Search results for: phase identification

Authors: Bengan Simbarashe Manwere

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The entire African continent, comprising 55 countries, holds a 2% share of the global carbon market. The World Bank attributes the continent’s insignificant share and participation in the carbon market to the limited access to electricity. Approximately 800 million people spread across 47 African countries generate as much power as Spain, with a population of 45million. Only South Africa and North Africa have carbon-reduction investment opportunities on the continent and dominate the 2% market share of the global carbon market. On the back of the 2015 Paris Agreement, South Africa signed into law the Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019 and the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 13 of 2019 (Gazette No. 4280) on 1 June 2019. By these laws, South Africa was ushered into the league of active global carbon market players. By increasing the cost of production by the rate of R120/tCO2e, the tax intentionally compels the internalization of pollution as a cost of production and, relatedly, stimulate investment in clean technologies. The first phase covered the 1 June 2019 – 31 December 2022 period during which the tax was meant to escalate at CPI + 2% for Scope 1 emitters. However, in the second phase, which stretches from 2023 to 2030, the tax will escalate at the inflation rate only as measured by the consumer price index (CPI). The Carbon Tax Act provides for carbon allowances as mitigation strategies to limit agents’ carbon tax liability by up to 95% for fugitive and process emissions. Although the June 2019 Carbon Tax Act explicitly makes provision for a carbon trading scheme (CTS), the carbon trading regulations thereof were only finalised in December 2020. This points to a delay in the establishment of a carbon trading scheme (CTS). Relatedly, emitters in South Africa are not able to benefit from the 95% reduction in effective carbon tax rate from R120/tCO2e to R6/tCO2e as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has not yet finalized the establishment of the market for trading carbon credits. Whereas most carbon trading schemes have been designed and constructed from the beginning as new tailor-made systems in countries the likes of France, Australia, Romania which treat carbon as a financial product, South Africa intends, on the contrary, to leverage existing trading infrastructure of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Clearing and Settlement platforms of Strate, among others, in the interest of the Paris Agreement timelines. Therefore the carbon trading scheme will not be constructed from scratch. At the same time, carbon will be treated as a commodity in order to align with the existing institutional and infrastructural capacity. This explains why the Carbon Tax Act is silent about the involvement of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).For South Africa, there is need to establish they equilibrium stability of the CTS. This is important as South Africa is an innovator in carbon trading and the successful trading of carbon credits on the JSE will lead to imitation by early adopters first, followed by the middle majority thereafter.

Keywords: carbon trading scheme (CTS), Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE), carbon tax act 15 of 2019, South Africa

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Authors: V. Pérez-Herranz, M. Pinel, E. M. Ortega, M. García-Gabaldón

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In the present work, Electrochemical Impedance Spectrocopy (EIS) is applied to study the transport of different metal cations through a cation-exchange membrane. This technique enables the identification of the ionic-transport characteristics and to distinguish between different transport mechanisms occurring at different current density ranges. The impedance spectra are dependent on the applied dc current density, on the type of cation and on the concentration. When the applied dc current density increases, the diameter of the impedance spectra loops increases because all the components of membrane system resistance increase. The diameter of the impedance plots decreases in the order of Na(I), Ni(II) and Cr(III) due to the increased interactions between the negatively charged sulfonic groups of the membrane and the cations with greater charge. Nyquist plots are shifted towards lower values of the real impedance, and its diameter decreases with the increase of concentration due to the decrease of the solution resistance.

Keywords: ion-exchange membranes, Electrochemical Impedance Spectrocopy, multivalent metal cations, membrane system

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Authors: El Amane Salma, Rahou Abdelilah

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Viral respiratory infections (common cold, flu, sinusitis, bronchiolitis, etc.) are among the most common infections in the world with severe symptoms. In Morocco, as everywhere in the world, especially in developing countries, the therapeutic indications of medicinal plants are very present to treat several diseases, including the respiratory system. The objective of our study is to identify and document medicinal plants used in traditional medicine to treat viral respiratory infections and alleviate their symptoms in order to generate interest for future studies in verifying the efficacy of these traditional medicines and their conservation. The information acquired from 81 questionnaires and the floristic identification allowed us to identify 19 spontaneous species belonging to 11 families, used as traditional therapies for viral respiratory diseases in the Prerif. The herbs are the most used life form. The results also showed that leaves were the most commonly used plant parts and most of the herbal medicines were prepared in the form of infusions and administered orally. Documented data was evaluated using use value (UV), family importance value (FIV) and relative frequency citation (RCF).

Keywords: medicinal plants, ethnobotanical, ethnopharmacological, viral respiratory diseases, Morocco

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Authors: Wei Feilong

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In this study, an local invariant generalized Houghtransform (LI-GHT) method is proposed for integrated circuit (IC) visual positioning. The original generalized Hough transform (GHT) is robust to external noise; however, it is not suitable for visual positioning of IC chips due to the four-dimensionality (4D) of parameter space which leads to the substantial storage requirement and high computational complexity. The proposed LI-GHT method can reduce the dimensionality of parameter space to 2D thanks to the rotational invariance of local invariant geometric feature and it can estimate the accuracy position and rotation angle of IC chips in real-time under noise and blur influence. The experiment results show that the proposed LI-GHT can estimate position and rotation angle of IC chips with high accuracy and fast speed. The proposed LI-GHT algorithm was implemented in IC visual positioning system of radio frequency identification (RFID) packaging equipment.

Keywords: Integrated Circuit Visual Positioning, Generalized Hough Transform, Local invariant Generalized Hough Transform, ICpacking equipment

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Authors: Safdari Reza, Zahmatkeshan Maryam, Goli Arji

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Background and Aim: Urban health is one of the challenges of the 21st century. Rapid growth and expanding urbanization have implications for health. In this regard, information technology can remove a large number of modern cities’ problems. Therefore, the present article aims to study modern information technologies in the development of urban health. Materials and Methods:. This is a review article based on library research and Internet searches on valid websites such as Science Direct, Magiran, Springer and advanced searches in Google. Some 164 domestic and foreign texts were studied on such topics as the application of ICT tools including cell phones and wireless tools, GIS, and RFID in the field of urban health in 2011. Finally, 30 sources were used. Conclusion: Information and communication technologies play an important role in improving people's health and enhancing the quality of their lives. Effective utilization of information and communication technologies requires the identification of opportunities and constraints, and the formulation of appropriate planning principles with regard to social and economic factors together with preparing the technological, communication and telecommunications, legal and administrative infrastructures.

Keywords: Urban Health, Information Technology, Information & Communication, Technology

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Authors: Irlana C. do Mar, Thayna A. Ferreira, Dayane S. Rezende, Bruno A. M. Figueira, José M. R. Mercury

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This work presents a low-cost Mn starting material to synthesis manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieve with Mg²⁺ in the tunnel (Mg-OMS-1), based on the Mn residues from Carajás Mineral Province (Amazon, Brazil). After hydrothermal and cation exchange procedures, the Mn residues transformed to a single phase, Mg-OMS-1. The raw material and the synthesis processes were analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The tunnel structure was synthesized hydrothermally at 180 °C for three days without impurities. According to the XRD analysis, the formation of crystalline Mg-OMS-1 was identified through reflections at 9.8º, 12º and 18º (2θ), as well as a thermal stability around 300 ºC. The SEM analysis indicated that the final product presents good crystallinity with a homogeneous size. In addition, an intense and diagnostic FTIR band was identified at 515 cm⁻¹ related to the MnO₆ octahedral stretching vibrations.

Keywords: Mn residues , Octahedral Molecular Sieve, Synthesis, Characterization

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Authors: Kailash C. Madan

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We study the steady state behaviour of a batch arrival single server queue in which the first service with general service times is compulsory and the second service with general service times is optional. We term such a two phase service as generalized Coxian-2 service. Just after completion of a service the server must take a vacation of random length of time with general vacation times. We obtain steady state probability generating functions for the queue size as well as the steady state mean queue size at a random epoch of time in explicit and closed forms. Some particular cases of interest including some known results have been derived.

Keywords: batch arrivals, compound Poisson process, generalized Coxian-2 service, steady state

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Authors: Daoudi Abdelaziz, Mahmoudi Saïd, Chikh Mohamed Amine

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This paper presents a fully automatic segmentation method of the left ventricle at End Systolic (ES) and End Diastolic (ED) in the ultrasound images by means of an implicit deformable model (level set) based on Geodesic Active Contour model. A pre-processing Gaussian smoothing stage is applied to the image, which is essential for a good segmentation. Before the segmentation phase, we locate automatically the area of the left ventricle by using a detection approach based on the Hough Transform method. Consequently, the result obtained is used to automate the initialization of the level set model. This initial curve (zero level set) deforms to search the Endocardial border in the image. On the other hand, quantitative evaluation was performed on a data set composed of 15 subjects with a comparison to ground truth (manual segmentation).

Keywords: level set method, transform Hough, Gaussian smoothing, left ventricle, ultrasound images.

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Authors: Tatyana Kim

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This paper seeks to explore the academic and sociocultural adaptation experiences of international students studying in Kazakhstan. Using multiple case study design, the research will be undertaken at two private Kazakhstani universities having a relatively large and diverse body of international students. Thus, 20 full-time undergraduate international students from the sampled universities will be interviewed to identify factors that impede or, vice versa, facilitate their academic and sociocultural adaptation in Kazakhstan, as well as to reveal how universities support these students in the process of their adaptation. To investigate the issue more deeply, it was decided to explore the university administrators’ viewpoint of the issue. Thus, six university administrators who are in charge of recruiting and supporting international students and, thus, are particularly knowledgeable about their experiences, have been recruited for this study. Identification of both students’ and administrators’ perspectives on the matter may help reveal miscommunication, if any, and gain greater insight into the phenomenon. The data will be collected between November 5, 2019, and December 10, 2019. Preliminary findings will be presented at the conference. Lysgaard’s U-curve adjustment theory (1955) will be employed as a guiding framework to discuss and interpret the findings.

Keywords: academic adaptation, adaptation, higher education, international students, sociocultural adaptation

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Authors: K. O’Mara, T. Cresswell

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Nearly half of the world’s population live near the coast, and as a result, estuaries and coastal bays in populated or industrialized areas often receive metal pollution. Heavy metals have a chemical affinity for sediment particles and can be stored in estuarine sediments and become biologically available under changing conditions. Organisms inhabiting estuaries can be exposed to metals from a variety of sources including metals dissolved in water, bound to sediment or within contaminated prey. Metal uptake and assimilation responses can vary even between species that are biologically similar, making pollution effects difficult to predict. A multi-trophic level experiment representing a common Eastern Australian estuarine food chain was used to study the sources for Cd, Mn and Zn uptake and assimilation in organisms occupying several trophic levels. Sand cockles (Katelysia scalarina), school prawns (Metapenaeus macleayi) and sand whiting (Sillago ciliata) were exposed to radiolabelled seawater, suspended sediment and food. Three pulse-chase trials on filter-feeding sand cockles were performed using radiolabelled phytoplankton (Tetraselmis sp.), benthic microalgae (Entomoneis sp.) and suspended sediment. Benthic microalgae had lower metal uptake than phytoplankton during labelling but higher cockle assimilation efficiencies (Cd = 51%, Mn = 42%, Zn = 63 %) than both phytoplankton (Cd = 21%, Mn = 32%, Zn = 33%) and suspended sediment (except Mn; (Cd = 38%, Mn = 42%, Zn = 53%)). Sand cockles were also sensitive to uptake of Cd, Mn and Zn dissolved in seawater. Uptake of these metals from the dissolved phase was negligible in prawns and fish, with prawns only accumulating metals during moulting, which were then lost with subsequent moulting in the depuration phase. Diet appears to be the main source of metal assimilation in school prawns, with 65%, 54% and 58% assimilation efficiencies from Cd, Mn and Zn respectively. Whiting fed contaminated prawns were able to exclude the majority of the metal activity through egestion, with only 10%, 23% and 11% assimilation efficiencies from Cd, Mn and Zn respectively. The findings of this study support previous studies that find diet to be the dominant accumulation source for higher level trophic organisms. These results show that assimilation efficiencies can vary depending on the source of exposure; sand cockles assimilated more Cd, Mn, and Zn from the benthic diatom than phytoplankton and assimilation was higher in sand whiting fed prawns compared to artificial pellets. The sensitivity of sand cockles to metal uptake and assimilation from a variety of sources poses concerns for metal availability to predators ingesting the clam tissue, including humans. The high tolerance of sand whiting to these metals is reflected in their widespread presence in Eastern Australian estuaries, including contaminated estuaries such as Botany Bay and Port Jackson.

Keywords: cadmium, food chain, metal, manganese, trophic, zinc

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Authors: Diego Tancara, Raul Coto, Ariel Norambuena, Hoseein T. Dinani, Felipe Fanchini

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Quantum machine learning is a growing research field that aims to perform machine learning tasks assisted by a quantum computer. Kernel-based quantum machine learning models are paradigmatic examples where the kernel involves quantum states, and the Gram matrix is calculated from the overlapping between these states. With the kernel at hand, a regular machine learning model is used for the learning process. In this paper we investigate the quantum support vector machine and quantum kernel ridge models to predict the degree of non-Markovianity of a quantum system. We perform digital quantum simulation of amplitude damping and phase damping channels to create our quantum dataset. We elaborate on different kernel functions to map the data and kernel circuits to compute the overlapping between quantum states. We observe a good performance of the models.

Keywords: quantum, machine learning, kernel, non-markovianity

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Authors: Muneer Abbad

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This research explains the e-learning usage in a university in Jordan. Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model has been used as a base model to explain the usage. UTAUT is a model of individual acceptance that is compiled mainly from different models of technology acceptance. This research is the initial part from full explanations of the users' acceptance model that use Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method to explain the users' acceptance of the e-learning systems based on UTAUT model. In this part data has been collected and prepared for further analysis. The main factors of UTAUT model has been tested as different factors using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The second phase will be confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM to explain the users' acceptance of e-learning systems.

Keywords: e-learning, moodle, adoption, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)

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Authors: A. Kasmi, N. E. Abriak, M. Benzerzour, I. Shahrour

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Large volumes of river sediments are dredged each year in Europe in order to maintain harbour activities and prevent floods. The management of this sediment has become increasingly complex. Several European projects were implemented to find environmentally sound solutions for these materials. The main objective of this study is to show the ability of river sediment to be used in road. Since sediments contain a high amount of water, then a dehydrating treatment by addition of the flocculation aid has been used. Firstly, a lot of physical characteristics are measured and discussed for a better identification of the raw sediment and this dehydrated sediment by addition the flocculation aid. The identified parameters are, for example, the initial water content, the density, the organic matter content, the grain size distribution, the liquid limit and plastic limit and geotechnical parameters. The environmental impacts of the used material were evaluated. The results obtained show that there is a slight change on the physical-chemical and geotechnical characteristics of sediment after dehydration by the addition of polymer. However, these sediments cannot be used in road construction.

Keywords: rive sediment, dehydration, flocculation aid or polymer, characteristics, treatments, valorisation, road construction

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Authors: M. Mujahid, Omar A. Al-Hartomy

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Ag-doped ZnO2 loaded on the Pt-carbon spheres have been synthesized and characterized by standard analytical techniques. i.e., UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In order to find the effect of loading of Ag doping on ZnO2, the concentration of Ag was varied from 0-3.5%. The XRD analysis showed that the obtained particles are anatase phase. The SEM images showed Ag-doped ZnO2 are loaded on the surface of the Pt-carbon spheres. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized particles was tested by studying the degradation of methyl orange dye and 4-chlorophenol as a function of time on irradiation in aqueous suspension. Ag-doped ZnO2@Pt-carbon sphere particle with platinum concentration of 3.0 % showed the highest photocatalytic activity as compared to the other Ag concentrations for the degradation of methyl orange and 4-chlorophenol.

Keywords: Ag-ZnO2, Pt-carbon spheres, degradation, methyl orange, 4-chlorophenol

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Authors: Rodrigo Guimarães Santos

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The quality of public transport services has been considered as a critical factor by their users and also by users of individual transport. Thus, this dissertation aims to adapt a model that assesses the quality of public transport and determines its level of service based on the views of its users. The methodology is widely used by marketers and allows measuring the quality of services by assessing the perceptions and expectations of users. The adapted SERVQUAL was tested with users of public transport service users and car in Brasília-DF, city of Brazil. This research involved 241 questionnaires answered by people living in the various administrative regions of Brasília-DF. The analysis of the determinants pointed out that the quality of the public transport service offered in the city is low and users of public transport and cars have a high degree of expectations for improvement in all tested determinants. This method enabled the identification of the most critical determinants and those needing strategic actions for continuous improvement of quality. Adapting the SERVQUAL for a public transport service was satisfactory and demonstrated applicability to internal and external services, including measuring the public transport services in other cities with the opinion of the users.

Keywords: transportation services, quality services, servqual scale and marketing services

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Authors: P. S. Jagadeesh Kumar, Tracy Lin Huan, Rebecca K. Rossi, Yanmin Yuan, Xianpei Li

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The fiscal growth of any country hinges on the prudent administration of water resources. The river Yamuna and Ganga are measured as the life line of India as it affords the needs for life to endure. Earth observation over remote sensing images permits the precise description and identification of ingredients on the superficial from space and airborne platforms. Multiple and heterogeneous image sources are accessible for the same geographical section; multispectral, hyperspectral, radar, multitemporal, and multiangular images. In this paper, a taxonomical learning of the fluvial geomorphological features of river Yamuna and Ganga over doon valley using color fusion of multispectral remote sensing images was performed. Experimental results exhibited that the segmentation based colorization technique stranded on pattern recognition, and color mapping fashioned more colorful and truthful colorized images for geomorphological feature extraction.

Keywords: color fusion, geomorphology, fluvial processes, multispectral images, pattern recognition

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Authors: Bamikole J. Adeyemi, Prashant Jadhawar, Lateef Akanji

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Liquid-liquid interfacial flow is an important process that has applications across many spheres. One such applications are residual oil mobilization, where crude oil and low salinity water are emulsified due to lowered interfacial tension under the condition of low shear rates. The amphiphilic components (asphaltenes and resins) in crude oil are considered to assemble at the interface between the two immiscible liquids. To justify emulsification, drag and snap-off suppression as the main effects of low salinity water, mobilization of residual oil is visualized as thickening and slip of the wetting phase at the brine/crude oil interface which results in the squeezing and drag of the non-wetting phase to the pressure sinks. Meanwhile, defining the boundary conditions for such a system can be very challenging since the interfacial dynamics do not only depend on interfacial tension but also the flow rate. Hence, understanding the flow boundary condition at the brine/crude oil interface is an important step towards defining the influence of low salinity water composition on residual oil mobilization. This work presents a numerical evaluation of three slip boundary conditions that may apply at liquid-liquid interfaces. A mathematical model was developed to describe the evolution of a viscoelastic interfacial thin liquid film. The base model is developed by the asymptotic expansion of the full Navier-Stokes equations for fluid motion due to gradients of surface tension. This model was upscaled to describe the dynamics of the film surface deformation. Subsequently, Jeffrey’s model was integrated into the formulations to account for viscoelastic stress within a long wave approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. To study the fluid response to a prescribed disturbance, a linear stability analysis (LSA) was performed. The dispersion relation and the corresponding characteristic equation for the growth rate were obtained. Three slip (slip, 1; locking, -1; and no-slip, 0) boundary conditions were examined using the resulted characteristic equation. Also, the dynamics of the evolved interfacial thin liquid film were numerically evaluated by considering the influence of the boundary conditions. The linear stability analysis shows that the boundary conditions of such systems are greatly impacted by the presence of amphiphilic molecules when three different values of interfacial tension were tested. The results for slip and locking conditions are consistent with the fundamental solution representation of the diffusion equation where there is film decay. The interfacial films at both boundary conditions respond to exposure time in a similar manner with increasing growth rate which resulted in the formation of more droplets with time. Contrarily, no-slip boundary condition yielded an unbounded growth and it is not affected by interfacial tension.

Keywords: boundary conditions, liquid-liquid interfaces, low salinity water, residual oil mobilization

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Authors: J. K. Adedeji, M. O. Oyekanmi

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This paper has critically examined the use of Machine Learning procedures in curbing unauthorized access into valuable areas of an organization. The use of passwords, pin codes, user’s identification in recent times has been partially successful in curbing crimes involving identities, hence the need for the design of a system which incorporates biometric characteristics such as DNA and pattern recognition of variations in facial expressions. The facial model used is the OpenCV library which is based on the use of certain physiological features, the Raspberry Pi 3 module is used to compile the OpenCV library, which extracts and stores the detected faces into the datasets directory through the use of camera. The model is trained with 50 epoch run in the database and recognized by the Local Binary Pattern Histogram (LBPH) recognizer contained in the OpenCV. The training algorithm used by the neural network is back propagation coded using python algorithmic language with 200 epoch runs to identify specific resemblance in the exclusive OR (XOR) output neurons. The research however confirmed that physiological parameters are better effective measures to curb crimes relating to identities.

Keywords: biometric characters, facial recognition, neural network, OpenCV

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Authors: Zahia Kabouche, Ouissem Gherboudj, Naima Boutaghane, Ahmed Kabouche, Laurence Voutquenne-Nazabadioko

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Chrysanthemum herbs (Asteraceae) are extensively used as food additives and in folk medicine. Anti-cancer, anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and antiproliferative activities as well as antioxidant effects have been reported for Chrysanthemum species. We report the isolation and identification of flavonoids and new and known terpenoids from the endemic species, C. macrocarpum and C. deserticolum “guertoufa”, used in Algerian Sahara as tea drinks and in “couscous” and soups “Chorba”. Structures of the isolated compounds were established by 1-D and 2-D homo and hetero-nuclear NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY), mass spectrometry, UV and comparison with literature data. C. deserticolum extracts were tested by four methods to identify the antioxidant activity namely, ABTS•+, DPPH• scavenging, CUPRAC and ferrous-ions chelating activity methods. Anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of C. macrocarpum extracts and isolated compounds are also reported here.

Keywords: Chrysanthemum macrocarpum, C. deserticolum, flavonoids, terpenoids, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative

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Authors: Ahmed Noor Al-Qayyim

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During the past decades, the bridge structures are considered very important portions of transportation networks, due to the fast urban sprawling. With the failure of bridges that under operating conditions lead to focus on updating the default bridge inspection methodology. The structures health monitoring (SHM) using the vibration response appeared as a promising method to evaluate the condition of structures. The rapid development in the sensors technology and the condition assessment techniques based on the vibration-based damage detection made the SHM an efficient and economical ways to assess the bridges. SHM is set to assess state and expects probable failures of designated bridges. In this paper, a presentation for Frequency Response function method that uses the captured vibration test information of structures to evaluate the structure condition. Furthermore, the main steps of the assessment of bridge using the vibration information are presented. The Frequency Response function method is applied to the experimental data of a full-scale bridge.

Keywords: bridge assessment, health monitoring, damage detection, frequency response function (FRF), signal processing, structure identification

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Authors: Pawit Mongkolprasit, Proud Arunrangsiwed

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Lately, many media organizations in Thailand have started to produce 3D animation, so the quality of personnel should be identified. As an instructor in the school of Animation and Multimedia, the researchers have to prepare the students, suitable for the need of industry. The current study used exploratory research design to establish the knowledge of about this issue, including the required qualification of employees and the potential of animation industry in Thailand. The interview sessions involved three key informants from three well-known organizations. The interview data was used to design a questionnaire for the confirmation phase. The overall results showed that the industry needed an individual with 3D animation skill, computer graphic skills, good communication skills, a high responsibility, and an ability to finish the project on time. Moreover, it is also found that there were currently various kinds of media where 3D animation has been involved, such as films, TV variety, TV advertising, online advertising, and application on mobile device.

Keywords: 3D animation, animation industry, marketing trend, Thailand animation

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Authors: Serife Parlayici, Erol Pehlivan

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In this study, plum stone shell activated carbon (PS-AC) was prepared to adsorb Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions in aqueous solutions. Some important parameters that influence the adsorption of metal ions such as pH, contact time and metal concentration have been systematically investigated in batch type reactors. The characterization of adsorbent is carried out by means of FTIR and SEM. It was found that the adsorption capacities of PS-AC were pH-dependent, and the optimal pH values were 4.5 and 5.0 for Cu(II) and Pb(II), respectively. The adsorption was rapid and the equilibrium was reached within 60 minutes to remove of Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions. The adsorption stability was studied in various doses of adsorbent. Langmuir, Freundlich and D-R adsorption models were used to describe adsorption equilibrium studies of PS-AC. Adsorption data showed that the adsorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II) is compatible with Langmuir isotherm model. The result showed that adsorption capacities calculated from the Langmuir isotherm were 33.22 mg/g and 57.80 mg/g for Cu(II) and Pb(II), respectively.

Keywords: plum-stone, activated carbon, copper and lead, isotherms

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Authors: M. S. Rodríguez, F. Cadaveira, M. F. Páramo

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First year university students comprise one of the groups most likely to indulge in hazardous alcohol consumption. The transition from secondary school to university presents a range of academic, social and developmental challenges requiring new responses that will meet the demands of this highly competitive environment. The main purpose of this research was to analyze the influence of gender and hazardous alcohol consumption on academic performance of 300 university students in Spain in a three-year follow-up study. Alcohol consumption was measured using the Alcohol Use Identification Test (AUDIT), and the average university grades were provided by the Academic Management Services of the University. Analysis of variance showed that the level of alcohol consumption significantly affected academic performance. Students undertaking hazardous alcohol consumption obtained the lowest grades during the first three years at university. These effects were particularly marked in the sample of women with a hazardous pattern of alcohol consumption, although the interaction between gender and this type of consumption was not significant. The study highlights the impact of hazardous alcohol consumption on the academic trajectory of university students. The findings confirm that alcohol consumption predicts poor academic performance in first year students and that the low level of performance is maintained throughout the university career.

Keywords: academic performance, alcohol consumption, gender, university students

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Authors: Pegah Zamani

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This multidisciplinary study interrogates the reformulation of socio-ecological systems by bringing different disciplines together and incorporating ecological, social, and technological components to the sustainable design. The study seeks for a holistic sustainable system to understand the multidimensional impact of the evolving innovative technologies on responding to the variable socio-environmental conditions. Through a range of cases, from the vernacular built spaces to the sophisticated optimized systems, the research unfolds how far the environmental elements would impact the performance of a sustainable building, its micro-climatic ecological requirements, and its human inhabitation. As a product of the advancing technologies, an optimized and environmentally responsive building offers new identification, and realization of the built space through reformulating the connection to its internal and external environments (such as solar, thermal, and airflow), as well as its dwellers. The study inquires properties of optimized buildings, by bringing into the equation not only the environmental but also the socio-cultural, morphological, and phenomenal factors. Thus, the research underlines optimized built space as a product and practice which would not be meaningful without addressing and dynamically adjusting to the diversity and complexity of socio-ecological systems.

Keywords: ecology, morphology, socio-ecological systems, sustainability

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Authors: Marcela dos P. G. Baltazar, Louise H. Gracioso, Luciana J. Gimenes, Bruno Karolski, Ingrid Avanzi, Elen A. Perpetuo

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In this work, bacterial strains were isolated from environmental samples from a copper mine and three of them presented potential for bioremediation of copper. All the strains were identified by mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-Biotyper) and grown in three diferent media supplemented with 100 ppm of copper chloride in flasks of 500mL and it was incubated at 28 °C and 180 rpm. Periodically, samples were taken and monitored for cellular growth and copper biosorption by spectrophotometer UV-Vis (600 nm) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), respectively. At the end of exponential phase of cellular growth, the biomass was utilized to construct a correlation curve between absorbance and dry mass of the cells. Among the three isolates with potential for biorremediation, 1 strain exhibit capacity the most for bioremediation of effluents contaminated by copper being identified as Rhodococcus erythropolis.

Keywords: bioprocess, bioremediation, biosorption, copper

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Authors: G. Rajapakse, S. Jayasinghe, A. Fleming

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This paper aims to experimentally validate the control strategy used for electrical power converters in grid integrated oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC). The particular OWC’s unidirectional air turbine-generator output power results in discrete large power pulses. Therefore, the system requires power conditioning prior to integrating to the grid. This is achieved by using a back to back power converter with an energy storage system. A Li-Ion battery energy storage is connected to the dc-link of the back-to-back converter using a bidirectional dc-dc converter. This arrangement decouples the system dynamics and mitigates the mismatch between supply and demand powers. All three electrical power converters used in the arrangement are controlled using finite control set-model predictive control (FCS-MPC) strategy. The rectifier controller is to regulate the speed of the turbine at a set rotational speed to uphold the air turbine at a desirable speed range under varying wave conditions. The inverter controller is to maintain the output power to the grid adhering to grid codes. The dc-dc bidirectional converter controller is to set the dc-link voltage at its reference value. The software modeling of the OWC system and FCS-MPC is carried out in the MATLAB/Simulink software using actual data and parameters obtained from a prototype unidirectional air-turbine OWC developed at Australian Maritime College (AMC). The hardware development and experimental validations are being carried out at AMC Electronic laboratory. The designed FCS-MPC for the power converters are separately coded in Code Composer Studio V8 and downloaded into separate Texas Instrument’s TIVA C Series EK-TM4C123GXL Launchpad Evaluation Boards with TM4C123GH6PMI microcontrollers (real-time control processors). Each microcontroller is used to drive 2kW 3-phase STEVAL-IHM028V2 evaluation board with an intelligent power module (STGIPS20C60). The power module consists of a 3-phase inverter bridge with 600V insulated gate bipolar transistors. Delta standard (ASDA-B2 series) servo drive/motor coupled to a 2kW permanent magnet synchronous generator is served as the turbine-generator. This lab-scale setup is used to obtain experimental results. The validation of the FCS-MPC is done by comparing these experimental results to the results obtained by MATLAB/Simulink software results in similar scenarios. The results show that under the proposed control scheme, the regulated variables follow their references accurately. This research confirms that FCS-MPC fits well into the power converter control of the OWC-WEC system with a Li-Ion battery energy storage.

Keywords: dc-dc bidirectional converter, finite control set-model predictive control, Li-ion battery energy storage, oscillating water column, wave energy converter

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: M. Bruzza, M. Tupia, F. Rodríguez

Abstract:

As part of the regulatory compliance process and the streamlining of public administration, the Peruvian government has implemented the National E-Government Plan in all state institutions with the aim of providing citizens with solid services based on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). As part of the regulations, the requisites to be met by public institutions have been submitted. However, the lack of an implementation model was detected, one that can serve as a guide to such institutions in order to materialize the organizational and technological structures needed, which allow them to provide the required digital services. This paper develops an implementation model of electronic government (e-government) for Peru’s state institutions, in compliance with current regulations based on a COBIT 5.0 framework. Furthermore, the paper introduces phase 1 of this model: business and IT goals, the goals cascade and the future model of processes.

Keywords: e-government, u-government, COBIT, implementation model

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Pierre Bauduin, Coralie Pasquier, Alban Jonchere, Luc Girard, Olivier Diat

Abstract:

Ionic species, such as polyoxometalates (POMs) or (metal-) boron clusters, are at the frontier between ions and (charged-)colloids due to their nm size. We show here that the large size and low charge density of POMs, compared to classical ions, are responsible for a peculiar behavior called “super-chaotropy”. This property refers to the strong propensity of nano-ions to adsorb at neutral polar interfaces, via non-specific interactions. It has strong effects on phase transitions in soft matter and can, for example, stabilize colloidal systems such as surfactant foams. A simple way for evaluating and classifying nano-ions, such as POMs, according to their super-chaotropy is proposed here. The super-chaotropic behavior of nano-ions opens many opportunities in separation science, catalysis, and for the design of nanostructured hybrid materials.

Keywords: colloids, foams, surfactant, salt effect, colloidal stability, nano-ions

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Agnieszka Markowska-Radomska, Ewa Dluska

Abstract:

Maintaining a bioactive substances dense diet is important for the elderly, especially to prevent diseases and to support healthy ageing. Adequate bioactive substances intake can reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative syndromes, diseases of the oral cavity, gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, diabetes, and cancer). This can be achieved by introducing a comprehensive supplementation of components necessary for the proper functioning of the ageing body. The paper proposes the multiple emulsions of the W1/O/W2 (water-in-oil-in-water) type as carriers for effective co-encapsulation and co-delivery of bioactive substances in supplementation of the elderly. Multiple emulsions are complex structured systems ("drops in drops"). The functional structure of the W1/O/W2 emulsion enables (i) incorporation of one or more bioactive components (lipophilic and hydrophilic); (ii) enhancement of stability and bioavailability of encapsulated substances; (iii) prevention of interactions between substances, as well as with the external environment, delivery to a specific location; and (iv) release in a controlled manner. The multiple emulsions were prepared by a one-step method in the Couette-Taylor flow (CTF) contactor in a continuous manner. In general, a two-step emulsification process is used to obtain multiple emulsions. The paper contains a proposal of emulsion functionalization by introducing pH-responsive biopolymer—carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) to the external phase, which made it possible to achieve a release of components controlled by the pH of the gastrointestinal environment. The membrane phase of emulsions was soybean oil. The W1/O/W2 emulsions were evaluated for their characteristics (drops size/drop size distribution, volume packing fraction), encapsulation efficiency and stability during storage (to 30 days) at 4ºC and 25ºC. Also, the in vitro multi-substance co-release process were investigated in a simulated gastrointestinal environment (different pH and composition of release medium). Three groups of stable multiple emulsions were obtained: emulsions I with co-encapsulated vitamins B12, B6 and resveratrol; emulsions II with vitamin A and β-carotene; and emulsions III with vitamins C, E and D3. The substances were encapsulated in the appropriate emulsion phases depending on the solubility. For all emulsions, high encapsulation efficience (over 95%) and high volume packing fraction of internal droplets (0.54-0.76) were reached. In addition, due to the presence of a polymer (CMC-Na) with adhesive properties, high encapsulation stability during emulsions storage were achieved. The co-release study of encapsulated bioactive substances confirmed the possibility to modify the release profiles. It was found that the releasing process can be controlled through the composition, structure, physicochemical parameters of emulsions and pH of the release medium. The results showed that the obtained multiple emulsions might be used as potential liquid complex carriers for controlled/modified/site-specific co-delivery of bioactive substances in dietary supplementation in the elderly.

Keywords: bioactive substance co-release, co-encapsulation, elderly supplementation, multiple emulsion

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Ahmed Atef, Mohamed Alhasheem, Eman Beshr

Abstract:

In this paper, an enhanced DC microgrid design is proposed using the DAB converter as a conversion unit in order to harvest the maximum power from the PV array. Each connected DAB converter is controlled with an enhanced control strategy. The controller is based on the artificial intelligence (AI) technique to regulate the terminal PV voltage through the phase shift angle of each DAB converter. In this manner, no need for a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) unit to set the reference of the PV terminal voltage. This strategy overcomes the stability issues of the DC microgrid as the response of converters is superior compared to the conventional strategies. The proposed PV interface system is modelled and simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simulation results reveal an accurate and fast response of the proposed design in case of irradiance changes.

Keywords: DC microgrid, DAB converter, parallel operation, artificial intelligence, fast response

Procedia PDF Downloads 778