Search results for: relative regional total energy

Authors: N. Metidji, O. Badaoui, A. Djebli, H. Bendjebbas, R. Sellami

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The agro-industry is considered as one of the most waste producing industrial fields as a result of food processing. Upgrading and reuse of these wastes as animal or poultry food seems to be a promising alternative. Combined with the use of clean energy resources, the recovery process would contribute more to the environment protection. It is in this framework that a new solar dryer has been designed in the Unit of Solar Equipment Development. Direct solar drying has, also, many advantages compared to natural sun drying. In fact, the first does not cause product degradation as it is protected by the drying chamber from direct sun, insects and exterior environment. The aim of this work is to study the drying kinetics of waste, generated during the processing of pepper, by using a direct natural convection solar dryer at 35◦C and 55◦C. The rate of moisture removal from the product to be dried has been found to be directly related to temperature, humidity and flow rate. The characterization of these parameters has allowed the determination of the appropriate drying time for this product namely peppers waste.

Keywords: solar energy, solar dryer, energy conversion, pepper drying, forced convection solar dryer

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Authors: Justine Salam

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As a federal state, Canada’s constitutional arrangements regarding the management of natural resources is unique because it gives complete ownership and control of natural resources to the provinces (subnational level). However, the province of Alberta—home to the third largest oil reserves in the world—lags behind comparable jurisdictions in levying royalties on oil corporations, especially oil sands royalties. While Albertans own the oil sands, scholars have argued that natural resource exploitation in Alberta benefits corporations and industry more than it does Albertans. This study provides a systematic understanding of the causal factors affecting royalties in Alberta to map dynamics of power and how they manifest themselves during policy-making. Mounting domestic and global public pressure led Alberta to review its oil sands royalties twice in less than a decade through public-commissioned Royalty Review Panels, first in 2007 and again in 2015. The Panels’ task was to research best practices and to provide policy recommendations to the Government through public consultations with Albertans, industry, non-governmental organizations, and First Nations peoples. Both times, the Panels recommended a relative increase to oil sands royalties. However, irrespective of the Reviews’ recommendations, neither the right-wing 2007 Progressive Conservative Party (PC) nor the left-wing 2015 New Democratic Party (NDP) government—both committed to increase oil sands royalties—increased royalty intake. Why did two consecutive political parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum fail to account for the recommendations put forward by the Panel? Through a qualitative case-study analysis, this study assesses domestic and global causal factors for Alberta’s inability to raise oil sands royalties significantly after the two Reviews through an institutions, interests, and ideas framework. Indeed, causal factors can be global (e.g. market and price fluctuation) or domestic (e.g. oil companies’ influence on the Alberta government). The institutions, interests, and ideas framework is at the intersection of public policy, comparative studies, and political economy literatures, and therefore draws multi-faceted insights into the analysis. To account for institutions, the study proposes to review international trade agreements documents such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) because they have embedded Alberta’s oil sands into American energy security policy and tied Canadian and Albertan oil policy in legal international nods. To account for interests, such as how the oil lobby or the environment lobby can penetrate governmental decision-making spheres, the study draws on the Oil Sands Oral History project, a database of interviews from government officials and oil industry leaders at a pivotal time in Alberta’s oil industry, 2011-2013. Finally, to account for ideas, such as how narratives of Canada as a global ‘energy superpower’ and the importance of ‘energy security’ have dominated and polarized public discourse, the study relies on content analysis of Alberta-based pro-industry newspapers to trace the prevalence of these narratives. By mapping systematically the nods and dynamics of power at play in Alberta, the study sheds light on the factors that influence royalty policy-making in one of the largest industries in Canada.

Keywords: Alberta Canada, natural resources governance, oil sands, political economy

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Authors: Maor Farid, Oleg Gendelman

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The following study deals with fluid vibration of a liquid in a partially filled vessel under periodic ground excitation. This external excitation might lead to hidraulic impact applied on the vessel inner walls. In order to model these sloshing dynamic regimes, several equivalent mechanical models were suggested in the literature, such as series of pendula or mass-spring systems that are able to impact the inner tank walls. In the following study, we use the latter methodology, use parameter values documented in literature corresponding to cylindrical tanks and consider structural elasticity of the tank. The hydraulic impulses are modeled by the high-exponent potential function. Additional system parameters are found with the help of Finite-Element (FE) analysis. Model-driven stress assessment method is developed. Finally, vibration mitigation performances of both tuned mass damper (TMD) and nonlinear energy sink (NES) are examined.

Keywords: nonlinear energy sink (NES), reduced-order modelling, liquid sloshing, vibration mitigation, vibro-impact dynamics

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Authors: Nataša Kalajdžija, Strahinja Kovačević, Davor Lončar, Sanja Podunavac Kuzmanović, Lidija Jevrić

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In order to investigate the relationship between retention and structure, a quantitative Structure Retention Relationships (QSRRs) study was applied for the prediction of retention times of a set of 23 secoestrane derivatives in a reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography. After the calculation of molecular descriptors, a suitable set of molecular descriptors was selected by using step-wise multiple linear regressions. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method was employed to model the nonlinear structure-activity relationships. The ANN technique resulted in 5-6-1 ANN model with the correlation coefficient of 0.98. We found that the following descriptors: Critical pressure, total energy, protease inhibition, distribution coefficient (LogD) and parameter of lipophilicity (miLogP) have a significant effect on the retention times. The prediction results are in very good agreement with the experimental ones. This approach provided a new and effective method for predicting the chromatographic retention index for the secoestrane derivatives investigated.

Keywords: lipophilicity, QSRR, RP TLC retention, secoestranes

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Authors: Shyh-Ming Chern, Te-Hsiu Tang

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Hemicellulose is one of the major constituents of all plant cell walls, making up 15-25% of dry wood. It is a biopolymer from many different sugar monomers, including pentoses, like xylose, and hexoses, like mannose. In an effort to gasify real biomass in subcritical and supercritical water in a single process, it is necessary to understand the gasification of hemicellulose, in addition to cellulose and lignin, in subcritical and supercritical water. In the present study, xylose is chosen as the model compound for hemicellulose, since it has the largest amount in most hardwoods. Xylose is gasified in subcritical and supercritical water for the production of higher-valued gaseous products. Experiments were conducted with a 16-ml autoclave batch-type reactor. Hydrogen peroxide is adopted as the oxidant in an attempt to promote the gasification yield. The major operating parameters for the gasification include reaction temperature (400 - 600°C), reaction pressure (5 - 25 MPa), the concentration of xylose (0.05 and 0.30 M), and level of oxidant added (0 and 0.25 chemical oxygen demand). 102 experimental runs were completed out of 46 different set of experimental conditions. Product gases were analyzed with a GC-TCD and determined to be mainly composed of H₂ (10 – 74 mol. %), CO (1 – 56 mol. %), CH₄ (1 – 27 mol. %), CO₂ (10 – 50 mol. %), and C₂H₆ (0 – 8 mol. %). It has been found that the gas yield (amount of gas produced per gram of xylose gasified), higher heating value (HHV) of the dry product gas, and energy yield (energy stored in the product gas divided by the energy stored in xylose) all increase significantly with rising temperature and moderately with reducing pressure. The overall best operating condition occurred at 873 K and 10 MPa, with a gas yield of 54 mmol/g of xylose, a gas HHV of 440 kJ/mol, and an energy yield of 1.3. A seemingly unreasonably energy yield of greater than unity resulted from the external heating employed in the experiments to drive the gasification process. It is concluded that xylose can be completely gasified in subcritical and supercritical water under proper operating conditions. The addition of oxidant does not promote the gasification of xylose.

Keywords: gasification, subcritical water, supercritical water, xylose

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Authors: Geanderson Eduardo Ambrósio, Dênis Antônio Da Cunha, Marcel Viana Pires

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Historically, human development has been based on economic gains associated with intensive energy activities, which often are exhaustive in the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). It requires the establishment of targets for mitigation of GHGs in order to disassociate the human development from emissions and prevent further climate change. Brazil presents itself as one of the most GHGs emitters and it is of critical importance to discuss such reductions in intra-national framework with the objective of distributional equity to explore its full mitigation potential without compromising the development of less developed societies. This research displays some incipient considerations about which Brazil’s micro-regions should reduce, when the reductions should be initiated and what its magnitude should be. We started with the methodological assumption that human development and GHGs emissions arise in the future as their behavior was observed in the past. Furthermore, we assume that once a micro-region became developed, it is able to maintain gains in human development without the need of keep growing GHGs emissions rates. The human development index and the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e) were extrapolated to the year 2050, which allowed us to calculate when the micro-regions will become developed and the mass of GHG’s emitted. The results indicate that Brazil must throw 300 GT CO2e in the atmosphere between 2011 and 2050, of which only 50 GT will be issued by micro-regions before it’s develop and 250 GT will be released after development. We also determined national mitigation targets and structured reduction schemes where only the developed micro-regions would be required to reduce. The micro-region of São Paulo, the most developed of the country, should be also the one that reduces emissions at most, emitting, in 2050, 90% less than the value observed in 2010. On the other hand, less developed micro-regions will be responsible for less impactful reductions, i.e. Vale do Ipanema will issue in 2050 only 10% below the value observed in 2010. Such methodological assumption would lead the country to issue, in 2050, 56.5% lower than that observed in 2010, so that the cumulative emissions between 2011 and 2050 would reduce by 130 GT CO2e over the initial projection. The fact of associating the magnitude of the reductions to the level of human development of the micro-regions encourages the adoption of policies that favor both variables as the governmental planner will have to deal with both the increasing demand for higher standards of living and with the increasing magnitude of reducing emissions. However, if economic agents do not act proactively in local and national level, the country is closer to the scenario in which emits more than the one in which mitigates emissions. The research highlighted the importance of considering the heterogeneity in determining individual mitigation targets and also ratified the theoretical and methodological feasibility to allocate larger share of contribution for those who historically emitted more. It is understood that the proposals and discussions presented should be considered in mitigation policy formulation in Brazil regardless of the adopted reduction target.

Keywords: greenhouse gases, human development, mitigation, intensive energy activities

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Authors: Mohamed M. Alsull

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In the present study, two microalgae species “Nannochloropsis sp. and Tetraselmis sp.” isolated from Penang National Park coastal waters, Malaysia; were cultivated under combined various laboratory conditions “salinity, light, nitrogen limitation and starvation”. Growth rate, dry weight, chlorophyll a content, total lipid and protein contents, were estimated at mid exponential growth phase. Both Nannochloropsis sp. and Tetraselmis sp. showed remarkable decrease in growth rate, chlorophyll a content and protein content companied with increase in lipid content under nitrogen limitation and starvation conditions. Maintaining Nannochloropsis sp. under salinity 15‰ caused only significant decrease in total protein content; while Tetraselmis sp. grown at the same salinity caused decrease in the growth rate, chlorophyll a, dry weight and total protein content only when nitrogen was available.

Keywords: biochemical composition, light, microalgae, nitrogen limitation, salinity

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Authors: Ronbanchob Apiratikul

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This research studied recycled waste by the Recyclable Material Bank Project of 4 universities in the central region of Thailand for the evaluation of reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared with landfilling activity during July 2012 to June 2013. The results showed that the projects collected total amount of recyclable wastes of about 911,984.80 kilograms. Office paper had the largest amount among these recycled wastes (50.68% of total recycled waste). Groups of recycled waste can be prioritized from high to low according to their amount as paper, plastic, glass, mixed recyclables, and metal, respectively. The project reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 2814.969 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The most significant recycled waste that affects the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is office paper which is 70.16% of total reduced greenhouse gasses emission. According to amount of reduced greenhouse gasses emission, groups of recycled waste can be prioritized from high to low significances as paper, plastic, metals, mixed recyclables, and glass, respectively.

Keywords: recycling, garbage bank, waste management, recyclable wastes, greenhouse gases

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Authors: Abou Bakr Merdji, Alaa Mhawish, Xiaofeng Xu, Chunsong Lu

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The characteristics of optical and microphysical properties of aerosols near deserts are analyzed using 11 AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sites located in 6 major desert areas (the Sahara, Arabia, Thar, Karakum, Taklamakan, and Gobi) between 1998 and 2021. The regional mean of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) (coarse AOD (CAOD)) are 0.44 (0.187), 0.38 (0.26), 0.35 (0.24), 0.23 (0.11), 0.20 (0.14), 0.10 (0.05) in the Thar, Arabian, Sahara, Karakum, Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts respectively, while an opposite for AE and Fine Mode Fraction (FMF). Higher extinctions are associated with larger particles (dust) over all the main desert regions. This is shown by the almost inversely proportional variations of AOD and CAOD compared with AE and FMF. Coarse particles contribute the most to the total AOD over the Sahara Desert compared to those in the other deserts all year round. Related to the seasonality of dust events, the maximum AOD (CAOD) generally appears in summer and spring, while the minimum is in winter. The mean values of absorbing AOD (AAOD), Absorbing AE (AAE), and the Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) for all sites ranged from 0.017 to 0.037, from 1.16 to 2.81 and from 0.844 to 0.944, respectively. Generally, the highest absorbing aerosol load are observed over the Thar, followed by the Karakum, the Sahara, the Gobi, and then the Taklamakan Deserts, while the largest absorbing particles are observed in the Sahara followed by Arabia, Thar, Karakum, Gobi, and the smallest over the Taklamakan Desert. Similar absorption qualities are observed over the Sahara, Arabia, Thar, and Karakum Deserts, with SSA values varying between 0.90 and 0.91, whereas the most and least absorbing particles are observed at the Taklamakan and the Gobi Deserts, respectively. The seasonal AAODs are distinctly different over the deserts, with parts of Sahara and Arabia, and the Dalanzadgad sites experiencing the maximum in summer, the Southern Sahara, Western Arabia, Jaipur, and Dushanbe in winter, while the Eastern Arabia and the Muztagh Ata in autumn. AAOD and SSA spectra are consistent with dust-dominated conditions that resulted from aerosol typing (dust and polluted dust) at most deserts, with a possible presence of other absorbing particles apart from dust at Arabia, the Taklamakan, and the Gobi Desert sites.

Keywords: sahara, AERONET, desert, dust belt, aerosols, optical properties

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Authors: Hülya Kuru Mutlu, Mustafa Kulakcı, Uğur Serincan

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The sun is one of the latest developments in renewable energy sources, which has a variety of application. Solar energy is the most preferred renewable energy sources because it can be used directly, it protects the environment and it is economic. In this work, we investigated that important parameter of GaAs-based solar cells with respect to the growth temperature. The samples were grown on (100) oriented p-GaAs substrates by solid source Veeco GEN20MC MBE system equipped with Ga, In, Al, Si, Be effusion cells and an Arsenic cracker cell. The structures of the grown samples are presented. After initial oxide desorption, Sample 1 and Sample 2 were grown at about 585°C and 535°C, respectively. From the grown structures, devices were fabricated by using the standard photolithography procedure. Current-voltage measurements were performed at room temperature (RT). It is observed that Sample 1 which was grown at 585°C has higher efficiency and fill factor compared to Sample 2. Hence, it is concluded that the growth temperature of 585°C is more suitable to grow GaAs-based solar cells considering our samples used in this study.

Keywords: molecular beam epitaxy, solar cell, current-voltage measurement, Sun

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Authors: Sumana Kumar, Abha Misra

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Micro-supercapacitors hold great attention as one of the promising energy storage devices satisfying the increasing quest for miniaturized and portable devices. Despite having impressive power density, superior cyclic lifetime, and high charge-discharge rates, micro-supercapacitors still suffer from low energy density, which limits their practical application. The energy density (E=1/2CV²) can be increased either by increasing specific capacitance (C) or voltage range (V). Asymmetric micro-supercapacitors have attracted great attention by using two different electrode materials to expand the voltage window and thus increase the energy density. Currently, versatile fabrication technologies such as inkjet printing, lithography, laser scribing, etc., are used to directly or indirectly pattern the electrode material; these techniques still suffer from scalable production and cost inefficiency. Here, we demonstrate the scalable production of a three-dimensional (3D) carbon foam (CF) based asymmetric micro-supercapacitor by spray printing technique on an array of interdigital electrodes. The solid-state asymmetric micro-supercapacitor comprised of CF-MnO positive electrode and CF-Fe₂O₃ negative electrode achieves a high areal capacitance of 18.4 mF/cm² (2326.8 mF/cm³) at 5 mV/s and a wider potential window of 1.4 V. Consequently, a superior energy density of 5 µWh/cm² is obtained, and high cyclic stability is confirmed with retention of the initial capacitance by 86.1% after 10000 electrochemical cycles. The optimized decoration of pseudocapacitive metal oxides in the 3D carbon network helps in high electrochemical utilization of materials where the 3D interconnected network of carbon provides overall electrical conductivity and structural integrity. The research provides a simple and scalable spray printing method to fabricate an asymmetric micro-supercapacitor using a custom-made mask that can be integrated on a large scale.

Keywords: asymmetric micro-supercapacitors, high energy-density, hybrid materials, three-dimensional carbon-foam

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Inayat Shah, Muhammad Omar Malik, Ghareeb Alshuwaier, Ronald H. Baxendale

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Background: The balance between angiogenesis and angiostasis is important in growth and developmental processes in the body. Angiogenic and angiostatic mediators control this balance. Endostatin is one of the prominent angiostatic mediators. The marked angiostatic effect of endostatin includes inhibiting endothelial cell migration, proliferation and apoptosis. Physical activity decreases the risk and development of many angiogenesis related health problems including atherosclerosis and numerous cancers. Physiological influences of different physical activities on plasma endostatin concentration are controversial and not completely clear. Moreover, correlation of physical characteristics and metabolic predictors during physical activity on circulating endostatin is indistinct and poorly speculated. The study aimed to determine the effects of mild, moderate and vigorous exercise on the concentration of endostatin in plasma. Methodology: 22 participants, 16 males (age = 30.6 ± 7.8 years) and 6 females (age = 26.5 ± 5 years) were recruited. Weekly session of different intensities exercise based on the predicted maximum heart of the participants [60%(low), 70% (moderate) and 80% (vigorous)] were carried out. The duration and work rate for each participant was determined through sub-maximal exercise. Standardization of the session was done on total energy expenditure of the participants per session. One pre exercise and two post exercise samples were taken at intervals of 10 and 60 minutes. Results: Pre-exercise mean endostatin was 101 ± 20 ng/dl. Low intensity exercise insignificantly decreased the endostatin concentration in plasma at 10 and 60 minutes 97 ± 20 ng/dl (p= 0.5), 98 ± 23 ng/dl (p= 0.8)). However, moderate (p= 0.022, 0.004) and vigorous intensities (p ≤ 0.001, 0.02) increased the endostatin concentrations significantly at both 10 and 60 minutes intervals respectively. The effects were not significantly influenced by gender, exercise mode (walking vs. running), components of exercise (HR, Speed, Gradients, distance, duration) or metabolism during exercise (VO₂ max, VCO₂, RER, energy expenditure, rate of carbohydrate or fats oxidation). Conclusion: Low intensity exercises did not influence endostatin concentration. However, moderate to high intensity exercises significantly increase endostatin concentration and may have potential benefits.

Keywords: angiogenesis, exercise, endostatin, physical activity

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Authors: Liping Yang, Curran Crawford, Jr. Ren, Zhengyi Ren

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Considering the cost evaluation and the stress analysis, a fuzzy satisfactory optimization (FSO) method has been developed for a hybrid composite flywheel. To evaluate the cost, the cost coefficients of the flywheel components are obtained through calculating the weighted sum of the scores of the material manufacturability, the structure character, and the material price. To express the satisfactory degree of the energy, the cost, and the mass, the satisfactory functions are proposed by using the decline function and introducing a satisfactory coefficient. To imply the different significance of the objectives, the object weight coefficients are defined. Based on the stress analysis of composite material, the circumferential and radial stresses are considered into the optimization formulation. The simulations of the FSO method with different weight coefficients and storage energy density optimization (SEDO) method of a flywheel are contrasted. The analysis results show that the FSO method can satisfy different requirements of the designer and the FSO method with suitable weight coefficients can replace the SEDO method.

Keywords: flywheel energy storage, fuzzy, optimization, stress analysis

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Authors: Abdulrahman M. Alhowikan, Nadra E. Elamin, Sarah S. Aldayel, Sara A. AlSiddiqi, Fai S. Alrowais, Laila Y. Al-Ayadhi

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Background: A growing body of research has suggested that physical activities (PA) have important implications for improving the performance of ASD children. They revealed that the physiological, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral functioning had improved after performing some physical activities. Methods: We compared the sedentary behavior and physical activities between children with autism spectrum disorder (n=21) and age-matched control group (n=30), using the ActiGraph GT3X+ for the assessments. Results: Our results revealed that the total time spent in sedentary activity and the total sedentary activity counts were highly significant in the control group compared to the ASD group (p < 0.001, p=0.001, respectively). ASD spent a significantly longer time than the controls engaging on vigorous physical activity (VPA) (p=0.017). The results also indicated that there were no significant differences between both groups for the total counts and time spent in light physical activity (LPA) and moderate physical activity (MPA). Conclusion: The finding highlights the importance of physical activity intervention for ASD children, using accurate and precise measurement tools to record all activities.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders, motor skills, physical activity, ActiGraph GT3X+, moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity

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Authors: Mahdiyeh Zafaranchi, Ethan S. Cantor, William T. Riddell, Jess W. Everett

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The New Jersey Department of Military and Veteran’s Affairs (NJ DMAVA) operates over 50 facilities throughout the state of New Jersey, U.S. NJDMAVA is under a mandate to move toward decarbonization, which will eventually include eliminating the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating. At the same time, the organization requires increased resiliency regarding electric grid disruption. These competing goals necessitate adopting the use of on-site renewables such as photovoltaic and geothermal power, as well as implementing power control strategies through microgrids. Planning for these changes requires a detailed understanding of current and future electricity use on yearly, monthly, and shorter time scales, as well as a breakdown of consumption by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. This paper discusses case studies of two buildings that were simulated using the QUick Energy Simulation Tool (eQUEST). Both buildings use electricity from the grid and photovoltaics. One building also uses natural gas. While electricity use data are available in hourly intervals and natural gas data are available in monthly intervals, the simulations were developed using monthly and yearly totals. This approach was chosen to reflect the information available for most NJ DMAVA facilities. Once completed, simulation results are compared to metrics recommended by several organizations to validate energy use simulations. In addition to yearly and monthly totals, the simulated peak demands are compared to actual monthly peak demand values. The simulations resulted in monthly peak demand values that were within 30% of the measured values. These benchmarks will help to assess future energy planning efforts for NJ DMAVA.

Keywords: building energy modeling, eQUEST, peak demand, smart meters

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Authors: Muhammad Hassan, Kemal Celebi

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Developing a highly efficient electrochromic energy storage device with sufficient color fluctuation and significant electrochemical performance is highly desirable for practical energy-saving applications. Here, to achieve a highly stable material with a large electrochemical storage capacity, a W₁₈O₄₉ NW/Ti₃C₂Tₓ composite has been fabricated and deposited on a pre-assembled Ag and W₁₈O₄₉ NW conductive network by Langmuir-Blodgett technique. The resulting hybrid electrode composed of 15 layers of W₁₈O₄₉ NW/Ti₃C₂Tₓ exhibits an areal capacitance of 125 mF/cm², with a fast and reversible switching response. An optical modulation of 98.2% can be maintained at a current density of 5 mAcm⁻². Using this electrode, we fabricated a bifunctional symmetric electrochromic supercapacitor device having an energy density of 10.26 μWh/cm² and a power density of 0.605 mW/cm², with high capacity retention and full columbic efficiency over 4000 charge-discharge cycles. Meanwhile, the device displays remarkable electrochromic characteristics, including fast switching time (5 s for coloring and 7 s for bleaching) and a significant coloration efficiency of 116 cm²/C with good optical modulation stability. In addition, the device exhibits remarkable mechanical flexibility and fast switching while being stable over 100 bending cycles, which is promising for real-world applications.

Keywords: MXene, nanowires, supercapacitor, ion diffusion, electrochromic, coloration efficiency

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Authors: M. Akhlaque Ahmed, Maliha Afshan, Adeel Tahir

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Global and diffuse solar radiation studies have been carried out for the Capital city of Pakistan, Islamabad ( latitude 330 43’N and Longitude 370 71’E) to assess the solar potential of the area. The global and diffuse solar radiation were carried out using sunshine hour data for the above-mentioned area. Monthly total solar radiation is calculated through regression constants a and b through declination angle of the sun and sunshine hours and KT that is cloudiness index are used to calculate the diffuse solar radiation. Result obtained shows variation in the direct and diffuse component of solar radiation in summer and winter months for Islamabad. Diffuse solar radiation was found maximum in July, i.e., 32% whereas direct or beam radiation was found to be high in April to June, i.e., 73%. During July, August, and December, the sky was found cloudy. From the result, it appears that with the exception of monsoon month July and August the solar energy can be utilized very efficiently throughout the year in Islamabad.

Keywords: global radiation, Islamabad, diffuse radiation, sky condition, sunshine hour

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Authors: Mohamed A. Hammad, Dzul Azri Mohamed Noor, Syed Azhar Syed Sulaiman, Abeer Kharshid, Nor Azizah Aziz, Tarek M. Elsayed

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Medication safety is always an issue. In 2015, the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau released a statement requesting all statins manufacturers in Malaysia to include the risk of diabetes information in the drug information leaflet in response to United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) report. However, the data regarding this warning label in Malaysia is limited, so there is still some uncertainty whether such risk can also be observed in the Malaysian population or not. The study aims to determine the effect of statins on HbA1c% in type 2 diabetic outpatients in endocrine clinics at Hospital Pulau Pinang between June 2015 and May 2016 in Malaysia. In a prospective cohort study, records of 400 type 2 diabetic patients (control group 104 patients not using statin and treatment group 296 patients using statin) were reviewed to identify demographic criteria and lab tests. The prevalence of glycemic control (Glycated hemoglobin, HbA1C ≤ 7% for patient < 65 years, and < 8% for patient ≥ 65 years) was estimated, according to American Diabetes Association guidelines 2015. The results were presented as descriptive statistics. From 296 patients with Type 2 diabetes using statins cohort with a mean age of 57.52 ± 12.2 years, only 81 (27.4%) cases had controlled glycemia, and 215 (72.6%) had uncontrolled glycemia, CI: 95% (6.3–11.1). While the control group 104 diabetic patients had a mean age 46.1 ± 18 years and distributed among 59 (56.7%) patients with controlled diabetes and 45 (43.3%) cases, had uncontrolled glycemia, CI: 95% (5.2–10.3). The relative risk (RR) of uncontrolled glycemia in diabetic patients used statins was 1.68, and the excessive relative risk (ERR) was 68%. The absolute risk (AR) was 29.3%, and the number needed to harm (NNH) was 4. Diabetic patients using statins have more risk of uncontrolled glycemia than the patients with Type 2 diabetes non-using statins.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus, HbA1c, Malaysia, outpatients, statin, type 2, uncontrolled glycemia

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Authors: Chikwelu Edward Emenike, Ogbuagu Uchenna Fredrick

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About 34% of the solar radiant energy reaching the earth is immediately reflected back to space as incoming radiation by clouds, chemicals, dust in the atmosphere and by the earth’s surface. Most of the remaining 66% warms the atmosphere and land. Most of the incoming solar radiation not reflect away is degraded into low-quality heat and flows into space. The rate at which this energy returns to space as low-quality heat is affected by the presence of molecules of greenhouse gases. Gaseous emission was measured with the aid of Growen gas Analyzer with a digital readout. Total measurements of eight parameters of twelve selected sample locations taken at two different seasons within two months were made. The ambient air quality investigation in Anambra State has shown the overall mean concentrations of gaseous emission at twelve (12) locations. The mean gaseous emissions showed (NO2=0.66ppm, SO2=0.30ppm, CO=43.93ppm, H2S=2.17ppm, CH4=1.27ppm, CFC=1.59ppb, CO2=316.33ppm, N2O=302.67ppb and O3=0.37ppm). These values do not conform to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and thus contribute significantly to the global warming. Because some of these gaseous emissions (SO2, NO2) are oxidizing agents, they act as irritants that damage delicate tissues in the eyes and respiratory passages. These can impair lung function and trigger cardiovascular problems as the heart tries to compensate for lack of Oxygen by pumping faster and harder. The major sources of air pollution are transportation, industrial processes, stationary fuel combustion and solid waste disposal, thus much is yet to be done in a developing country like Nigeria. Air pollution control using pollution-control equipment to reduce the major conventional pollutants, relocating people who live very close to dumpsites, processing and treatment of gases to produce electricity, heat, fuel and various chemical components should be encouraged.

Keywords: ambient air, atmosphere, greenhouse gases, anambra state

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Authors: Nick Farid, Roghoyeh Salmeh

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The planning and operation of the power grid is becoming much more complex because of the introduction of renewable energy resources, the digitalization of the electricity industry, as well as the coupling of efficiency and greener energy trends. These changes, along with new trends, make interactions between grid users and the other stakeholders more complex. This paper focuses on the main “physical” and “logical” interactions between grid users and the grid stakeholders, both from power system equipment and information management standpoints, and proposes a new interoperability model for Smart Grids.

Keywords: user interface, interoperability layers, grid architecture framework, smart grid

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Authors: Andrey Angorsky

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In the article an issue about the possible number of fundamental physical interactions is studied. The theory of similarity on the dimensionless quantity as the damping ratio serves as the instrument of analysis. The structure with the features of Higgs field comes out from non-commutative expression for this ratio. The experimentally checked up supposition about the nature of dark energy is spoken out.

Keywords: damping ratio, dark energy, dimensionless quantity, fundamental physical interactions, Higgs field, non-commutative expression

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Authors: M. Alwetaishi

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One of the most common and traditional strategies in architecture is to design buildings passively. This is a way to ensure low building energy reliance with respect to specific micro-building locations. There are so many ways where buildings can be designed passively, some of which are applying thermal insulation, thermal mass, courtyard and glazing to wall ratio. This research investigates the impact of each of these aspects with respect to the hot and dry climate of the capital of Riyadh. Thermal Analysis Simulation (TAS) will be utilized which is powered by Environmental Design Simulation Limited company (EDSL). It is considered as one of the most powerful tools to predict energy performance in buildings. There are three primary building designs and methods which are using courtyard, thermal mass and thermal insulation. The same building size and fabrication properties have been applied to all designs. Riyadh city which is the capital of the country was taken as a case study of the research. The research has taken into account various zone directions within the building as it has a large contribution to indoor energy and thermal performance. It is revealed that it is possible to achieve nearly zero carbon building in the hot and dry region in winter with minimum reliance on energy loads for building zones facing south, west and east. Moreover, using courtyard is more beneficial than applying construction materials into building envelope. Glazing to wall ratio is recommended to be 10% and not exceeding 30% in all directions in hot and arid regions.

Keywords: sustainable buildings, hot and arid climates, passive building design, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Muhammad Faizan Rehman Qureshi, Ahmed Al-Kaisy

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Accurate estimation of traffic loads is critical for pavement and bridge design, among other transportation applications. Given the disproportional impact of heavier axle loads on pavement and bridge structures, truck and heavy vehicle traffic is expected to be a major determinant of traffic load estimation. Further, heavy vehicle traffic is also a major input in transportation planning and economic studies. The traditional method for estimating heavy vehicle traffic primarily relies on AADT estimation using Monthly Day of the Week (MDOW) adjustment factors as well as the percent heavy vehicles observed using statewide data collection programs. The MDOW factors are developed using daily and seasonal (or monthly) variation patterns for total traffic, consisting predominantly of passenger cars and other smaller vehicles. Therefore, while using these factors may yield reasonable estimates for total traffic (AADT), such estimates may involve a great deal of approximation when applied to heavy vehicle traffic. This research aims at assessing the approximation involved in estimating heavy vehicle traffic using MDOW adjustment factors for total traffic (conventional approach) along with three other methods of using MDOW adjustment factors for total trucks (class 5-13), combination-unit trucks (class 8-13), as well as adjustment factors for each vehicle class separately. Results clearly indicate that the conventional method was outperformed by the other three methods by a large margin. Further, using the most detailed and data intensive method (class-specific adjustment factors) does not necessarily yield a more accurate estimation of heavy vehicle traffic.

Keywords: traffic loads, heavy vehicles, truck traffic, adjustment factors, traffic data collection

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Authors: Agata Tomaszewska, Timothy Kamps, Stephan R. Turnock, Nicola Symonds

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Bob skeleton is a highly competitive sport in which an athlete reaches speeds up to 40 m/s sliding, head first, down an ice track. It is believed that the friction between the runners and ice significantly contributes to the amount of the total energy loss during a bob skeleton descent. There is only limited available experimental data regarding the friction of bob skeleton runners or indeed steel on the ice at high sliding speeds ( > 20 m/s). Testing methods used to investigate the friction of steel on ice in winter sports have been outlined, and their accuracy and repeatability discussed. A system thinking approach was used to investigate the runner-ice interaction during sliding and create concept designs of three ice tribometers. The operational envelope of the bob skeleton system has been defined through mathematical modelling. Designs of a drum, linear and inertia pin-on-disk tribometers were developed specifically for bob skeleton runner testing with the requirement of reaching up to 40 m/s speed and facilitate fresh ice sliding. The design constraints have been outline and the proposed solutions compared based on the ease of operation, accuracy and the development cost.

Keywords: bob skeleton, ice friction, high-speed tribometers, sliding friction

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Authors: Ursula D. C. Resende, Yan G. Santos, Lucas M. de O. Andrade

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The recent and fast development of the internet, wireless, telecommunication technologies and low-power electronic devices has led to an expressive amount of electromagnetic energy available in the environment and the smart applications technology expansion. These applications have been used in the Internet of Things devices, 4G and 5G solutions. The main feature of this technology is the use of the wireless sensor. Although these sensors are low-power loads, their use imposes huge challenges in terms of an efficient and reliable way for power supply in order to avoid the traditional battery. The radio frequency based energy harvesting technology is especially suitable to wireless power sensors by using a rectenna since it can be completely integrated into the distributed hosting sensors structure, reducing its cost, maintenance and environmental impact. The rectenna is an equipment composed of an antenna and a rectifier circuit. The antenna function is to collect as much radio frequency radiation as possible and transfer it to the rectifier, which is a nonlinear circuit, that converts the very low input radio frequency energy into direct current voltage. In this work, a set of rectennas, mounted on a paper substrate, which can be used for the inner coating of buildings and simultaneously harvest electromagnetic energy from the environment, is proposed. Each proposed individual rectenna is composed of a 2.45 GHz patch antenna and a voltage doubler rectifier circuit, built in the same paper substrate. The antenna contains a rectangular radiator element and a microstrip transmission line that was projected and optimized by using the Computer Simulation Software (CST) in order to obtain values of S11 parameter below -10 dB in 2.45 GHz. In order to increase the amount of harvested power, eight individual rectennas, incorporating metamaterial cells, were connected in parallel forming a system, denominated Electromagnetic Wall (EW). In order to evaluate the EW performance, it was positioned at a variable distance from the internet router, and a 27 kΩ resistive load was fed. The results obtained showed that if more than one rectenna is associated in parallel, enough power level can be achieved in order to feed very low consumption sensors. The 0.12 m2 EW proposed in this work was able to harvest 0.6 mW from the environment. It also observed that the use of metamaterial structures provide an expressive growth in the amount of electromagnetic energy harvested, which was increased from 0. 2mW to 0.6 mW.

Keywords: electromagnetic energy harvesting, metamaterial, rectenna, rectifier circuit

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Authors: C. N. Vanitha, M. Usha

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In a real world scenario, the viability of the sensor networks has been proved by standardizing the technologies. Wireless sensor networks are vulnerable to both electronic and physical security breaches because of their deployment in remote, distributed, and inaccessible locations. The compromised sensor nodes send malicious data to the base station, and thus, the total network effectiveness will possibly be compromised. To detect and seclude the Route modifiers, a neural network based Pattern Learning predictor (PLP) is presented. This algorithm senses data at any node on present and previous patterns obtained from the en-route nodes. The eminence of any node is upgraded by their predicted and reported patterns. This paper propounds a solution not only to detect the route modifiers, but also to seclude the malevolent nodes from the network. The simulation result proves the effective performance of the network by the presented methodology in terms of energy level, routing and various network conditions.

Keywords: neural networks, pattern learning, security, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Krishan P. Sharma, T. P. Sharma

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Wireless sensor nodes are resource constrained battery powered devices usually deployed in hostile and ill-disposed areas to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions. Due to their limited power supply, the major challenge for researchers is to utilize their battery power for enhancing the lifetime of whole network. Communication and sensing are two major sources of energy consumption in sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a deployment strategy for enhancing the average lifetime of a sensor network by effectively utilizing communication and sensing energy to provide full coverage. The proposed scheme is based on the fact that due to heavy relaying load, sensor nodes near to the sink drain energy at much faster rate than other nodes in the network and consequently die much earlier. To cover this imbalance, proposed scheme finds optimal communication and sensing ranges according to effective load at each node and uses a non-uniform deployment strategy where there is a comparatively high density of nodes near to the sink. Probable relaying load factor at particular node is calculated and accordingly optimal communication distance and sensing range for each sensor node is adjusted. Thus, sensor nodes are placed at locations that optimize energy during network operation. Formal mathematical analysis for calculating optimized locations is reported in present work.

Keywords: load factor, network lifetime, non-uniform deployment, sensing range

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Authors: Efthimios Kokkotos, Kostakis Marios, Beis Alexandros, Angelos Patakas, Antonios Avgeris, Vassilios Triantafyllidis

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H, C, and O stable isotope ratios were measured in different olive oils and table olives originating from different regions of Greece. In particular, the stable isotope ratios of different olive oils produced in the Lakonia region (Peloponesse – South Greece) from different varieties, i.e., cvs ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki’, were determined. Additionally, stable isotope ratios were also measured in different table olives (cvs ‘koroneiki’ and ‘kalamon’) produced in the same region (Messinia). The aim of this study was to provide sufficient isotope ratio data regarding each variety and region of origin that could be used in discriminative studies of oil olives and table olives produced by different varieties in other regions. In total, 97 samples of olive oil (cv ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki’) and 67 samples of table olives (cvs ‘kalmon’ and ‘koroneiki’) collected during two consecutive sampling periods (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) were measured. The C, H, and O isotope ratios were measured using Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), and the results obtained were analyzed using chemometric techniques. The measurements of the isotope ratio analyses were expressed in permille (‰) using the delta δ notation (δ=Rsample/Rstandard-1, where Rsample and Rstandardis represent the isotope ratio of sample and standard). Results indicate that stable isotope ratios of C, H, and O ranged between -28,5+0,45‰, -142,83+2,82‰, 25,86+0,56‰ and -29,78+0,71‰, -143,62+1,4‰, 26,32+0,55‰ in olive oils produced in Lakonia region from ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki ‘varieties, respectively. The C, H, and O values from table olives originated from Messinia region were -28,58+0,63‰, -138,09+3,27‰, 25,45+0,62‰ and -29,41+0,59‰,-137,67+1,15‰, 24,37+0,6‰ for ‘Kalamon’ and ‘koroneiki’ olives respectively. Acknowledgments: This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH—CREATE—INNOVATE (Project code: T2EDK-02637; MIS 5075094, Title: ‘Innovative Methodological Tools for Traceability, Certification and Authenticity Assessment of Olive Oil and Olives’).

Keywords: olive oil, table olives, Isotope ratio, IRMS, geographical origin

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Authors: L. Alejandro Cárdenas, Fernando Herrera, David Nova, Juan Ballesteros

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This paper presents a methodology to optimize the maintenance of grid-connected photovoltaic systems, considering the cleaning and module replacement periods based on an asset management strategy. The methodology is based on the analysis of the energy production of the PV plant, the energy feed-in tariff, and the cost of cleaning and replacement of the PV modules, with the overall revenue received being the optimization variable. The methodology is evaluated as a case study of a 5.6 kWp solar PV plant located on the Bogotá campus of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The asset management strategy implemented consists of assessing the PV modules through visual inspection, energy performance analysis, pollution, and degradation. Within the visual inspection of the plant, the general condition of the modules and the structure is assessed, identifying dust deposition, visible fractures, and water accumulation on the bottom. The energy performance analysis is performed with the energy production reported by the monitoring systems and compared with the values estimated in the simulation. The pollution analysis is performed using the soiling rate due to dust accumulation, which can be modelled by a black box with an exponential function dependent on historical pollution values. The pollution rate is calculated with data collected from the energy generated during two years in a photovoltaic plant on the campus of the National University of Colombia. Additionally, the alternative of assessing the temperature degradation of the PV modules is evaluated by estimating the cell temperature with parameters such as ambient temperature and wind speed. The medium-term energy decrease of the PV modules is assessed with the asset management strategy by calculating the health index to determine the replacement period of the modules due to degradation. This study proposes a tool for decision making related to the maintenance of photovoltaic systems. The above, projecting the increase in the installation of solar photovoltaic systems in power systems associated with the commitments made in the Paris Agreement for the reduction of CO2 emissions. In the Colombian context, it is estimated that by 2030, 12% of the installed power capacity will be solar PV.

Keywords: asset management, PV module, optimization, maintenance

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Authors: Mechlouch Ridha Fethi

Abstract:

This paper presents a recent mathematical model in political sciences concerning democracy. The model is represented by a logarithmic equation linking the Relative Index of Democracy (RID) to Participation Ratio (PR). Firstly the meanings of the different parameters of the model were presented; and the variation curve of the RID according to PR with different critical areas was discussed. Secondly, the model was applied to a virtual group where we show that the model can be applied depending on the gender. Thirdly, it was observed that the model can be extended to different language models of democracy and that little use to assess the state of democracy for some International organizations like UNO.

Keywords: democracy, mathematic, modelization, quantification

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