Search results for: renewable natural gas

Authors: Easa Ali Abbasi, Akbar Allahverdizadeh, Reza Jahangiri, Behnam Dadashzadeh

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Electrical current measurement is a suitable method for the performance determination of electrical devices. There are two contact and noncontact methods in this measuring process. Contact method has some disadvantages like having direct connection with wire which may endamage the system. Thus, in this paper, a bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam which has a permanent magnet on its free end is used to measure electrical current in a noncontact way. In mathematical modeling, based on Galerkin method, the governing equation of the cantilever beam is solved, and the equation presenting the relation between applied force and beam’s output voltage is presented. Magnetic force resulting from current carrying wire is considered as the external excitation force of the system. The results are compared with other references in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the mathematical model. Finally, the effects of geometric parameters on the output voltage and natural frequency are presented.

Keywords: cantilever beam, electrical current measurement, forced excitation, piezoelectric

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: Talat Ghomashchi, Zahra Akbari, Shirin Malekpour, Marjan Alimirzaee

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Mixing the waste water of industries with natural water has caused environmental pollution. So researcher try to obtain methods and optimum conditions for waste water treatment. One of important stage in waste water treatment is dissolved air flotation. DAF is used for the removal of suspended solids and oils from waste water. In this paper, the effect of several parameters on flotation efficiency with Cationic polyacrylamide as flocculant, was examined, namely, (a) concentration of cationic flocculants, (b) pH (c) fast mixing time, (d) fast mixing speed,(e) slow mixing time,(f) retention time and temperature. After design of experiment, in each trial turbidity of waste water was measured by spectrophotometer. Results show that contribution of pH and concentration of flocculant on flotation efficiency are 75% and 9% respectively. Cationic polyacrylamide led to a significant increase in the settling speed and effect of temperature is negligible. In the optimum condition, the outcome of the DAF unit is increased and amount of suspended solid and oil in waste water is decreased effectively.

Keywords: dissolved air flotation, oil industry, waste water, treatment

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Authors: Ruyang Ren, Yaohua Zhao, Yanhua Diao

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The intermittent and unstable characteristics of renewable energy such as solar energy can be effectively solved through battery energy storage system. Lithium-ion battery is widely used in battery energy storage system because of its advantages of high energy density, small internal resistance, low self-discharge rate, no memory effect and long service life. However, the performance and service life of lithium-ion battery is seriously affected by its operating temperature. Thus, the safety operation of the lithium-ion battery module is inseparable from an effective thermal management system (TMS). In this study, a new type of TMS based on micro heat pipe array (MHPA) for lithium-ion battery is established, and the TMS is applied to a battery energy storage box that needs to operate at a high temperature environment of 40 °C all year round. MHPA is a flat shape metal body with high thermal conductivity and excellent temperature uniformity. The battery energy storage box is composed of four battery modules, with a nominal voltage of 51.2 V, a nominal capacity of 400 Ah. Through the excellent heat transfer characteristics of the MHPA, the heat generated by the charge and discharge process can be quickly transferred out of the battery module. In addition, if only the MHPA cannot meet the heat dissipation requirements of the battery module, the TMS can automatically control the opening of the external fan outside the battery module according to the temperature of the battery, so as to further enhance the heat dissipation of the battery module. The thermal management performance of lithium-ion battery TMS based on MHPA is studied experimentally under different ambient temperatures and the condition to turn on the fan or not. Results show that when the ambient temperature is 40 °C and the fan is not turned on in the whole charge and discharge process, the maximum temperature of the battery in the energy storage box is 53.1 °C and the maximum temperature difference in the battery module is 2.4 °C. After the fan is turned on in the whole charge and discharge process, the maximum temperature is reduced to 50.1 °C, and the maximum temperature difference is reduced to 1.7 °C. Obviously, the lithium-ion battery TMS based on MHPA not only could control the maximum temperature of the battery below 55 °C, but also ensure the excellent temperature uniformity of the battery module. In conclusion, the lithium-ion battery TMS based on MHPA can ensure the safe and stable operation of the battery energy storage box in high temperature environment.

Keywords: heat dissipation, lithium-ion battery thermal management, micro heat pipe array, temperature uniformity

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Authors: Lim Lie Pin, Lin Hui Wen

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Rural tourism has become popular in Taiwan, the villages based on agriculture including fishery have to follow the trend to develop the local economy and achieve the sustainable development of the rural areas. Through cultural festivals, the tourist could experience the benefit while promoting and stimulating the local development of rural tourism. Cigu is famous for salt history and abundant natural resources, such as lagoon, black-faced spoonbills and other fishery products. Digging clam has become the most special parent-child activities in Tainan and increasing awareness since it was initiated. Therefore, festival organizers and regional destination marketers need to identify visitors’ experiences attributes which lead to opportunities for industry professionals, community involvement to plan and organize regional festivals and their programmes for effective destination branding finding out more potential rural resources encouraging the local industry growth and sustainable development.

Keywords: rural tourism, cultural festival, destination branding, tourist experience, sustainable development

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Authors: Tajinder Kaur, Anu Bala

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An image retrieval system is a computer system for browsing, searching, and retrieving images from a large database of digital images a new algorithm meant for content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is presented in this paper. The proposed method combines the color and texture features which are extracted the global and local information of the image. The local texture feature is extracted by using local binary patterns (LBP), which are evaluated by taking into consideration of local difference between the center pixel and its neighbors. For the global color feature, the color histogram (CH) is used which is calculated by RGB (red, green, and blue) spaces separately. In this paper, the combination of color and texture features are proposed for content-based image retrieval. The performance of the proposed method is tested on Corel 1000 database which is the natural database. The results after being investigated show a significant improvement in terms of their evaluation measures as compared to LBP and CH.

Keywords: color, texture, feature extraction, local binary patterns, image retrieval

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Authors: Silvia Tamayo-Moreno, Diana Pérez-Marín

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In this paper, the possibility of children studying by using an interactive learning technology called Pedagogic Conversational Agent is presented. The main benefit is that the agent is able to adapt the dialogue to each student and to provide automatic feedback. Moreover, according to Math teachers, in many cases students are unable to solve the problems even knowing the procedure to solve them, because they do not understand what they have to do. The hypothesis is that if students are helped to understand what they have to solve, they will be able to do it. Taken that into account, we have started the development of Dr. Roland, an agent to help students understand Math problems following a User-Centered Design methodology. The use of this methodology is proposed, for the first time, to design pedagogic agents to teach any subject from Secondary down to Pre-Primary education. The reason behind proposing a methodology is that while working on this project, we noticed the lack of literature to design and evaluate agents. To cover this gap, we describe how User-Centered Design can be applied, and which usability techniques can be applied to evaluate the agent.

Keywords: pedagogic conversational agent, human-computer interaction, user-centered design, natural language interface

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Authors: A. Cilek, S. Berberoglu, A. Akin Tanriover, C. Donmez

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Wetlands are the areas which have important effects and functions on protecting human life, adjust to nature, and biological variety, besides being potential exploitation sources. Observing the changes in these sensitive areas is important to study for data collecting and correct planning for the future. Remote sensing and Geographic Information System are being increasingly used for environmental studies such as biotope mapping and habitat monitoring. Akyatan Lagoon, one of the most important wetlands in Turkey, has been facing serious threats from agricultural applications in recent years. In this study, seasonal and temporal monitoring in wetlands system are determined by using remotely sensed data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) between 1985 and 2015. The research method is based on classifying and mapping biotopes in the study area. The natural biotope types were determined as coastal sand dunes, salt marshes, river beds, coastal woods, lakes, lagoons.

Keywords: biotope mapping, GIS, remote sensing, wetlands

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Authors: Andrew Freiburger, Sergi Molins

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Freshwater is a vital resource; yet, the supply of clean freshwater is diminishing as the consequence of melting snow and ice from global warming, pollution from industry, and an increasing demand from human population growth. The unsustainable trajectory of diminishing water resources is projected to jeopardize water security for billions of people in the 21st century. Membrane desalination technologies may resolve the growing discrepancy between supply and demand by filtering arbitrary feed water into a fraction of renewable, clean water and a fraction of highly concentrated brine. The leading hindrance of membrane desalination is fouling, whereby the highly concentrated brine solution encourages micro-organismal colonization and/or the precipitation of occlusive minerals (i.e. scale) upon the membrane surface. Thus, an understanding of brine formation is necessary to mitigate membrane fouling and to develop efficacious desalination technologies that can bolster the supply of available freshwater. This study presents a reactive transport simulation of brine formation and scale deposition during reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. The simulation conceptually represents the RO module as a one-dimensional domain, where feed water directionally enters the domain with a prescribed fluid velocity and is iteratively concentrated in the immobile layer of a dual porosity model. Geochemical PHREEQC code numerically evaluated the conceptual model with parameters for the BW30-400 RO module and for real water feed sources – e.g. the Red and Mediterranean seas, and produced waters from American oil-wells, based upon peer-review data. The presented simulation is computationally simpler, and hence less resource intensive, than the existent and more rigorous simulations of desalination phenomena, like TOUGHREACT. The end-user may readily prepare input files and execute simulations on a personal computer with open source software. The graphical results of fouling-potential and brine characteristics may therefore be particularly useful as the initial tool for screening candidate feed water sources and/or informing the selection of an RO module.

Keywords: desalination, PHREEQC, reactive transport, scaling

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Authors: Fuad H. Veliev

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Negative pressure phenomenon appears in many thermodynamic, geophysical and biophysical processes in the Nature and technological systems. For more than 100 years of the laboratory researches beginning from F. M. Donny’s tests, the great values of negative pressure have been achieved. But this phenomenon has not been practically applied, being only a nice lab toy due to the special demands for the purity and homogeneity of the liquids for its appearance. The possibility of creation of direct wave of negative pressure in real heterogeneous liquid systems was confirmed experimentally under the certain kinetic and hydraulic conditions. The negative pressure can be considered as the factor of both useful and destroying energies. The new approach to generation of the negative pressure waves in impure, unclean fluids has allowed the creation of principally new energy saving technologies and installations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of different production processes. It was proved that the negative pressure is one of the main factors causing hard troubles in some technological and natural processes. Received results emphasize the necessity to take into account the role of the negative pressure as an energy factor in evaluation of many transient thermohydrodynamic processes in the Nature and production systems.

Keywords: liquid systems, negative pressure, temperature, wave, metastable state

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Authors: Umara Nissar Rafiqi, Irum Gul, Nazima Nasrullah, Monica Saifi, Malik Z. Abdin

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Background: Stevia rebaudiana, a member of Asteraceae family is an important medicinal plant and produces a commercially used non-caloric natural sweetener, which is also an alternate herbal cure for diabetes. Steviol glycosides are the main sweetening compounds present in these plants. Secondary metabolites are crucial to the adaption of plants to the environment and its overcoming stress conditions. In agricultural procedures, the abiotic stresses like salinity, high metal toxicity and drought, in particular, are responsible for the majority of the reduction that differentiates yield potential from harvestable yield. Salt stress and heavy metal toxicity lead to increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). To avoid oxidative damage due to ROS and osmotic stress, plants have a system of anti-oxidant enzymes along with several stress induced enzymes. This helps in scavenging the ROS and relieve the osmotic stress in different cell compartments. However, whether stress induced toxicity modulates the activity of these enzymes in Stevia rebaudiana is poorly understood. Aim: The present study focussed on the effect of salinity, heavy metal toxicity (lead and mercury) on physiological traits and transcriptional profiling of Stevia rebaudiana. Method: Stevia rebaudiana plants were collected from the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic plants (CIMAP), Patnagar, India and maintained under controlled conditions in a greenhouse at Hamdard University, Delhi, India. The plants were subjected to different concentrations of salt (0, 25, 50 and 75 mM respectively) and heavy metals, lead and mercury (0, 100, 200 and 300 µM respectively). The physiological traits such as shoot length, root numbers, leaf growth were evaluated. The samples were collected at different developmental stages and analysed for transcription profiling by RT-PCR. Transcriptional studies in stevia rebaudiana involves important antioxidant enzymes: catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP) and stress induced aquaporin (AQU), auxin repressed protein (ARP-1), Ndhc gene. The data was analysed using GraphPad Prism and expressed as mean ± SD. Result: Low salinity and lower metal toxicity did not affect the fresh weight of the plant. However, this was substantially decreased by 55% at high salinity and heavy metal treatment. With increasing salinity and heavy metal toxicity, the values of all studied physiological traits were significantly decreased. Chlorosis in treated plants was also observed which could be due to changes in Fe:Zn ratio. At low concentrations (upto 25 mM) of NaCl and heavy metals, we did not observe any significant difference in the gene expressions of treated plants compared to control plants. Interestingly, at high salt concentration and high metal toxicity, a significant increase in the expression profile of stress induced genes was observed in treated plants compared to control (p < 0.005). Conclusion: Stevia rebaudiana is tolerant to lower salt and heavy metal concentration. This study also suggests that with the increase in concentrations of salt and heavy metals, harvest yield of S. rebaudiana was hampered.

Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana, natural sweetener, salinity, heavy metal toxicity

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Authors: K. Sangeeth, P. Rekha, P. Preeja, P. Divya, R. Arya, R. Maneesha

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Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are small or tiny devices that consists of different sensors to sense physical parameters like air pressure, temperature, vibrations, movement etc., process these data and sends it to the central data center to take decisions. The WSN domain, has wide range of applications such as monitoring and detecting natural hazards like landslides, forest fire, avalanche, flood monitoring and also in healthcare applications. With such different applications, it is being taught in undergraduate/post graduate level in many universities under department of computer science. But the cost and infrastructure required to purchase WSN nodes for having the students getting hands on expertise on these devices is expensive. This paper gives overview about the remote triggered lab that consists of more than 100 WSN nodes that helps the students to remotely login from anywhere in the world using the World Wide Web, configure the nodes and learn the WSN concepts in intuitive way. It proposes new way called over the air programming (OTAP) and its internals that program the 100 nodes simultaneously and view the results without the nodes being physical connected to the computer system, thereby allowing for sparse deployment.

Keywords: WSN, over the air programming, virtual lab, AT45DB

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Authors: Gloria P. Manu, Johnson K. Efavi, Abu Yaya, Grace K. Arkorful, Frank Godson

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Plastics have been used extensively in both food and water packaging and other applications because of their inherent properties of low bulk densities and inertness as well as its low cost. Waste management of these plastics after usage is troubling in Ghana. One way of addressing the environmental problems associated with these plastic wastes is by recycling into useful products such as composites for energy and construction applications using natural or local materials as reinforcement. In this work, composites have been formed from waste low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and kaolin at temperatures as low as 70 ֯C using low-cost solvents like kerosene. Chemical surface modifications have been employed to improve the interfacial bonding resulting in the enhancement of properties of the composites. Kaolin particles of sizes ≤ 90µm were dispersed in the polyethylene matrix. The content of the LDPE was varied between 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 %wt. Results obtained indicated that all the composites exhibited impressive compressive and flexural strengths with the 50%wt. composition having the highest strength. The hardness value of the composites increased as the polyethylene composition reduces and that of the kaolin increased. The average density and water of absorption of the composites were 530kg/m³ and 1.3% respectively.

Keywords: polyethylene, recycling, waste, composite, kaolin

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Authors: Vassiliki Drosou, Theoni Oikonomou

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EU-SOLARIS will form a new legal entity to explore and implement improved rules and procedures for Research Infrastructures (RI) for Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) and solar chemistry technologies, in order to optimize RI development and R&D coordination. It is expected to be the first of its kind, where industrial needs and private funding will play a significant role. The success of EU-SOLARIS initiative will be the establishment of a new governance body, aided by sustainable financial models. EU-SOLARIS is expected to be an important tool, which will provide the most complete, high quality scientific infrastructure portfolio at international level and to facilitate researchers' access to highly specialised research infrastructure through a single access point. This will be accomplished by linking scientific communities, industry and universities involved in the CST sector. The access to be offered by EU-SOLARIS will guarantee the direct contact of experienced scientists with newcomers and interested students. The set of RIs participating in EU-SOLARIS will offer access to state of the art infrastructures, high-quality services, and will enable users to conduct high quality research. Access to these facilities will contribute to the enhancement of the European research area by: -Opening installations to European and non-European scientists, coming from both academia and industry, thus improving co-operation. -Improving scientific critical mass in domains where knowledge is now widely dispersed. -Generating strong Europe-wide R&D project consortia, increasing the competitiveness of each member alone. EU-SOLARIS will be created in the framework of a European project, co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union –whose initiative is to foster, contribute and promote the scientific and technological development of the CST and solar chemistry technologies. Primary objective of EU-SOLARIS is to contribute to the improvement of the state of the art of these technologies with the aim of preserving and reinforcing the European leadership in this field, in which EU-SOLARIS is expected to be a valuable instrument. EU-SOLARIS scope, activities, objectives, current status and vision will be given in the article. Moreover, the rules, processes and criteria regulating the access to the research infrastructures included in EU-SOLARIS will be presented.

Keywords: concentrated solar thermal (CST) technology, renewable energy sources, research infrastructures, solar chemistry

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Authors: Dorith Tavor, Adi Wolfson

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In the past two decades a variety of green solvents have been proposed, including water, ionic liquids, fluorous solvents, and supercritical fluids. However, their implementation in industrial processes is still limited due to their tedious and non-sustainable synthesis, lack of experimental data and familiarity, as well as operational restrictions and high cost. Several years ago we presented, for the first time, the use of glycerol-based solvents as alternative sustainable reaction mediums in both catalytic and non-catalytic organic synthesis. Glycerol is the main by-product from the conversion of oils and fats in oleochemical production. Moreover, in the past decade, its price has substantially decreased due to an increase in supply from the production and use of fatty acid derivatives in the food, cosmetics, and drugs industries and in biofuel synthesis, i.e., biodiesel. The renewable origin, beneficial physicochemical properties and reusability of glycerol-based solvents, enabled improved product yield and selectivity as well as easy product separation and catalyst recycling. Furthermore, their high boiling point and polarity make them perfect candidates for non-conventional heating and mixing techniques such as ultrasound- and microwave-assisted reactions. Finally, in some reactions, such as catalytic transfer-hydrogenation or transesterification, they can also be used simultaneously as both solvent and reactant. In our ongoing efforts to design a viable protocol that will facilitate the acceptance of glycerol and its derivatives as sustainable solvents, pure glycerol and glycerol triacetate (triacetin) as well as various glycerol-triacetin mixtures were tested as sustainable solvents in several representative organic reactions, such as nucleophilic substitution of benzyl chloride to benzyl acetate, Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of iodobenzene and phenylboronic acid, baker’s yeast reduction of ketones, and transfer hydrogenation of olefins. It was found that reaction performance was affected by the glycerol to triacetin ratio, as the solubility of the substrates in the solvent determined product yield. Thereby, employing optimal glycerol to triacetin ratio resulted in maximum product yield. In addition, using glycerol-based solvents enabled easy and successful separation of the products and recycling of the catalysts.

Keywords: glycerol, green chemistry, sustainability, catalysis

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Authors: L. J. de Bessa Neto, V. S. Filho, J. V. Ferreira Nunes, G. C. Bergamo

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There are many situations in which human activities have significant effects on the environment. Damage to the ozone layer is one of them. The objective of this work is to use the Least Squares Method, considering the linear, exponential, logarithmic, power and polynomial models of the second degree, to analyze through the coefficient of determination (R²), which model best fits the behavior of the chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-142b) in parts per trillion between 1992 and 2018, as well as estimates of future concentrations between 5 and 10 periods, i.e. the concentration of this pollutant in the years 2023 and 2028 in each of the adjustments. A total of 809 observations of the concentration of HCFC-142b in one of the monitoring stations of gases precursors of the deterioration of the ozone layer during the period of time studied were selected and, using these data, the statistical software Excel was used for make the scatter plots of each of the adjustment models. With the development of the present study, it was observed that the logarithmic fit was the model that best fit the data set, since besides having a significant R² its adjusted curve was compatible with the natural trend curve of the phenomenon.

Keywords: chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-142b), ozone, least squares method, regression models

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Authors: Samiullah Bhatti, Safdar Abbas Zaidi, Syed Murtaza Ali Jafri

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This research paper presents the results of using plastic aggregate in flexible pavement. Plastic aggregates have been prepared with polypropylene (PP) recycled products and have been tested with Marshall apparatus. Grade 60/70 bitumen has been chosen for this research with a total content of 2.5 %, 3 % and 3.5 %. Plastic aggregates are mixed with natural aggregates with different proportions and it ranges from 10 % to 100 % with an increment of 10 %. Therefore, a total of 10 Marshall cakes were prepared with plastic aggregates in addition to a standard pavement sample. In total 33 samples have been tested for Marshall stability, flow and voids in mineral aggregates. The results show an increase in the value when it changes from 2.5 % bitumen to 3 % and after then it goes again toward declination. Thus, 3 % bitumen content has been found as the most optimum value for flexible pavements. Among all the samples, 20 % PP aggregates sample has been found satisfactory with respect to all the standards provided by ASTM. Therefore, it is suggested to use 20 plastic aggregates in flexible pavement construction. A comparison of bearing capacity and skid resistance is also observed.

Keywords: marshall test, polypropylene plastic, plastic aggregates, flexible pavement alternative, recycling of plastic waste

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Authors: Ngoc Quang Nguyen, Daewon Sohn

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Chitosan (CS) is a natural polycationic polysaccharide and pH-sensitive polymer with incomplete deacetylation from claiming chitin. It is also a guaranteeing material in terms of pharmaceutical, chemical, and sustenance industry due to its exceptional structure (reactive –OH and –NH2 groups). In this study, a catechol-functionalized chitosan (CCS, for an eminent level for substitution) was synthesized and propelled by marine mussel cuticles in place on research those intricate connections between Fe³⁺ and catechol under acidic conditions. The ratios of catechol, chitosan and other reagents decide the structure of the hydrogel. The gel formation is then well-maintained by dual cross-linking through electrostatic interactions between Fe³⁺ and CCS and covalent catechol-coupling-based coordinate bonds. The hydrogels showed enhanced cohesiveness and shock-absorbing properties with increasing pH due to coordinate bonds inspired by mussel byssal threads. Thus, the gelation time, rheological properties, UV-vis and ¹H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, and the morphologic aspects were elucidated to describe those crosslinking components and the physical properties of the chitosan backbones and hydrogel frameworks.

Keywords: catechol, chitosan, iron ion, gelation, hydrogel

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Authors: Felix Aberu

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The high rate of greenhouse gas (CO₂) emission and increased concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere are not unconnected to both human and natural activities. This has caused climate change and global warming in the world. The adverse effect of these climatic changes has no doubt threatened human existence. Hence, this study examined the effects of environmental and climate influence on mortality and morbidity rates, with particular reference to the world’s leading CO₂ emission countries, using both the pre-estimation, estimation, and post-estimation techniques for more dependable outcomes. Hence, the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) was adopted as the main estimation technique for the data analysis from 1996 to 2023. The coefficient of carbon emissions confirmed a positive and significant relationship among CO₂ emission, mortality, and morbidity rates in the world’s leading CO₂ emissions countries, which implies that carbon emission has contributed to mortality and morbidity rates in the world. Therefore, significant action should be taken to facilitate the expansion of environmental protection and sustainability initiatives in any CO₂ emissions nations of the world.

Keywords: environmental, mortality, morbidity, health outcomes, carbon emissions

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Authors: Le Fu, Rui Wu, Gang Feng Liu, Jie Zhao

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Normally, impedance control methods are based on a model that connects a spring and damper in parallel. The series connection, namely the Maxwell model, has emerged as a counterpart and draw the attention of robotics researchers. In the theoretical analysis, it turns out that the two pattern are both equivalents to some extent, but notable differences of response characteristics exist, especially in the effect of damping viscosity. However, this novel impedance control design is lack of validation on realistic robot platforms. In this study, stability analysis and experimental evaluation are achieved using a 3-fingered Barrett® robotic hand BH8-282 endowed with tactile sensing, mounted on a torque-controlled lightweight and collaborative robot KUKA® LBR iiwa 14 R820. Object handover and incoming objects catching tasks are executed for validation and analysis. Experimental results show that the series connection pattern has much better performance in natural impact or shock absorption, which indicate promising applications in robots’ safe and physical interaction with humans and objects in various environments.

Keywords: impedance control, Maxwell model, force control, dexterous manipulation

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Authors: Farida Kaouah, Wassila Hachi, Lamia Brahmi, Chahida Ousselah, Salim Boumaza, Mohamed Trari

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The feasibility of using solar irradiation instead of UV light in photocatalysis is a promising approach for water treatment. In this study, photocatalytic degradation of a widely used textile dye, Acid Blue 25 (AB25), with noble metal loaded ZnO photocatalyst (Ag/ZnO), was investigated in aqueous suspension under solar light. The results showed that the deposition of Ag as a noble metal onto the ZnO surface, improved the photodegradation of AB25. . The effect of different parameters such as catalyst dose, initial dye concentration, and contact time was optimized and the optimal degradation of AB25 (97%) was achieved for initial AB25 concentration of 24 mg L−1 an catalyst dose of 1 g L−1 at natural pH (5.42) after 180 min. The kinetic studies were achieved and revealed that the photocatalytic degradation process obeyed to Langmuir–Hinshelwood model and followed a pseudo-first order rate expression. This work envisages the great potential that sunlight photocatalysis has in the degradation of dyes from wastewater

Keywords: acid dye, photocatalytic degradation, sunlight, zinc oxide, noble metal, Langmuir–Hinshelwood model

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Authors: Hamisu Idi

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The present study focuses on studying the impact of influencer recommendation in the quality of cement production. Exploratory research was done on monthly basis, where data were obtained from secondary source i.e. the record kept by an automated recompilation machine. The machine keeps all the records of the mills downtime which the process manager checks for validation and refer the fault (if any) to the department responsible for maintenance or measurement taking so as to prevent future occurrence. The findings indicated that the product of the Ashaka Cement Plc. were considered as qualitative, since all the production processes were found to be in control (preset specifications) with the exception of the natural cause of variation which is normal in the production process as it will not affect the outcome of the product. It is reduced to the bearest minimum since it cannot be totally eliminated. It is also hopeful that the findings of this study would be of great assistance to the management of Ashaka cement factory and the process manager in particular at various levels in the monitoring and implementation of statistical process control. This study is therefore of great contribution to the knowledge in this regard and it is hopeful that it would open more research in that direction.

Keywords: cement, quality, variation, assignable cause, common cause

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Authors: R. C. Tyagi

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Quasi-periodicity of frequency intervals observed in Shruti based Absolute Scale of Music has been used to graphically identify the Anchor notes ‘Vadi’ and ‘Samvadi’ which are nodal points for expansion, elaboration and iteration of the emotional theme represented by the characteristic tonic arrangement in Raga compositions. This analysis leads to defining the Tonic parameters in the octave including the key-note frequency, tonic intervals’ anchor notes and the on-set and range of quasi-periodicities as exponents of 2. Such uniformity of representation of characteristic data would facilitate computational analysis and synthesis of music compositions and also help develop noise suppression techniques. Criteria for tuning of strings for compatibility with placement of frets on finger boards is discussed. Natural Rhythmic cycles in music compositions are analytically shown to lie between 3 and 126 beats.

Keywords: absolute scale, anchor notes, computational analysis, frets, innovation, noise suppression, Quasi-periodicity, rhythmic cycle, tonic interval, Shruti

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Authors: Naushaba Naseem Ahmed

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Economic development does not merely depend upon the level of development but also on its distributive aspect. As it is a serious issue, the fruit of development is not equally distributed among the different section of peoples and different part of the country this cause the regional disparities in the levels of social economic development. Different part of the country has different resource endowments in term of natural, human and capital. If there is the uniform condition to grow, these areas that have better resources, are favourably placed grow comparatively faster as other areas. Thus with the very stage of development, gap between resourceful and less resourceful area goes on widening. This paper is an attempt to highlight the levels of disparities in term of economic development with the help of selected variables. Principal component analysis, correlation, and coefficient of variation are the techniques which were used in paper and employed published data for analysis. The result shows that Western region of Uttar Pradesh is more developed followed by Central Region. There will be urgent need in investment and developmental policies for the backward region like Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

Keywords: coefficient of variation, correlation, economic development, principal component analysis

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Authors: Bakr Gomaa

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Cross ventilation is an important and practical mean to achieve thermal comfort and conserve energy. This is especially true in the breezy waterfront settings. However, due to a number of factors, cross ventilation in buildings is usually studied by using oversimplified scenarios. It is then reasonable to study the impact of complex set of factors on the accuracy of predicting air flow rate because of wind driven cross ventilation. The objective of this paper is to provide architects with the tools necessary to achieve natural ventilation for cooling purposes in a waterfront urban canyon context. Also, urban canyons have not received much attention in terms of their impact on cross ventilation, and while we know how the wind flows between buildings in different urban canyon settings, the effect of the parallel-to-the-wind urban canyon on cross ventilation in buildings remains unclear. For this, we use detailed weather data, boundary layer correction factor, and CFD simulations to study the pressure patterns that form on the canyons surfaces in the case study of Alexandria. We found that the simplified numerical methods of calculating the cross ventilation in buildings can lead to inaccurate design decisions.

Keywords: cross ventilation, Alexandria, CFD, urban canyon

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Authors: Mohamed M. M. Elnasharty, Azhar M. Elwan

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Irradiation deposits energy through ionisation changing the bio-system’s net dipole, allowing the use of dielectric parameters and thermodynamic state functions related to these parameters as biophysical detectors to electrical inhomogeneity within the biosystem. This part is concerned with the effect of Moringa leaves extract, natural supplement, on the response of the biosystem to two different dose rates of irradiation. Having Hb molecule as a representative to the biosystem to be least invasive to the biosystem, dielectric measurements were used to extract the relaxation time of certain process found in the Hb spectrum within the indicated frequency window and the interrelated thermodynamic state functions were calculated from the deduced relaxation time. The results showed that relaxation time was decreased for both dose rates indicating a strong influence of Moringa on the response of biosystem and consequently Hb molecule. This influence was presented in the relaxation time and other parameters as well.

Keywords: activation energy, DC conductivity, dielectric relaxation, enthalpy change, Moringa leaves extract, relaxation time

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Authors: Nneka M. Chidieber-Mark, Roseline D. Ejike

Abstract:

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) have been described as all biological materials, other than timber extracted from natural and managed forests for human subsistence and economic activities. This study focused on the production, utilization and marketing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of respondents for the study. Data were from primary sources only. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistical tools as well as Net Income Analysis. Results show that a vast number of plant based and animal based NTFPs exist in the study area. They are harvested and used for multiple purposes. NTFPs are a source of income for the indigenes that depend on it for their livelihood. Unsustainable production and harvesting as well as poor marketing information was among the constraints impeding the growth and development of NTFPs sub-sector in the study area.

Keywords: non-timber forest products, production, utilization, marketing

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Authors: Palwinder Singh, Munish Sandhir, Tejinder Singh

Abstract:

The ordinary differential equations (ODE) represent a natural framework for mathematical modeling of many real-life situations in the field of engineering, control systems, physics, chemistry and astronomy etc. Such type of differential equations can be solved by analytical methods or by numerical methods. If the solution is calculated using analytical methods, it is done through calculus theories, and thus requires a longer time to solve. In this paper, we compare the numerical accuracy of the solutions given by the three main types of one-step initial value solvers: Taylor’s Series Method, Euler’s Method and Runge-Kutta Fourth Order Method (RK4). The comparison of accuracy is obtained through comparing the solutions of ordinary differential equation given by these three methods. Furthermore, to verify the accuracy; we compare these numerical solutions with the exact solutions.

Keywords: Ordinary differential equations (ODE), Taylor’s Series Method, Euler’s Method, Runge-Kutta Fourth Order Method

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Authors: Zohreh Marbooti, Rezvan Khavari

Abstract:

Groundwater as an essential part of natural resources seems to be an important issue in environmental engineering, so preservation and purification of it can have a critical value for any community. This paper investigates the concentration of elements of Pb, Cd, As, Se. For ground water in Behbahan (a city on south west of Iran), to this purpose a group of 30 wells were studied to examine the concentration of the elements of Pb, Cd, As, Se, and also to determine PH, EC, TDS, temperature and the ions of HCO32-, SO42-, Cl-, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+ for the wells. Results of the analyses show that the concentration of the elements of Pb, As and, Cd in 33,13,56 percent of the wells respectively and Se in all the samples were greater than normal range of WHO. Since there is a low correlation between Pb and major ions of (HCO32-, SO42-, Cl-, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+) it can be revealed that Pb overconcentration caused by human contamination. Relative great correlation between Se and the ions showed that Se derived from Gypsum and Dolomit. The big correlation between As and major cations and onions, imply that As can originate from dissolution and liquidation of mineral evaporation in the zone. The high rate of Cadmium concentration in urban sewagewater is due to the small industries, workshops and, mills wastewater.

Keywords: heavy elements, underground water, pollution, waste water

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Authors: Ovye Yohanna Musah

Abstract:

Shale formations of the Middle Benue Trough in North Central Nigeria present a variety of opportunities for the exploration, development and exploitation of unconventional natural gas. Prospective formations range in age from Albian through Coniacian; they include the Asu River Group, Awe, Ezeaku and the Awgu formations, however, the Keana and Lafia formations are thought to be of lesser importance. The Awgu formation presents the best prospect when compared to the Barnett Shales of Fort Worth Basin in Texa, United States with regards to the organic matter maturition, TOC content of formation and shale thicknesses which are key attributes that aid in determining the economic viability of any shale gas play. The vitrinite reflectance value from Rock Eval pyrolysis for Awe and Awgu formations are 0.89—1.34(%) and 0.83—1.13(%) respectively and are good and sufficiently mature to generate gas from the Benue Trough. The TOC value are good for Awgu formation which is 0.83—6.54(%) and closest to that of the Barnett at 1—4.5(%). Asu River and Ezeaku are less viable. Furthermore, the High to Medium Volatile bituminous coals found in the Awgu formation are characterized by high TOC contents which may enhance gas generation and this is good for further examination and possible development.

Keywords: shale gas, resource, unconventional, benue, TOC

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Authors: Aghoutane Basma, Naama Amal, Talbi Hayat, El Manfalouti Hanae, Kartah Badreddine

Abstract:

Aromatic and medicinal plants are used by man for different needs, including food and medicinal needs for their biological properties attributed mainly to phenolic compounds and for their antioxidant capacity. In our study, the aim is to compare three extraction solvents by evaluating the contents of phenolic compounds, the contents of flavonoids, and the antioxidant activities of extracts from different methods of extracting the aerial part of an endemic medicinal plant from Morocco. This activity was also confirmed by three methods (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), antioxidant reducing power of iron (FRAP), and total antioxidant capacity (CAT)). The results showed that this plant is rich in polyphenols and flavonoids, as well as it has a very important antioxidant capacity in whatever the solvent or the extraction method. This suggests the importance of using extracts from this plant as a new natural source of food additives and potent antioxidants in the food industry.

Keywords: endemic plant of Morocco, phenolic compound, solvent, extraction technique, antioxidant activity

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