Search results for: electrical energy storage

Authors: Esra Yel, Tabriz Aslanov, Merve Sogancioglu, Suheyla Kocaman, Gulnare Ahmetli

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The disposal of waste plastics has become a major worldwide environmental problem. Pyrolysis of waste plastics is one of the routes to waste minimization and recycling that has been gaining interest. In pyrolysis, the pyrolysed material is separated into gas, liquid (both are fuel) and solid (char) products. All fractions have utilities and economical value depending upon their characteristics. The first objective of this study is to determine the co-pyrolysis product fractions of waste HDPE- (high density polyethylene) and LDPE (low density polyethylene)-olive pomace (OP) and to determine the qualities of the solid product char. Chars obtained at 700 °C pyrolysis were used in biocomposite preparation as additive. As the second objective, the effects of char on biocomposite quality were investigated. Pyrolysis runs were performed at temperature 700 °C with heating rates of 5 °C/min. Biocomposites were prepared by mixing of chars with bisphenol-F type epoxy resin in various wt%. Biocomposite properties were determined by measuring electrical conductivity, surface hardness, Young’s modulus and tensile strength of the composites. The best electrical conductivity results were obtained with HDPE-OP char. For HDPE-OP char and LDPE-OP char, compared to neat epoxy, the tensile strength values of the composites increased by 102% and 78%, respectively, at 10% char dose. The hardness measurements showed similar results to the tensile tests, since there is a correlation between the hardness and the tensile strength.

Keywords: biocomposite, char, olive pomace, pyrolysis

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Authors: M. Meenasaranya, S. Saravanan

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Nonlinear stability analysis is carried out to determine the effect of surface temperature modulation in an infinite horizontal porous layer heated from below. The layer is saturated by an electrically conducting, viscous, incompressible and Newtonian fluid. The Brinkman model is used for momentum equation, and the Boussinesq approximation is invoked. The system is assumed to be bounded by rigid boundaries. The energy theory is implemented to find the global exponential stability region of the considered system. The results are analysed for arbitrary values of modulation frequency and amplitude. The existence of subcritical instability region is confirmed by comparing the obtained result with the known linear result. The vertical magnetic field is found to stabilize the system.

Keywords: Brinkman model, energy method, magnetic field, surface temperature modulation

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Authors: Marcus Klein, Martina GrießBach, Richard Kupke

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The current advances in the research and manufacturing of large area graphene layers are promising towards the introduction of this exciting material in the display industry and other applications that benefit from excellent electrical and optical characteristics. New production technologies in the fabrication of flexible displays, touch screens or printed electronics apply graphene layers on non-metal substrates and bring new challenges to the required metrology. Traditional measurement concepts of layer thickness, sheet resistance, and layer uniformity, are difficult to apply to graphene production processes and are often harmful to the product layer. New non-contact sensor concepts are required to adapt to the challenges and even the foreseeable inline production of large area graphene. Dedicated non-contact measurement sensors are a pioneering method to leverage these issues in a large variety of applications, while significantly lowering the costs of development and process setup. Transferred and printed graphene layers can be characterized with high accuracy in a huge measurement range using a very high resolution. Large area graphene mappings are applied for process optimization and for efficient quality control for transfer, doping, annealing and stacking processes. Examples of doped, defected and excellent Graphene are presented as quality images and implications for manufacturers are explained.

Keywords: graphene, doping and defect testing, non-contact sheet resistance measurement, inline metrology

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Authors: Sarah Abdourraziq

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To improve the efficiency of photovoltaic pumping system, more attention has been paid to their setting up. This paper presents an optimal technique to establish an efficient system under different conditions of irradiance and temperature. The state of place should be carefully studied before stage of installation of the over system: local climate, boreholes, soil, crops and water resources. The studied system consists of a PV panel, a DC-DC boost converter, a DC motor-pump, and storage tank. The concepts shown in this paper presents a support for an optimal installation of each solar pump.

Keywords: photovoltaic pumping system, optimal implementation, boost converter, motor-pump

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Authors: G. Korotcenkov, V. Brinzari, B. K. Cho

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The thermoelectric properties of nano-scaled In₂O₃:Sn films deposited by spray pyrolysis are considered in the present report. It is shown that multicomponent In₂O₃:Sn-based films are promising material for the application in thermoelectric devices. It is established that the increase in the efficiency of thermoelectric conversion at C_Sn~5% occurred due to nano-scaled structure of the films studied and the effect of the grain boundary filtering of the low energy electrons. There are also analyzed the limitations that may appear during such material using in devices developed for the market of thermoelectric generators and refrigerators. Studies showed that the stability of nano-scaled film’s parameters is the main problem which can limit the application of these materials in high temperature thermoelectric converters.

Keywords: energy conversion technologies, thermoelectricity, In2O3-based films, power factor, nanocomposites, stability

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Authors: Hugo Lefeuvre, Jerôme Donnard, Michael Descostes, Sophie Billon, Samuel Duval, Tugdual Oger, Herve Toubon, Paul Sardini

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Spectroscopic autoradiography is a method of interest for geological sample analysis. Indeed, researchers may face different issues such as radioelement identification and quantification in the field of environmental studies. Imaging gaseous ionization detectors find their place in geosciences for conducting specific measurements of radioactivity to improve the monitoring of natural processes using naturally-occurring radioactive tracers, but also for the nuclear industry linked to the mining sector. In geological samples, the location and identification of the radioactive-bearing minerals at the thin-section scale remains a major challenge as the detection limit of the usual elementary microprobe techniques is far higher than the concentration of most of the natural radioactive decay products. The spatial distribution of each decay product in the case of uranium in a geomaterial is interesting for relating radionuclides concentration to the mineralogy. The present study aims to provide spectroscopic autoradiography analysis method for measuring the initial energy of alpha particles with a parallel ionization multiplier gaseous detector. The analysis method has been developed thanks to Geant4 modelling of the detector. The track of alpha particles recorded in the gas detector allow the simultaneous measurement of the initial point of emission and the reconstruction of the initial particle energy by a selection based on the linear energy distribution. This spectroscopic autoradiography method was successfully used to reproduce the alpha spectra from a 238U decay chain on a geological sample at the thin-section scale. The characteristics of this measurement are an energy spectrum resolution of 17.2% (FWHM) at 4647 keV and a spatial resolution of at least 50 µm. Even if the efficiency of energy spectrum reconstruction is low (4.4%) compared to the efficiency of a simple autoradiograph (50%), this novel measurement approach offers the opportunity to select areas on an autoradiograph to perform an energy spectrum analysis within that area. This opens up possibilities for the detailed analysis of heterogeneous geological samples containing natural alpha emitters such as uranium-238 and radium-226. This measurement will allow the study of the spatial distribution of uranium and its descendants in geo-materials by coupling scanning electron microscope characterizations. The direct application of this dual modality (energy-position) of analysis will be the subject of future developments. The measurement of the radioactive equilibrium state of heterogeneous geological structures, and the quantitative mapping of 226Ra radioactivity are now being actively studied.

Keywords: alpha spectroscopy, digital autoradiography, mining activities, natural decay products

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Authors: N. S. Risqina, G. Edijanti, P. S. Nurita, L. Endang, R. A. Siti, R. Tri

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Skin is an important and vital organs and also as a mirror of health and life. Facial skin care is one of the main emphasis to get the beautiful, healthy, and fresh skin. Potentially antioxidant phenolic compounds shows, antimutagen, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer. Flavonoids are a group of polyphenolic compounds that have the nature of free radicals, inhibiting the oxidative and hydrolytic enzymes as well as anti-inflammatory. Bitter melon (Momordica charantia Linn) is a plant that contains flavonoids, and phenolic antioxidant activity. Bitter melon has strong antioxidant activity that can counteract the free radicals.These compounds can prevent free radicals that cause premature aging. Gel masks including depth cleansing is the cosmetics which work in depth and could raise the dead skin cells. Measurement of antioxidant activity of the extract and gel mask is done by using the immersion method of DPPH. IC50 value of ethanol extract of bitter melon fruit of 287.932 ppm. The preparation of gel mask bitter melon fruit extract, necessary to test the effectiveness of antioxidants using DPPH method is done by measuring the inhibition of DPPH and using UV spectrophotometer at the wavelength of maximum DPPH solution. Tests conducted at the beginning and end of the evaluation (day 0 and day 28). The purpose of this study is to determine the antioxidant activity of the bitter melon's extract and to determine the antioxidant activity of ethanol extract gel mask pare in varying concentrations, ie 1xIC100 (0.295%), 2xIC100 (0.590%) and 4xIC100 (1.180%). Evaluation of physical properties of the preparation on (Day-0,7,14,21, and 28) and evaluation of antioxidant activity (day 0 and 28). Data were analyzed using One Way ANOVA to determine differences in the physical properties of each formula. The statistical results showed that differences in the formula and storage time affects the adhesion, dispersive power, dry time and pH it is shown on a significant value of p <0.05, but longer storage does not affect the pH because the significance value p> 0,05. The antioxidant test showed that there are differences in antioxidant activity in all formulas. Measurement of antioxidant activity of bitter melon fruit extract gel mask on day 0 with a concentration of 0.295%, 0.590%, and 1.180%, respectively, are 124,209.277 ppm, ppm 83819.223 and 47323.592 ppm, whereas day 28 consecutive 130 411, 495 ppm, and 53239.806 95561.645 ppm ppm. The Conclusions drawn that there are antioxidant activity in preparation gel mask of bitter melon fruit extract. The antioxidant activity of bitter melon fruit extract gel mask on the day 0 with a concentration of 0.295%, 0.590%, and 1.180%, respectively, are 124,209.277 ppm, ppm 83819.223 and 47323.592 ppm, whereas on day 28 of antioxidant activity gel mask bitter melon fruit extract with a concentration of 0.295%, 0.590%, and 1.180% in succession, namely: 130,411.495 ppm, ppm 95561.645 and 53239.806 ppm.

Keywords: antioxdant, bitter melon, gel mask, IC50

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Authors: Radu Pop, Adrian Bot, Vasile Rednic, Emil Bruj, Oana Raita, Liviu Vaida

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Our research presents a study concerning optimization of water flow capture for micro-hydro power plants in order to increase the energy production. It is known that the fish ladder whole, were the water is capture is fix, and the water flow may vary with the river flow, this means that on the fish ladder we will have different servitude flows, sometimes more than needed. We propose to demonstrate that the ‘winter intake’ from micro-hydro power plant, could be automated with an intelligent system which is capable to read some imposed data and adjust the flow in to the needed value. With this automation concept, we demonstrate that the performance of the micro-hydro power plant could increase, in some flow operating regimes, with approx. 10%.

Keywords: energy, micro-hydro, water intake, fish ladder

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Authors: Romeo Malik, Yashraj Tripathy, Anup Barai

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Transportation safety is a major concern for vehicle electrification on a large-scale. The failure cost of lithium-ion batteries is substantial and is significantly impacted by higher liability and replacement cost. With continuous advancement on the material front in terms of higher energy density, upgrading safety characteristics are becoming more crucial for broader integration of lithium-ion batteries. Understanding and impeding thermal runaway is the prime issue for battery safety researchers. In this study, a comprehensive comparison of thermal runaway mechanisms for two different cathode types, Li(Ni₀.₃Co₀.₃Mn₀.₃)O₂ and Li(Ni₀.₈Co₀.₁₅Al₀.₀₅)O₂ is explored. Both the chemistries were studied for different states of charge, and the various abuse scenarios that lead to thermal runaway is investigated. Abuse tests include mechanical abuse, electrical abuse, and thermal abuse. Batteries undergo thermal runaway due to a series of combustible reactions taking place internally; this is observed as multiple jets of flame reaching temperatures of the order of 1000ºC. The physicochemical characterisation was performed on cells, prior to and after abuse. Battery’s state of charge and chemistry have a significant effect on the flame temperature profiles which is otherwise quantified as heat released. Majority of the failures during transportation is due to these external short circuit. Finally, a mitigation approach is proposed to impede the thermal runaway hazard. Transporting lithium-ion batteries under low states of charge is proposed as a way forward. Batteries at low states of charge have demonstrated minimal heat release under thermal runaway reducing the risk of secondary hazards such as thermal runaway propagation.

Keywords: battery reliability, lithium-ion batteries, thermal runaway characterisation, tomography

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Authors: Anna Carolina De Paula Sermarini, Rodrigo Flora Calili

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Energy Efficiency (EE) needs investments, new technologies, greater awareness and management on the side of citizens and organizations, and more planning. However, this issue is usually remembered and discussed only in moments of energy crises, and opportunities are missed to take better advantage of the potential of EE in the various sectors of the economy. In addition, there is little concern about the subject among the less favored classes, especially in low-income communities. Accordingly, this article presents suggestions for public policies that aim to increase EE for low-income housing and communities based on international and national experiences. After reviewing the literature, eight policies were listed, and to evaluate them; a multicriteria decision model was developed using the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methods, combined with fuzzy logic. Nine experts analyzed the policies according to 9 criteria: economic impact, social impact, environmental impact, previous experience, the difficulty of implementation, possibility/ease of monitoring and evaluating the policies, expected impact, political risks, and public governance and sustainability of the sector. The results found in order of preference are (i) Incentive program for equipment replacement; (ii) Community awareness program; (iii) EE Program with a greater focus on low income; (iv) Staggered and compulsory certification of social interest buildings; (v) Programs for the expansion of smart metering, energy monitoring and digitalization; (vi) Financing program for construction and retrofitting of houses with the emphasis on EE; (vii) Income tax deduction for investment in EE projects in low-income households made by companies; (viii) White certificates of energy for low-income. First, the policy of equipment substitution has been employed in Brazil and the world and has proven effective in promoting EE. For implementation, efforts are needed from the federal and state governments, which can encourage companies to reduce prices, and provide some type of aid for the purchase of such equipment. In second place is the community awareness program, promoting socio-educational actions on EE concepts and with energy conservation tips. This policy is simple to implement and has already been used by many distribution utilities in Brazil. It can be carried out through bids defined by the government in specific areas, being executed by third sector companies with public and private resources. Third on the list is the proposal to continue the Energy Efficiency Program (which obliges electric energy companies to allocate resources for research in the area) by suggesting the return of the mandatory investment of 60% of the resources in projects for low income. It is also relatively simple to implement, requiring efforts by the federal government to make it mandatory, and on the part of the distributors, compliance is needed. The success of the suggestions depends on changes in the established rules and efforts from the interested parties. For future work, we suggest the development of pilot projects in low-income communities in Brazil and the application of other multicriteria decision support methods to compare the results obtained in this study.

Keywords: energy efficiency, low-income community, public policy, multicriteria decision making

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Authors: Wiem Zaabi, Yemna Bensalem, Hafedh Trabelsi

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The paper presents a finite element (FE) based efficient analysis procedure for induction machine (IM). The FE formulation approaches are proposed to achieve this goal: the magnetostatic and the non-linear transient time stepped formulations. The study based on finite element models offers much more information on the phenomena characterizing the operation of electrical machines than the classical analytical models. This explains the increase of the interest for the finite element investigations in electrical machines. Based on finite element models, this paper studies the influence of the stator and the rotor faults on the behavior of the IM. In this work, a simple dynamic model for an IM with inter-turn winding fault and a broken bar fault is presented. This fault model is used to study the IM under various fault conditions and severity. The simulation results are conducted to validate the fault model for different levels of fault severity. The comparison of the results obtained by simulation tests allowed verifying the precision of the proposed FEM model. This paper presents a technical method based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of stator current and electromagnetic torque to detect the faults of broken rotor bar. The technique used and the obtained results show clearly the possibility of extracting signatures to detect and locate faults.

Keywords: Finite element Method (FEM), Induction motor (IM), short-circuit fault, broken rotor bar, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis

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Authors: Fofie Kokea Ariane Darolle, Gouet Daniel Hervé, Koumetio Fidèle, Yemele David

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The electrical resistivity method is successfully used in this paper in order to have a clearer picture of the subsurface of the North-East ofFiguil in northern Cameroon. It is worth noting that this method is most often used when the objective of the study is to image the shallow subsoils by considering them as a set of stratified ground layers. The problem to be solved is very often environmental, and in this case, it is necessary to perform an inversion of the data in order to have a complete and accurate picture of the parameters of the said layers. In the case of this work, thirty-three (33) Schlumberger VES have been carried out on an irregular grid to investigate the subsurface of the study area. The 1D inversion applied as a preliminary modeling tool and in correlation with the mechanical drillings results indicates a complex subsurface lithology distribution mainly consisting of marbles and schists. Moreover, the quasi-3D inversion with lateral constraint shows that the misfit between the observed field data and the model response is quite good and acceptable with a value low than 10%. The method also reveals existence of two water bearing in the considered area. The first is the schist or weathering aquifer (unsuitable), and the other is the marble or the fracturing aquifer (suitable). The final quasi 3D inversion results and geological models indicate proper sites for groundwaters prospecting and for mining exploitation, thus allowing the economic development of the study area.

Keywords: electrical resistivity method, 1D inversion, quasi 3D inversion, groundwaters, mining

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Authors: Fatiha Boudjema, Samia Boudergua, Abdallah Elhirtsi Nour El Houda, Ahmed Mbarek Kaouther

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The main objective of our work is to prepare and characterize a moisturizing lip balm based on natural ingredients such as waxes, vegetable oils, and shea butter. First, the vegetable and essential oils were extracted, and then lip balm was prepared. The extracted oils and the lip balm were submitted to many tests in order to guarantee their quality and effectiveness. These tests show that our balm has a shear thinning behavior with a melting point of 58 °C and that it spreads easily on the skin without showing an allergic reaction. The balm showed a moisturising effect and stability over the two-month period at storage room temperature condition.

Keywords: lip balm, natural products, rheological study, antioxydant activity

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Authors: Ruina Xu, Peixue Jiang, Feng Luo

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The novel concept of enhanced geothermal system with CO2 instead of water as working fluid (CO2-EGS) has attracted wide attention due to additional benefit of CO2 geological storage during the power generation process. In this research, numerical investigation on a doublet CO2-EGS system is performed, focusing on the influence of the injection/production well perforation location in the targeted geothermal reservoir. Three different reservoir inlet and outlet boundary conditions are used in simulations since the well constrains are different in reality. The results show that CO2-EGS system performance of power generation and power cost vary greatly among cases of different wells perforation locations, and the optimum options under different boundary conditions are also different.

Keywords: Enhanced Geothermal System, supercritical CO2, heat transfer, CO2-EGS

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Authors: Hussain Ali Bekhet, Tuan Ab Rashid Bin Tuan Abdullah, Tahira Yasmin

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It is very important for electric utility to determine dominant sectors which have more impacts on electricity consumption in national economy system. The aim of this paper is to examine the electricity demand multipliers in Malaysia for (2005-2014) period. Malaysian Input-output tables, 2005 and 2010 are used. Besides, a new concept, electricity demand multiplier (EDM), is presented to identify key sectors imposing great impacts on electricity demand quantitatively. In order to testify the effectiveness of the Malaysian energy policies, it notes that there is fluctuation of the ranking sectors between 2005 and 2010. This could be reflected that there is efficiency with pace of development in Malaysia. This can be good indication for decision makers for designing future energy policies.

Keywords: input-output model, demand multipliers, electricity, key sectors, Malaysia

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Authors: M. Akhlaque Ahmed, Sidra A. Shaikh, Maliha A. Siddiqui, Adeel Tahir

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Global and diffuse solar radiation on horizontal surface of southern sindh namely Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabshah were carried out using sunshine hour data of the area to asses the feasibility of solar Energy utilization at Sindh province for power generation. From the observation, result is derived which shows a drastic variation in the diffuse and direct component of solar radiation for summer and winter for Southern Sindh that is both contributes 50% for Karachi and Hyderabad. In Nawabshah area, the contribution of diffuse solar radiation is low in monsoon months, July and August. The Kᴛ value of Nawabshah indicates a clear sky almost throughout the year. The percentage of diffuse radiation does not exceed more than 20%. In Nawabshah, the appearance of cloud is rare even in monsoon months. The estimated values indicate that Nawabshah has high solar potential whereas Karachi and Hyderabad has low solar potential. During the monsoon months, the southern part of Sind can utilize the hybrid system with wind power. Near Karachi and Hyderabad, the wind speed ranges between 6.2 to 6.9 m/sec. There exist a wind corridor near Karachi, Hyderabad, Gharo, Keti Bander and Shah Bander. The short fall of solar can be compensated by wind because in monsoon months July and August the wind speed are higher in the southern region of Sindh.

Keywords: hybrid power system, power generation, solar and wind energy potential, southern Sindh

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Authors: Heerak Banerjee, Sourov Roy

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Supersymmetry, one of the most celebrated fields of study for explaining experimental observations where the standard model (SM) falls short, is reeling from the lack of experimental vindication. At the same time, the idea of additional gauge symmetry, in particular, the gauged Lμ-Lτ symmetric models have also generated significant interest. They have been extensively proposed in order to explain the tantalizing discrepancy in the predicted and measured value of the muon anomalous magnetic moment alongside several other issues plaguing the SM. While very little parameter space within these models remain unconstrained, this work finds that the γ + Missing Energy (ME) signal at the Belle-II detector will be a smoking gun for supersymmetry (SUSY) in the presence of a gauged U(1)Lμ-Lτ symmetry. A remarkable consequence of breaking the enhanced symmetry appearing in the limit of degenerate (s)leptons is the nondecoupling of the radiative contribution of heavy charged sleptons to the γ-Z΄ kinetic mixing. The signal process, e⁺e⁻ →γZ΄→γ+ME, is an outcome of this ubiquitous feature. Taking the severe constraints on gauged Lμ-Lτ models by several low energy observables into account, it is shown that any significant excess in all but the highest photon energy bin would be an undeniable signature of such heavy scalar fields in SUSY coupling to the additional gauge boson Z΄. The number of signal events depends crucially on the logarithm of the ratio of stau to smuon mass in the presence of SUSY. In addition, the number is also inversely proportional to the e⁺e⁻ collision energy, making a low-energy, high-luminosity collider like Belle-II an ideal testing ground for this channel. This process can probe large swathes of the hitherto free slepton mass ratio vs. additional gauge coupling (gₓ) parameter space. More importantly, it can explore the narrow slice of Z΄ mass (MZ΄) vs. gₓ parameter space still allowed in gauged U(1)Lμ-Lτ models for superheavy sparticles. The spectacular finding that the signal significance is independent of individual slepton masses is an exciting prospect indeed. Further, the prospect that signatures of even superheavy SUSY particles that may have escaped detection at the LHC may show up at the Belle-II detector is an invigorating revelation.

Keywords: additional gauge symmetry, electron-positron collider, kinetic mixing, nondecoupling radiative effect, supersymmetry

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Authors: Yuta Nakano, Kozo Kajiwara, Atsushi Hori, Takeshi Fujita

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In association with the wave of electric vehicles (EV), low energy consumption systems have become more and more important. One of the key technologies to realize low energy consumption is a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), or we can call it an event sensor, neuromorphic vision sensor and so on. This sensor has several features, such as high temporal resolution, which can achieve 1 Mframe/s, and a high dynamic range (120 DB). However, the point that can contribute to low energy consumption the most is its sparsity; to be more specific, this sensor only captures the pixels that have intensity change. In other words, there is no signal in the area that does not have any intensity change. That is to say, this sensor is more energy efficient than conventional sensors such as RGB cameras because we can remove redundant data. On the other side of the advantages, it is difficult to handle the data because the data format is completely different from RGB image; for example, acquired signals are asynchronous and sparse, and each signal is composed of x-y coordinate, polarity (two values: +1 or -1) and time stamp, it does not include intensity such as RGB values. Therefore, as we cannot use existing algorithms straightforwardly, we have to design a new processing algorithm to cope with DVS data. In order to solve difficulties caused by data format differences, most of the prior arts make a frame data and feed it to deep learning such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for object detection and recognition purposes. However, even though we can feed the data, it is still difficult to achieve good performance due to a lack of intensity information. Although polarity is often used as intensity instead of RGB pixel value, it is apparent that polarity information is not rich enough. Considering this context, we proposed to use the timestamp information as a data representation that is fed to deep learning. Concretely, at first, we also make frame data divided by a certain time period, then give intensity value in response to the timestamp in each frame; for example, a high value is given on a recent signal. We expected that this data representation could capture the features, especially of moving objects, because timestamp represents the movement direction and speed. By using this proposal method, we made our own dataset by DVS fixed on a parked car to develop an application for a surveillance system that can detect persons around the car. We think DVS is one of the ideal sensors for surveillance purposes because this sensor can run for a long time with low energy consumption in a NOT dynamic situation. For comparison purposes, we reproduced state of the art method as a benchmark, which makes frames the same as us and feeds polarity information to CNN. Then, we measured the object detection performances of the benchmark and ours on the same dataset. As a result, our method achieved a maximum of 7 points greater than the benchmark in the F1 score.

Keywords: event camera, dynamic vision sensor, deep learning, data representation, object recognition, low energy consumption

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Authors: V. H. Nguyen, A. Castalone, C. Jamieson, M. Gummert

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Rice straw is an abundant biomass resource in Asian countries that can be used for bioenergy. In continuously flooded rice fields, it can be removed without reducing the levels of soil organic matter. One suitable bioenergy technology is anaerobic digestion (AD), but it needs to be further verified using rice straw as a feedstock. For this study, a batch AD system was developed using rice straw and cow dung. It is low cost, farm scale, with the batch capacity ranging from 5 kg to 200 kg of straw mixed with 10% of cow dung. The net energy balance obtained was from 3000 to 4000 MJ per ton of straw input at 15-18% moisture content. Net output energy obtained from biogas and digestate ranged from 4000 to 5000 MJ per ton of straw. This indicates AD as a potential solution for converting rice straw from a waste to a clean fuel, reducing the environmental footprint caused by current disposal practices.

Keywords: rice straw, anaerobic digestion, biogas, bioenergy

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Authors: Joseph Soliman, Youssef Attia, Khairy Megalla

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The stable operation of an inline Stirling engine will be achieved when both engine configurations and operating conditions are optimum. This paper presents stability and performance investigation of an inline Stirling engine using ANSYS. Dynamic motion of engine pistons such as the displacer and the power piston are both obtained. For engine design, the optimum parameters are given such as engine specifications, engine characteristics and working conditions to yield the maximum efficiency and reliability. The prototype was built and tested and it is used as a validation case. The comparison of both experimental and simulation results are provided and discussed. Results were found to be encouraging to initiate a Stirling engine project for 3 kW power output. The working fluids are air, hydrogen, nitrogen and helum.

Keywords: stirling engine, solar energy, new energy, dynamic motion

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Authors: M. Pappa, C. Efstathiou, G. Livanos, P. Xidas, D. Vakondios, E. Maravelakis, M. Zervakis, A. Antoniadis

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The choice of cutting tools in manufacturing processes is an essential parameter on which the required manufacturing time, the consumed energy and the cost effort all depend. If the number of tool changing times could be minimized or even eliminated by using a single convex tool providing multiple profiles, then a significant benefit of time and energy saving, as well as tool cost, would be achieved. A typical machine contains a variety of tools in order to deal with different curvatures and material removal rates. In order to minimize the required cutting tool changes, Actively Deformable micro-Cutters (ADmC) will be developed. The design of the Actively Deformable micro-Cutters will be based on the same cutting technique and mounting method as that in typical cutters.

Keywords: deformable cutters, cutting tool, milling, turning, manufacturing

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Authors: Tatyane Lopes de Freitas, Antonio Diogo S. Vieira, Susana Marta Isay Saad, Maria Ines Genovese

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The fruit processing industries generate a large volume of residues to produce juices, pulps, and jams. These residues, or by-products, consisting of peels, seeds, and pulps, are routinely discarded. Fruits are rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, which have positive effects on health. Dry residues from two fruits, acerola (M. emarginata D. C.) and orange (C. sinensis), were characterized in relation to contents of ascorbic acid, minerals, total dietary fibers, moisture, ash, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, and also high performance liquid chromatographic profile of flavonoids, total polyphenols and proanthocyanidins contents, and antioxidant capacity by three different methods (Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay-FRAP, Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity-ORAC, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) radical scavenging activity). Acerola by-products presented the highest acid ascorbic content (605 mg/100 g), and better antioxidant capacity than orange by-products. The dry residues from acerola demonstrated high contents of proanthocyanidins (617 µg CE/g) and total polyphenols (2525 mg gallic acid equivalents - GAE/100 g). Both presented high total dietary fiber (above 60%) and protein contents (acerola: 10.4%; orange: 9.9%), and reduced fat content (acerola: 1.6%; orange: 2.6%). Both residues showed high levels of potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and were considered sources of these minerals. With acerola by-product, four formulations of probiotics fermented milks were produced: F0 (without the addition of acerola residue (AR)), F2 (2% AR), F5 (5% AR) and F10 (10% AR). The physicochemical characteristics of the fermented milks throughout of storage were investigated, as well as the impact of in vitro simulated gastrointestinal conditions on flavonoids and probiotics. The microorganisms analyzed maintained their populations around 8 log CFU/g during storage. After the gastric phase of the simulated digestion, the populations decreased, and after the enteric phase, no colonies were detected. On the other hand, the flavonoids increased after the gastric phase, maintaining or suffering small decrease after enteric phase. Acerola by-products powder is a valuable ingredient to be used in functional foods because is rich in vitamin C, fibers and flavonoids. These flavonoids appear to be highly resistant to the acids and salts of digestion.

Keywords: acerola, orange, by-products, fermented milk

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Authors: Konstantin Nefedev, Petr Andriushchenko

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Usually under the frustrated magnetics, it understands such materials, in which ones the interaction between located magnetic moments or spins has competing character, and can not to be satisfied simultaneously. The most well-known and simplest example of the frustrated system is antiferromagnetic Ising model on the triangle. Physically, the existence of frustrations means, that one cannot select all three pairs of spins anti-parallel in the basic unit of the triangle. In physics of the interacting particle systems, the vector models are used, which are constructed on the base of the pair-interaction law. Each pair interaction energy between one-component vectors can take two opposite in sign values, excluding the case of zero. Mathematically, the existence of frustrations in system means that it is impossible to have all negative energies of pair interactions in the Hamiltonian even in the ground state (lowest energy). In fact, the frustration is the excitation, which leaves in system, when thermodynamics does not work, i.e. at the temperature absolute zero. The origin of the frustration is the presence at least of one ''unsatisfied'' pair of interacted spins (magnetic moments). The minimal relative quantity of these excitations (relative quantity of frustrations in ground state) can be used as parameter of frustration. If the energy of the ground state is Egs, and summary energy of all energy of pair interactions taken with a positive sign is Emax, that proposed frustration parameter pf takes values from the interval [0,1] and it is defined as pf=(Egs+Emax)/2Emax. For antiferromagnetic Ising model on the triangle pf=1/3. We calculated the parameters of frustration in thermodynamic limit for different 2D periodical structures of Ising dipoles, which were on the ribs of the lattice and interact by means of the long-range dipolar interaction. For the honeycomb lattice pf=0.3415, triangular - pf=0.2468, kagome - pf=0.1644. All dependencies of frustration parameter from 1/N obey to the linear law. The given frustration parameter allows to consider the thermodynamics of all magnetic systems from united point of view and to compare the different lattice systems of interacting particle in the frame of vector models. This parameter can be the fundamental characteristic of frustrated systems. It has no dependence from temperature and thermodynamic states, in which ones the system can be found, such as spin ice, spin glass, spin liquid or even spin snow. It shows us the minimal relative quantity of excitations, which ones can exist in system at T=0.

Keywords: frustrations, parameter of order, statistical physics, magnetism

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Authors: Magdalena B. Kaziuk, Waldemar Kosiba, Marek J. Kuzniewski

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Introduction: Adipose tissue is a typical place for storage water-insoluble toxins in the body. It's connective tissue, where the intercellular substance consist of fat, which level in people with low physical activity should be 18-25% for women and 13-18% for men. Due to the fat distribution in the body we distinquish two types of obesity: android (visceral, abdominal) and gynoidal (gluteal-femoral, peripheral). Abdominal obesity increases the risk of complications of the cardiovascular system diseases, and impaired renal and liver function. Through the influence on disorders of metabolism, lipid metabolism, diabetes and hypertension, leading to emergence of the metabolic syndrome. So thus, obesity will especially overload kidney function in patients after transplantation. Aim: An attempt was made to estimate the impact of amount fat tissue on transplanted kidney function and excretory function of the liver in patients after Ktx. Material and Methods: The study included 108 patients (50 females, 58 male, age 46.5 +/- 12.9 years) with active kidney transplant after more than 3 months from the transplantation. An analysis of body composition was done by using electrical bioimpedance (BIA) and anthropometric measurements. Estimated basal metabolic rate (BMR), muscle mass, total body water content and the amount of body fat. Information about physical activity were obtained during clinical examination. Nutritional status, and type of obesity were determined by using indicators: Waist to Height Ratio (WHR) and Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR). Excretory functions of the transplanted kidney was rated by calculating the estimated renal glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the MDRD formula. Liver function was rated by total bilirubin and alanine aminotransferase levels ALT concentration in serum. In our patients haemolitic uremic syndrome (HUS) was excluded. Results: In 19.44% of patients had underweight, 22.37% of the respondents were with normal weight, 11.11% had overweight, and the rest were with obese (49.08%). People with android stature have a lower eGFR compared with those with the gynoidal stature (p = 0.004). All patients with obesity had higher amount of body fat from a few to several percent. The higher amount of body fat percentage, the lower eGFR had patients (p <0.001). Elevated ALT levels significantly correlated with a high fat content (p <0.02). Conclusion: Increased amount of body fat, particularly in the case of android obesity can be a predictor of kidney and liver damage. Due to that obese patients should have more frequent control of diagnostic functions of these organs and the intensive dietary proceedings, pharmacological and regular physical activity adapted to the current physical condition of patients after transplantation.

Keywords: obesity, body fat, kidney transplantation, glomerular filtration rate, liver function

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Authors: Jiahui Song

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The application of an electric field can cause poration at cell membranes. This includes the outer plasma membrane, as well as the membranes of intracellular organelles. In order to analyze and predict such electroporation effects, it becomes necessary to first evaluate the electric fields and the transmembrane voltages. This information can then be used to assess changes in the pore formation energy that finally yields the pore distributions and their radii based on the Smolchowski equation. The dynamic pore model can be achieved by including a dynamic aspect and a dependence on the pore population density into the pore formation energy equation. These changes make the pore formation energy E(r) self-adjusting in response to pore formation without causing uncontrolled growth and expansion. By using dynamic membrane tension, membrane electroporation in response to a 180kV/cm trapezoidal pulse with a 10 ns on time and 1.5 ns rise- and fall-times is discussed. Poration is predicted to occur at times beyond the peak at around 9.2 ns. Modeling also yields time-dependent distributions of the membrane pore population after multiple pulses. It shows that the pore distribution shifts to larger values of the radius with multiple pulsing. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are also carried out for a fixed field of 0.5 V/nm to demonstrate nanopore formation from a microscopic point of view. The result shows that the pore is predicted to be about 0.9 nm in diameter and somewhat narrower at the central point.

Keywords: high-intensity, nanosecond, dynamics, electroporation

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Authors: Ivna Mororó, Lise P. Labéjof, Stephanie Ribeiro, Kely Almeida

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Lipid droplets (LDs) are normally presented in greater or lesser number in the cytoplasm of almost all eukaryotic and some prokaryotic cells. They are independent organelles composed of a lipid ester core and a surface phospholipid monolayer. As a lipid storage form, they provide an available source of energy for the cell. Recently it was demonstrated that they play an important role in other many cellular processes. Among the many unresolved questions about them, it is not even known how LDs is formed, how lipids are recruited to LDs and how they interact with the other organelles. Excess fat in the organism is pathological and often associated with the development of some genetic, hormonal or behavioral diseases. The formation and accumulation of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm can be increased by exogenous physical or chemical agents. It is well known that ionizing radiation affects lipid metabolism resulting in increased lipogenesis in cells, but the details of this process are unknown. To better understand the mode of formation of LDs in liver cells, we investigate their ultrastructural morphology after irradiation. For that, Wistar rats were exposed to whole body gamma radiation from 60-cobalt at various single doses. Samples of the livers were processed for analysis under a conventional transmission electron microscope. We found that when compared to controls, morphological changes in liver cells were evident at the higher doses of radiation used. It was detected a great number of lipid droplets of different sizes and homogeneous content and some of them merged each other. In some cells, it was observed diffused LDs, not limited by a monolayer of phospholipids. This finding suggests that the phospholipid monolayer of the LDs was disrupted by ionizing radiation exposure that promotes lipid peroxydation of endo membranes. Thus the absence of the phospholipid monolayer may prevent the realization of some cellular activities as follow: - lipid exocytosis which requires the merging of LDs membrane with the plasma membrane; - the interaction of LDs with other membrane-bound organelles such as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the golgi and mitochondria and; - lipolysis of lipid esters contained in the LDs which requires the presence of enzymes located in membrane-bound organelles as ER. All these impediments can contribute to lipid accumulation in the cytoplasm and the development of diseases such as liver steatosis, cirrhosis and cancer.

Keywords: radiobiology, hepatocytes, lipid metabolism, transmission electron microscopy

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Authors: Khamdan Cahyari, Pratikno Hidayat

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Indonesia has produced more than 1.8 million ton pineapple fruit in 2013 of which turned into waste due to industrial processing, deterioration and low qualities. It was estimated that this waste accounted for more than 40 percent of harvested fruits. In addition, pineapple leaves were one of biomass waste from pineapple farming land, which contributed even higher percentages. Most of the waste was only dumped into landfill area without proper pretreatment causing severe environmental problem. This research was meant to valorize the pineapple waste for producing renewable energy source of biogas through mesophilic (30℃) anaerobic digestion process. Especially, it was aimed to investigate effect of substrate concentration of pineapple fruit waste i.e. peel, core as well as effect of microwave pretreatment of pineapple leaves waste. The concentration of substrate was set at value 12, 24 and 36 g VS/liter culture whereas 800-Watt microwave pretreatment conducted at 2 and 5 minutes. It was noticed that optimum biogas production obtained at concentration 24 g VS/l with biogas yield 0.649 liter/g VS (45%v CH4) whereas microwave pretreatment at 2 minutes duration performed better compare to 5 minutes due to shorter exposure of microwave heat. This results suggested that valorization of pineapple waste could be carried out through biogas production at the aforementioned process condition. Application of this method is able to both reduce the environmental problem of the waste and produce renewable energy source of biogas to fulfill local energy demand of pineapple farming areas.

Keywords: pineapple waste, substrate concentration, microwave pretreatment, biogas, anaerobic digestion

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Authors: Zhang Zijian

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Nowadays, spherical robots have played an important role in many fields, but the insufficient ability of obstacle surmounting limits their wider application fields. To solve this problem, a jumping system of a spherical robot is designed based on Archimedes helix. The jumping system of the robot utilizes the characteristics of Archimedes helix and isovelocity helix to achieve constant speed and stable contraction, which ensures the stability of the system. Also, the jumping action of the robot is realized by instantaneous release of elastic potential energy. In order to verify the effectiveness of the jumping system, we designed a spherical robot and its jumping system. The experimental results show that the jumping system has the advantages of light weight, small size, high energy conversion efficiency, and can realize the spherical jumping function.

Keywords: hopping mechanism, Archimedes' Helix, hopping robot, spherical robot

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Authors: Bakhtiar Azadbakht, Karim Adinehvand, Amin Sahebnasagh

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate dependence of PAGAT polymer gel dosimeter 1/T2 on different electron and photon energies as well as on different mean dose rates for a standard clinically used Co-60 therapy unit and an ELECTA linear accelerator. A multi echo sequence with 32 equidistant echoes was used for the evaluation of irradiated polymer gel dosimeters. The optimal post-manufacture irradiation and post imaging times were both determined to be one day. The sensitivity of PAGAT polymer gel dosimeter with irradiation of photon and electron beams was represented by the slope of calibration curve in the linear region measured for each modality. The response of PAGAT gel with photon and electron beams is very similar in the lower dose region. The R2-dose response was linear up to 30Gy. In electron beams the R2-dose response for doses less than 3Gy is not exact, but in photon beams the R2-dose response for doses less than 2Gy is not exact. Dosimeter energy dependence was studied for electron energies of 4, 12 and 18MeV and photon energies of 1.25, 4, 6 and 18MV. Dose rate dependence was studied in 6MeV electron beam and 6MV photon beam with the use of dose rates 80, 160, 240, 320, 400, and 480cGy/min. Evaluation of dosimeters were performed on Siemens Symphony, Germany 1.5T Scanner in the head coil. In this study no trend in polymer-gel dosimeter 1/T2 dependence was found on mean dose rate and energy for electron and photon beams.

Keywords: polymer gels, PAGAT gel, electron and photon beams, MRI

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Authors: Nadia Allouache, Omar Rahli

Abstract:

Many promising technologies have been developed to harness the sun's energy. These technologies help in economizing energy and environmental protection. The solar refrigerating systems are one of these important technologies. In addition to environmental benefits and energy saving, adsorption refrigerating systems have many advantages such as lack of moving parts, simplicity of construction and low operating costs. The work aimed to establish the main factors that affect the performances of an adsorption refrigerating system using different geometries of adsorbers and different adsorbent-adsorbate pairs. The numerical modeling of the heat and mass transfer in the system, using various working pairs, such as: activated carbon-ammonia, calcium chlorid-ammonia, activated carbon fiber- methanol and activated carbon AC35-methanol, show that the adsorber design can influence the system performances; The thermal performances of system are better in the annular configuration case. An optimal value of generating temperature is observed in annular adsorber case for which the thermal performance of the cooling system is maximal. While in the plate adsorber, above a certain value of generating temperature, the performance of the system remains almost constant. The environmental conditions such as solar radiation and pressure have a great influence in the system efficiency, and the choice of the working pair depends on the environmental conditions and the geometry of the adsorber.

Keywords: adsorber geometry, numerical modeling, optimal environmental conditions, working pairs.

Procedia PDF Downloads 75