optimization. The abstract highlights the interdisciplinary nature of mathematical modeling and optimization, showcasing their applications in a wide range of domains, including power systems, communication networks, industrial automation, and renewable energy. It explores key mathematical techniques, such as linear and nonlinear programming, convex optimization, stochastic modeling, and numerical algorithms, that enable the design, analysis, and optimization of complex control and signal processing systems. Furthermore, the abstract emphasizes the importance of addressing real-world challenges in control, signal processing, and energy systems through innovative mathematical approaches. It discusses the integration of mathematical models with data-driven approaches, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to enhance system performance, adaptability, and decision-making capabilities. The abstract also underscores the significance of bridging the gap between theoretical advancements and practical applications. It recognizes the need for practical implementation of mathematical models and optimization algorithms in real-world systems, considering factors such as scalability, computational efficiency, and robustness. In summary, this abstract showcases the advancements in mathematical modeling and optimization techniques for control, signal processing, and energy systems. It highlights the interdisciplinary nature of these techniques, their applications across various domains, and their potential to address real-world challenges. The abstract emphasizes the importance of practical implementation and integration with emerging technologies to drive innovation and improve the performance of control, signal processing, and energy.

Keywords: mathematical modeling, optimization, control systems, signal processing, energy systems, interdisciplinary applications, system identification, numerical algorithms

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Theingi Shwe, Riken Homma, Kazuhisa Iki, Juko Ito

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The growing cities of the developing country are characterized by rapid growth and poor infrastructure management inviting and accelerating relative environmental problems. Even though the movements of the sustainability had already been developed around the world, it is still increasing in the developing countries to plant sustainable practices. Aligned with the sustainable development actions, many sustainable assessment tools are also developed to rate and evaluate the sustainability performances through the building to community level. Among them, CASBEE is developed by Japanese organizations and is recognized as one of the international well-known assessment tools. The main purpose of the study is to find out the potential of CASBEE tool reflecting sustainability city level performances in developing countries. The research framework was designed with three major phases: Quantitative Approach, Qualitative Approach and Evaluation Reflection. The first two approaches were based on the investigation of tool’s contents and indicators by means of three sustainable dimensions and sustainability categories. To know the reality and reflection on developing country, Pathein City from Myanmar was selected and evaluated by 2012 version of CASBEE for Cities. The evaluation practices went through assigned indicators and the evaluation outcome presents the performances of Pathein city’s environmental efficiency as a very good in current conditions. The results of this study indicate that the indicators of this tool have balance coverage among three dimensions of sustainability but it has not yet counted enough for some indicators like location, infrastructure and institution which are relative to society dimension. In the developing countries’ cities, the most critical issues on development such as affordable housing and heritage preservation which are already planted in Pathein City but the tool does not account for those issues. Moreover, in some of the indicators, the benchmark and the weighting coefficient are strongly linked to the system birth region. By means of this study, it can be stated that CASBEE for Cities would be potential for delivering sustainable city level development in developing country especially in Myanmar along with further inclusion of the indicators.

Keywords: assessment tool, CASBEE, developing country, Myanmar, Pathein city, sustainable development

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: Mohammad Hadi Khorashadi Zadeh, Amin Karkon, Seyd Mohammad Reza Mashhoori

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The technology of computer audit played a major role in the progress and prospects of a proper application to improve the quality and efficiency of audit work. But due to the technical complexity and the specific risks of computer audit, it should be shown effective in audit and preventive action. Mainly through research in this paper, we propose the causes of audit risk in a computer environment and the risk of further proposals for measures to control, to some extent reduce the risk of computer audit and improve the audit quality.

Keywords: computer auditing, risk, measures to prevent, information management

Procedia PDF Downloads 526

Authors: T. A. Shahul Hameed, P. Predeep, Anju Iqbal, M. R. Baiju

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Research and development in organic photovoltaic cells and Organic Light Emitting Diodes have gained wider acceptance due to the advent of many advanced techniques to enhance the efficiency and operational hours. Here we report our work on design, simulation and characterizationracterize the bulk heterojunction organic photo cell and polymer light emitting diodes in different layer configurations using ATLAS, a licensed device simulation tool. Bulk heterojuction and multilayer devices were simulated for comparing their performance parameters.

Keywords: HOMO, LUMO, PLED, OPV

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Authors: Nicolas Plamondon, Stuart Atkinson, Shuzi Zhou

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The insurance industry is usually not the first topic one has in mind when thinking about applications of data science. However, the use of data science in the finance and insurance industry is growing quickly for several reasons, including an abundance of reliable customer data, ferocious competition requiring more accurate pricing, etc. Among the top use cases of data science, we find pricing optimization, customer segmentation, customer risk assessment, fraud detection, marketing, and triage analytics. The objective of this paper is to present an application of the generalized additive model (GAM) on a commercial automobile insurance product: an individually rated commercial automobile. These are vehicles used for commercial purposes, but for which there is not enough volume to apply pricing to several vehicles at the same time. The GAM model was selected as an improvement over GLM for its ease of use and its wide range of applications. The model was trained using the largest split of the data to determine model parameters. The remaining part of the data was used as testing data to verify the quality of the modeling activity. We used the Gini coefficient to evaluate the performance of the model. For long-term monitoring, commonly used metrics such as RMSE and MAE will be used. Another topic of interest in the insurance industry is to process of producing the model. We will discuss at a high level the interactions between the different teams with an insurance company that needs to work together to produce a model and then monitor the performance of the model over time. Moreover, we will discuss the regulations in place in the insurance industry. Finally, we will discuss the maintenance of the model and the fact that new data does not come constantly and that some metrics can take a long time to become meaningful.

Keywords: insurance, data science, modeling, monitoring, regulation, processes

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Rocco Lioy, Tom Dusseldorf, Aline Lehnen, Romain Reding

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A study concerning both the rentability and ecological performance of dairy production in Luxembourg was carried out for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. The data of 100 dairy farms, referring to the Greenhouse gas emissions (ecology) and the profitability (economy) of dairy production, were evaluated, and the average was compared to the corresponding figures of 80 Luxembourgish dairy farms evaluated in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The ecological evaluation could confirm that farm efficiency (especially defined as the lowest ratio between used feedstuff and produced milk) is the key driver for significantly reducing the level of emissions in dairy farms. In both farm groups and in the two periods, the efficient farms show almost the same level of emissions per kg ECM (1,17 kg CO2-eq) in comparison with intensive farms (1,13 kg CO2-eq), and at the same time a by far lowest level of emissions related to the production surface (9,9 vs. 13,9 t CO2-eq/ha). Concerning the economic performances, it could be observed that in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, the intensive farms (we define intensity in the first place in terms of produced milk pro ha) reached a higher profit (incomes minus costs, only consideration for subsidies) than the efficient farms (4,8 vs. 2,6 €-cent/kg ECM), in contradiction with the observation of the years 2014, 2015 and 2015 (1,5 vs. 3,7 €-cent/kg ECM). The most important reason for this divergent behavior was a change in income and cost structure in the considered periods. In the last period (2017, 2018 and 2019), the milk price was considerably higher than in the previous period, and the production costs were lower. This was of advantage for intensive farms, which produce the highest quantity of milk with a high amount of production means. In the period 2014, 2015 and 2016, with lower milk prices but comparable production costs, the advantage was with efficient farms. In conclusion, we expect that in the next future, when especially the production costs will presumably be much higher than in the last years, the profitableness of dairy farming will decrease. In this case, we assume that efficient farms will provide not only an ecologically but also an economically better performance than production-intensive farms. High milk prices and low production costs are no good incentives for carbon-smart farming.

Keywords: efficiency, intensity, dairy, emissions, prices, costs

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Authors: Ankita Pathak, Ashok Munjal, Ravi Parkash

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Plastic responses to multiple environmental stressors in wet or dry seasonal populations of tropical Drosophila species have received less attention. We tested plastic effects of heat hardening, acclimation to drought or starvation; and changes in trehalose, proline and body lipids in D. ananassae flies reared under wet or dry season specific conditions. Wet season flies revealed significant increase in heat knockdown, starvation resistance and body lipids after heat hardening. However, accumulation of proline was observed only after desiccation acclimation of dry season flies while wet season flies elicited no proline but trehalose only. Therefore, drought-induced proline can be a marker metabolite for dry season flies. Further, partial utilization of proline and trehalose under heat hardening reflects their possible thermoprotective effects. Heat hardening elicited cross-protection to starvation stress. Stressor-specific accumulation or utilization, as well as rates of metabolic change for each energy metabolite, were significantly higher in wet season flies than dry season flies. Energy metabolite changes due to inter-related stressors (heat vs. desiccation or starvation) resulted in possible maintenance of energetic homeostasis in wet or dry season flies. Thus, low or high humidity induced plastic changes in energy metabolites can provide cross-protection to seasonally varying climatic stressors.

Keywords: wet-dry seasons, plastic changes, stress related traits, energy metabolites, cross protection

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Authors: Natalia Naoumova

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Facing changes and continuous growth of the contemporary cities, along with the globalization effects that accelerate cultural dissolution, the maintenance of cultural authenticity, which is implicit in historical areas as a part of cultural diversity, can be considered one of the key elements of a sustainable society. This article focuses on the polychromy of buildings in a historical context as an important feature of urban settings. It analyses the coloring of Brazilian urban heritage, characterized by the study of historical districts in Pelotas and Piratini, located in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The objective is to reveal the coloring characteristics of different historical periods, determine the chromatic typologies of the corresponding building styles, and clarify the connection between the historical chromatic aspects and their relationship with the contemporary urban identity. Architectural style data were collected by different techniques such as stratigraphic prospects of buildings, survey of historical records and descriptions, analysis of images and study of projects with colored facades kept in historical archives. Three groups of characteristics were considered in searching for working criteria in the formation of chromatic model typologies: 1) coloring palette; 2) morphology of the facade, and 3) their relationship. The performed analysis shows the formation of the urban chromatic image of the historical center as a continuous and dynamic process with the development of constant chromatic resources. It establishes that the changes in the formal language of subsequent historical periods lead to the changes in the chromatic schemes, providing a different reading of the facades both in terms of formal interpretation and symbolic meaning.

Keywords: building style, historic colors, urban heritage, urban polychromy

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Bilal Wajid, Erchin Serpedin

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The health industry is aiming towards personalized medicine. If the patient’s genome needs to be sequenced it is important that the entire analysis be completed quickly. This paper explores use of parallel computing to analyze very large sequences. Two cases have been considered. In the first case, the sequence is kept constant and the effect of increasing the number of MPI-based processes is evaluated in terms of execution time, speed and efficiency. In the second case the number of MPI-based processes have been kept constant whereas, the length of the sequence was increased.

Keywords: parallel computing, alignment, genome assembly, alignment

Procedia PDF Downloads 276

Authors: Min Liu, Jirui Gong, Qinpu Luo, Lili Yang, Bo Yang, Zihe Zhang, Yan Pan, Zhanwei Zhai

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Grazing disturbance is one of the important land-use types that affect plant growth and ecosystem processes. In order to study the responses of dominant species to grazing in the semiarid temperate grassland of Inner Mongolia, we set five grazing intensity plots: a control and four levels of grazing (light (LG), moderate (MG), heavy (HG) and extreme heavy grazing (EHG)) to test the morphological and physiological responses of Stipa grandis, Leymus chinensis at the individual levels. With the increase of grazing intensity, Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis both exhibited reduced plant height, leaf area, stem length and aboveground biomass, showing a significant dwarf phenomenon especially in HG and EHG plots. The photosynthetic capacity decreased along the grazing gradient. Especially in the MG plot, the two dominant species have lowest net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and water use efficiency (WUE). However, in the HG and EHG plots, the two species had high light saturation point (LSP) and low light compensation point (LCP), indicating they have high light-use efficiency. They showed a stimulation of compensatory photosynthesis to the remnant leaves as compared with grasses in MG plot. For Leymus chinensis, the lipid peroxidation level did not increase with the low malondialdehyde (MDA) content even in the EHG plot. It may be due to the high enzymes activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) to reduce the damage of reactive oxygen species. Meanwhile, more carbohydrate was stored in the leaf of Leymus chinensis to provide energy to the plant regrowth. On the contrary, Stipa grandis showed the high level of lipid peroxidation especially in the HG and EHG plots with decreased antioxidant enzymes activity. The soluble protein content did not change significantly in the different plots. Therefore, with the increase of grazing intensity, plants changed morphological and physiological traits to defend themselves effectively to herbivores. Leymus chinensis is more resistant to grazing than Stipa grandis in terms of tolerance traits, particularly under heavy grazing pressure.

Keywords: antioxidant enzymes activity, grazing density, morphological responses, photosynthesis

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Authors: Wendy Flory, Kazi Czarnecki, Matthijs Mercy, Mark Joswiak, Mary Beth Seasholtz

Abstract:

Polyurethane Materials are present in a wide range of industrial segments such as Furniture, Building and Construction, Composites, Automotive, Electronics, and more. Dow is one of the leaders for the manufacture of the two main raw materials, Isocyanates and Polyols used to produce polyurethane products. Dow is also a key player for the manufacture of Polyurethane Systems/Formulations designed for targeted applications. In 1990, the first analytical chemometric models were developed and deployed for use in the Dow QC labs of the polyols business for the quantification of OH, water, cloud point, and viscosity. Over the years many models have been added; there are now over 140 models for quantification and hundreds for product identification, too many to be reasonable for support. There are 29 global models alone for the quantification of OH across > 70 products at many sites. An attempt was made to consolidate these into a single model. While the consolidated model proved good statistics across the entire range of OH, several products had a bias by ASTM E1655 with individual product validation. This project summary will show the strategy for global model updates for OH, to reduce the number of models for quantification from over 140 to 5 or less using chemometric methods. In order to gain an understanding of the best product groupings, we identify clusters by reducing spectra to a few dimensions via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP). Results from these cluster analyses and a separate validation set allowed dow to reduce the number of models for predicting OH from 29 to 3 without loss of accuracy.

Keywords: hydroxyl, global model, model maintenance, near infrared, polyol

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Authors: Payman Davoodi-Nasab, Ahmad Rahbar-Kelishami, Jaber Safdari, Hossein Abolghasemi

Abstract:

The high purity rare earth elements (REEs) have been vastly used in the field of chemical engineering, metallurgy, nuclear energy, optical, magnetic, luminescence and laser materials, superconductors, ceramics, alloys, catalysts, and etc. Neodymium is one of the most abundant rare earths. By development of a neodymium–iron–boron (Nd–Fe–B) permanent magnet, the importance of neodymium has dramatically increased. Solvent extraction processes have many operational limitations such as large inventory of extractants, loss of solvent due to the organic solubility in aqueous solutions, volatilization of diluents, etc. One of the promising methods of liquid membrane processes is emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) which offers an alternative method to the solvent extraction processes. In this work, a study on Nd extraction through multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) assisted ELM using response surface methodology (RSM) has been performed. The ELM composed of diisooctylphosphinic acid (CYANEX 272) as carrier, MWCNTs as nanoparticles, Span-85 (sorbitan triooleate) as surfactant, kerosene as organic diluent and nitric acid as internal phase. The effects of important operating variables namely, surfactant concentration, MWCNTs concentration, and treatment ratio were investigated. Results were optimized using a central composite design (CCD) and a regression model for extraction percentage was developed. The 3D response surfaces of Nd(III) extraction efficiency were achieved and significance of three important variables and their interactions on the Nd extraction efficiency were found out. Results indicated that introducing the MWCNTs to the ELM process led to increasing the Nd extraction due to higher stability of membrane and mass transfer enhancement. MWCNTs concentration of 407 ppm, Span-85 concentration of 2.1 (%v/v) and treatment ratio of 10 were achieved as the optimum conditions. At the optimum condition, the extraction of Nd(III) reached the maximum of 99.03%.

Keywords: emulsion liquid membrane, extraction of neodymium, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, response surface method

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Authors: Uzma Ahmad

Abstract:

hyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) is the most turbulent province of Pakistan, sharing a longborder with Afghanistan. For about four decades, KPK is facing a series of international events. The peak was reached after 9/11when region was labelled as posing a major theatre of militancy and terrorism which was intensified when Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) began attempts to seize the authority of state. One of the main focus of TTP was to damage and uprooting of female education system and infrastructure in KPK which later became the site of a massacre of school children of Army Public School Peshawar on 16 December 2014.It resulted to the launching of Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP insurgency,casualty and crime rates in the KPKas a whole dropped by 40.0% as compared to 2011–13. All this has badly hampered the female education both in terms of quantity and quality. Malala Yousafzai who is now an advocate of female education has been a victim of Talibans brutality in that area. And thelanguage in which she managed to express herself to the International community is English.Keeping in view the situation, the present project was designed with a sole aim to focus on female students of the area which are few in numbers and to investigate some specific area, where they have been confronting problems in the use of grammar, vocabulary,tenses and organization of ideas in writings. The reasons might be the careless attitude, insufficient reading habits, lack of interest and poor knowledge of English language. The methodology was a descriptive one as it shows the effects of the internal efficiency(independent variables) on an intermediate college’s progress(dependent variables). It was a case study since data was collected from a focused group of 60 female students of arts and humanities at Swabi college at Intermediate level. The ultimate focus was to explore the possibilities of creating a Gender friendly environment for female students. This research has proved how the correct use of English language has given them confidence to move ahead side by side with men and to acknowledge their right of self-determination.

Keywords: capacity building, female education, gender friendly, internal efficiency

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Authors: F. Heyecan Giritli, Gizem Akgül

Abstract:

Because of the raising population of world; the need for houses, buildings and infrastructures are increasing rapidly. Energy and water consumption, waste production continues to increase. If this situation of resources continues, there will be a significant loss for next generations. Therefore, there are a lot of researches and solutions developed in the world. Also sustainability criteria are collected together by some countries to serve construction industry with certification systems. Sustainable building production process’s scope requires different path from traditional building production process. Moreover, the key objective of sustainable buildings is that the process includes whole life cycle duration. The process approaches from the decision of the project to the end of it; so the project team is needed from the beginning of the integrated project delivery model. Further more, by defining project team at the beginning of the project provides communication among the team members and defined problem solving and decision making methods. In this research includes the certification systems among the world to comprehend the head lines and assessment criteria. Therefore, it is understand that usually all green building criteria have the same contents. The aim of this research is to assess the sustainable project stakeholder’ perceptions in Turkish construction industry from the point of occupation, job title and years of experience. Therefore, a survey is made to assess the perceptions of each attendant. In Turkey, sustainability criteria are not clearly defined; on the other hand some regulations like waste management, energy efficiency are made by legal agencies. LEED certification system is the most popular system in Turkey that has attended and certificated. From the LEED official data, it’s understood that 308 project registered in Turkey. Therefore, LEED sustainability criteria are used in the survey. Head lines of LEED certification criteria; sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and regional priority are indicated to assess the perceptions of survey participants. Moreover, only surveying of criteria are not enough; so the equipment, methods, risks and benefits also considered.

Keywords: LEED, sustainability, perceptions, stakeholders, construction, Turkey, risk, benefit

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Authors: Manuel Rosales, Francisco Agrela, Julia Rosales

Abstract:

The development of concrete pavements that include recycled waste with active and predictive safety features is a possible approach to mitigate the harmful impacts of the construction industry, such as CO2 emissions and the consumption of energy and natural resources during the construction and maintenance of road infrastructure. This study establishes the basis for formulating new smart materials for concrete pavements and carrying out the in-situ implementation of an experimental road section. To this end, a comprehensive recycled pavement solution is developed that combines eco-hybrid cement made with 25% mixed recycled aggregate powder (pMRA) and biomass bottom ash powder (pBBA) and a 30% substitution of natural aggregate by MRA and BBA. This work is grouped in three lines. 1) construction materials with high rates of use of recycled material, 2) production processes with efficient consumption of natural resources and use of cleaner energies, and 3) implementation and monitoring of road section with sustainable concrete made from waste. The objective of this study is to ensure satisfactory rheology, mechanical strength, durability, and CO2 capture of pavement concrete manufactured from waste and its subsequent application in real road section as well as its monitoring to establish the optimal range of recycled material. The concrete developed during this study are aimed at the reuse of waste, promoting the circular economy. For this purpose, and after having carried out different tests in the laboratory, three mixtures were established to be applied on the experimental road.

Keywords: biomass bottom ash, construction and demolition waste, recycled concrete pavements, full-scale experimental road, monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 68