Search results for: multi junction solar cells

Authors: Pengfei Meng, Shuangcheng Jia, Qian Li

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We proposed a real-time high-precision semantic segmentation network based on a multi-resolution feature fusion module, the auxiliary feature extracting module, upsampling module, and atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module. We designed a feature fusion structure, which is integrated with sufficient features of different resolutions. We also studied the effect of side-branch structure on the network and made discoveries. Based on the discoveries about the side-branch of the network structure, we used a side-branch auxiliary feature extraction layer in the network to improve the effectiveness of the network. We also designed upsampling module, which has better results than the original upsampling module. In addition, we also re-considered the locations and number of atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) modules and modified the network structure according to the experimental results to further improve the effectiveness of the network. The network presented in this paper takes the backbone network of Bisenetv2 as a basic network, based on which we constructed a network structure on which we made improvements. We named this network deep multiple-resolution bilateral networks for real-time, referred to as DMBR-Net. After experimental testing, our proposed DMBR-Net network achieved 81.2% mIoU at 119FPS on the Cityscapes validation dataset, 80.7% mIoU at 109FPS on the CamVid test dataset, 29.9% mIoU at 78FPS on the COCOStuff test dataset. Compared with all lightweight real-time semantic segmentation networks, our network achieves the highest accuracy at an appropriate speed.

Keywords: multi-resolution feature fusion, atrous convolutional, bilateral networks, pyramid pooling

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Authors: Yung-Gi Chen, Pei-Leun Kang, Yu-Hsin Lin, Shwu-Jen Chang

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Myocardial tissue has limited self-repair ability due to its loss of differentiation characteristic for most mature cardiomyocytes. Therefore, the effective use of stem cell technology in regenerative medicine is an important development to alleviate the current difficulties in cardiac disease treatment. The main purpose of this project was to develop a 3-D hydrogel electrical stimulating system for promoting the differentiation of stem cells into myocardial cells, and the patch will be used to repair damaged myocardial tissue. This project was focused on the preparation of the electrical stimulation system with carbon/CaCl₂ electrodes covered with carbon nanotube-hydrogel. In this study, we utilized screen imprinting techniques and used Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)(PLGA) membranes as printing substrates to fabricate a carbon/CaCl₂ interdigitated electrode that covered with alginate/carbon nanotube hydrogels. The single-walled carbon nanotube was added in the hydrogel to enhance the mechanical strength and conductivity of hydrogel. In this study, we used PLGA (85:15) as electrode preparing substrate. The CaCl₂/ EtOH solution (80% w/v) was mixed into carbon paste to prepare various concentration calcium-containing carbon paste (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10% v/v). Different concentrations of alginate (1%, 1.5%, 2% v/v) and SWCNT(Diameter < 2nm, length between 5-15μm) (1, 1.5, 3 mg/ml) are gently immobilized on the electrode by cross-linking with calcium chloride. The three-dimensional hydrogel electrode was tested for its redox efficiency by cyclic voltammetry to determine the optimal parameters for the hydrogel electrode preparation. From the result of the final electrodes, it indicated that the electrode was not easy to maintain the pattern of the interdigitated electrode when the concentration of calcium of chloride was more than 10%. According to the gel rate test and cyclic voltammetry experiment results showed the SWCNT could increase the electron conduction of hydrogel electrodes significantly. So far the 3D electrode system has been completed, 2% alginate mixed with 3mg SWCNT is the optimal condition to construct the most complete structure for the hydrogel preparation.

Keywords: myocardial tissue engineering, screen printing technology, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), alginate, single walled carbon nanotube

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Authors: Soad Abokhamis Mousavi

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The Trombe wall is an ancient technique that continues to serve as an effective feature of a passive solar system. However, in practice, architects and their clients are not opting for the Trombe wall because of the view of the Trombe wall on the facades of the buildings. Therefore, this study has two main goals, and one of the goals is to find out why the Trombe wall is not considered in the buildings in the Mediterranean region. And the second goal is to find a solution to facilitate the societal acceptance of the Trombe walls in buildings. To cover the goals, the present work attempts to develop and design a different Trombe Wall with different Materials and views in the facades of the buildings. A qualitative data method was used in this article. The qualitative method was developed based on observation and questionnaires with different clients and expert architects in the selected region. Results indicate that the view of the Trombe wall in the facade of buildings can be used with different designs in order to not affect the beauty of the buildings.

Keywords: trombe wall, societal acceptance, building, energy efficacy

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Authors: P. Renjitha, P. Hari Prakash

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Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is an auditory disorder with normal cochlear outer hair cell function and disrupted auditory nerve function. It results in unique clinical characteristic with absent auditory brainstem response (ABR), absent acoustic reflex and the presence of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and cochlear microphonics. The lesion site could be at cochlear inner hair cells, the synapse between the inner hair cells and type I auditory nerve fibers, and/or the auditory nerve itself. But the literatures on synchrony at higher auditory system are sporadic and are less understood. It might be interesting to see if there is a recovery of neural synchrony at higher auditory centers. Also, does the level at which the auditory system recovers with adequate synchrony to the extent of observable evoke response potentials (ERPs) can predict speech perception? In the current study, eight ANSD participants and healthy controls underwent detailed audiological assessment including ABR, auditory middle latency response (AMLR), and auditory late latency response (ALLR). AMLR was recorded for clicks and ALLR was evoked using 500Hz and 2 kHz tone bursts. Analysis revealed that the participant could be categorized into three groups. Group I (2/8) where ALLR was present only for 2kHz tone burst. Group II (4/8), where AMLR was absent and ALLR was seen for both the stimuli. Group III (2/8) consisted individuals with identifiable AMLR and ALLR for all the stimuli. The highest speech identification sore observed in ANSD group was 30% and hence considered having poor speech perception. Overall test result indicates that the site of neural synchrony recovery could be varying across individuals with ANSD. Some individuals show recovery of neural synchrony at the thalamocortical level while others show the same only at the cortical level. Within ALLR itself there could be variation across stimuli again could be related to neural synchrony. Nevertheless, none of these patterns could possible explain the speech perception ability of the individuals. Hence, it could be concluded that neural synchrony as measured by evoked potentials could not be a good clinical predictor speech perception.

Keywords: auditory late latency response, auditory middle latency response, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, correlation with speech identification score

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Authors: Amiya Kumar Pati, Spandan Sahu, Kishanjit Kumar Khatua

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River is our main source of water which is a form of open channel flow and the flow in the open channel provides with many complex phenomena of sciences that needs to be tackled such as the critical flow conditions, boundary shear stress, and depth-averaged velocity. The development of society, more or less solely depends upon the flow of rivers. The rivers are major sources of many sediments and specific ingredients which are much essential for human beings. A river flow consisting of small and shallow channels sometimes divide and recombine numerous times because of the slow water flow or the built up sediments. The pattern formed during this process resembles the strands of a braid. Braided streams form where the sediment load is so heavy that some of the sediments are deposited as shifting islands. Braided rivers often exist near the mountainous regions and typically carry coarse-grained and heterogeneous sediments down a fairly steep gradient. In this paper, the apparent shear stress formulae were suitably modified, and the Energy Concept Method (ECM) was applied for the prediction of discharges at the junction of a two-flow braided compound channel. The Energy Concept Method has not been applied for estimating the discharges in the braided channels. The energy loss in the channels is analyzed based on mechanical analysis. The cross-section of channel is divided into two sub-areas, namely the main-channel below the bank-full level and region above the bank-full level for estimating the total discharge. The experimental data are compared with a wide range of theoretical data available in the published literature to verify this model. The accuracy of this approach is also compared with Divided Channel Method (DCM). From error analysis of this method, it is observed that the relative error is less for the data-sets having smooth floodplains when compared to rough floodplains. Comparisons with other models indicate that the present method has reasonable accuracy for engineering purposes.

Keywords: critical flow, energy concept, open channel flow, sediment, two-flow braided compound channel

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Authors: Shamim Mushtaq, Moazzam Shahid

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Breast cancer (BC) claims the lives of half a million women every year and is the most common cause of death in the developing world. In 2019, it was estimated that BC alone accounts for 15% of all cancer deaths in younger women (aged < 45 years old) with advanced-stage lung metastasis. According to the World Health Organization & International Union against Cancer, in Asia, a high number of cancer-related deaths will be observed in 2020, whereas the burden will be reduced in Western countries due to awareness about the disease, better health facilities and advanced treatments. In the last 15 years, it has been reported that the incidence of BC has increased by 1.1% among Asian compared to the US population from 2003 to 2012. To date, several BC biological subtypes have been reported so far, which are associated with different treatment responses. The heterogeneity and diversity of BC reflected these different subtypes, including Luminal A (23.7% prevalence) and B (38.8% prevalence) that have pathological estrogen receptor (ER+)-positive tumors, the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) (11.2% prevalence) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (25% prevalence). According to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre – Pakistan, ten years of data showed that among 636 BC patients, 30.5% had TNBC who were <40 years of age, which is an extremely alarming situation. Therefore, there is a dire need to explore and develop therapeutic targets for the treatment of early TNBC. Since the last decade, unfortunately, there has been little success in understanding the complexity of TNBC and in discovering new biological therapeutic targets. However, conventional chemotherapy is the only choice of treatment for TNBC patients. Many investigators revealed advances in multi-omics (multiple "omes", e.g., genome, proteome, transcriptome, epigenome, and microbiome) which were later identified as actionable targets and increased prevalence in TNBC patients. However, various drugs have been identified so far which are related to a particular diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. For example, Epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR or ErbB-1), HER-2/neu (ErbB-2), HER-3 (ErbB-3), and HER-4 (ErbB-4). Protein Transglin-2 (TAGLN 2 ) and Profilins-1 (Pfn-1 ) are the ubiquitously expressed large family of proteins present in all eukaryotes, enabling actin cytoskeletal reorganization. It is known that the oncogenic transformation of cells is accompanied by alteration in the actin cytoskeleton. There are causal connections between altered expression of actin cytoskeletal regulators and cancer progression. Our case-control study identified TAGLN-2 and Pfn-1 proteins in TNBC blood by mass spectrometry. Both TAGLN-2 and Pfn-1 proteins are differentially expressed in early and advanced stages of TNBS patients, which could be potential predictors or therapeutic targets for TNBC.

Keywords: TNBC, blood biomarkers, mass spectrometry, qPCR, ELISA

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Authors: Neha Farid

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Due to the abuse of antimicrobial medications in animal feed, the occurrence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens in foods is currently a growing public health concern on a global scale. MDR infections have the potential to penetrate the food chain by posing a serious risk to both consumers and animals. Food pathogens are those biological agents that have the tendency to cause pathogenicity in the host body upon ingestion. The major reservoirs of foodborne pathogens include food-producing fauna like cows, pigs, goats, sheep, deer, etc. The intestines of these animals are highly condensed with several different types of food pathogens. Bacterial food pathogens are the main cause of foodborne disease in humans; almost 66% of the reported cases of food illness in a year are caused by the infestation of bacterial food pathogens. When ingested, these pathogens reproduce and survive or form different kinds of toxins inside host cells causing severe infections. The genus Listeria consists of gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria. The disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes is listeriosis or gastroenteritis, which induces fever, vomiting, and severe diarrhea in the affected body. Campylobacter jejuni is a gram-negative, curved-rod-shaped bacteria causing foodborne illness. The major source of Campylobacter jejuni is livestock and poultry; particularly, chicken is highly colonized with Campylobacter jejuni. Serious public health concerns include the widespread growth of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and the slowing in the discovery of new classes of medicines. The objective of this study is to provide some potential antibacterial activities with certain broad-range antibiotics and our desired bacteriocins, i.e., Enterococcus faecium from specific strains preventing microbial contamination pathways in order to safeguard the food by lowering food deterioration, contamination, and foodborne illnesses. The food pathogens were isolated from various sources of dairy products and meat samples. The isolates were tested for the presence of Listeria and Campylobacter by gram staining and biochemical testing. They were further sub-cultured on selective media enriched with the growth supplements for Listeria and Campylobacter. All six strains of Listeria and Campylobacter were tested against ten antibiotics. Campylobacter strains showed resistance against all the antibiotics, whereas Listeria was found to be resistant only against Nalidixic Acid and Erythromycin. Further, the strains were tested against the two bacteriocins isolated from Enterococcus faecium. It was found that bacteriocins showed better antimicrobial activity against food pathogens. They can be used as a potential antimicrobial for food preservation. Thus, the study concluded that natural antimicrobials could be used as alternatives to synthetic antimicrobials to overcome the problem of food spoilage and severe food diseases.

Keywords: food pathogens, listeria, campylobacter, antibiotics, bacteriocins

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Authors: Giorgi Goguadze, Jakub Zajączkowski

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This paper is written due to overview the connection between fragile states and non-state actors, we should take into account that fragile states may vary from weak, failing and failed. In this paper we will discuss about two countries, one of them is weak (Colombia/ second one is already failed- Somalia. We will try to understand what feeds ill non-state actors such as: terrorist organizations, criminal entities and other cells in these countries, what threats are they representing and how to eliminate these dangers in both national and international scope. This paper is mainly based on literature overview and personal attitude and doesn’t claim to be in scientific chain.

Keywords: fragile States, terrorism, tribalism, Somalia

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Authors: Mehrdad Rezaei, Reza Haghmaram, Nima Amjadi

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This paper proposes an operating and cost optimization model for micro-grid (MG). This model takes into account emission costs of NOx, SO2, and CO2, together with the operation and maintenance costs. Wind turbines (WT), photovoltaic (PV) arrays, micro turbines (MT), fuel cells (FC), diesel engine generators (DEG) with different capacities are considered in this model. The aim of the optimization is minimizing operation cost according to constraints, supply demand and safety of the system. The proposed genetic algorithm (GA), with the ability to fine-tune its own settings, is used to optimize the micro-grid operation.

Keywords: micro-grid, optimization, genetic algorithm, MG

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Authors: Mohammed Sherzad

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The absorbedness of solar radiation within the concrete building is higher than other buildings type, especially in hot climate zones. However, one of the primary issues of architects and the owners in hot climate zones is the building’s exterior plastered and painted finishing which is commonly used are fading and peeling adding a high cost on maintenance. Case studies of different exterior finishing’ treatments used in vernacular and contemporary dwellings in the United Arab Emirates were surveyed. The traditional plastered façade treatment was more sustainable than new buildings. In addition, using precast concrete insulated sandwich panels with the exposed colored aggregate surface in contemporary designed dwellings sustained the extensive heat reducing the overall cost of maintenance and contributed aesthetically to the buildings’ envelope in addition to its thermal insulation property.

Keywords: precast concrete panels, façade treatment, hot climate

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Authors: Bassam O AlJohny

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The growth of Bacillus aquimaris was inhibited from 6 - 20 % of NaCl but it showed some tolerance when Diatomaceous earth (DE) added from 2 - 12% NaCl. Concerning the effect of NaCl on polyol production, we can conclude that, the test bacterium showed some tolerance to NaCl by producing glycerol up to 8 % of NaCl. Then decreased sharply. The addition of DE decrease the amount of polyol and glycerol remarkably and this due to the productive effect of DE to the bacterial cells. The SEM figures represented the presence of electron dense bodies due to the accumulation of small particles of DE as protective molecules.

Keywords: Bacillus aquimaris, Diatomaceous earth (DE), osmoticstress, sodium chloride

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Authors: Adam N. Bell, Sarina J. Ergas, Michael Nystrom, Nathan P. Brennan, Kevan L. Main

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Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture systems (IMTA) have the potential to improve the sustainability of seafood production, generate organic fertilizer and feed, remove waste discharges and reduce energy use. IMTA can include periphyton biofilters where algae and microbes grow on surfaces, along with caught detritus and amphipods. Periphyton biofilters provide many advantages: nitrification, denitrification, primary production and ecological diversity. The goal of this study was to determine how biofilter hydraulic residence time (τ) effects periphyton biomass production, dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrient removal. A pilot scale recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) was designed, constructed and operated at different hydraulic residence times (τ= 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 hours per tank). For each τ, a conservative tracer study was conducted to investigate system hydrodynamics. Data on periphyton weights, pH, nitrogen species, phosphorus, temperature and DO were collected. The tracer study for τ =1 hour revealed that the normalized time < τ, indicating short-circuiting. Periphyton biomass production rate was relatively unaffected by τ (R_e<1 for all τ). Average ammonia nitrogen removal was > 75% for all trials. Nitrate and nitrite did not accumulate in the RAS for τ≥4 hours due to enhanced denitrification in anoxic zones. For τ≥4 hours DO concentration was at a maximum of 4 mg L-1 after 14:00, and decreased to 0 mg L-1 during nighttime. At τ=1 hour, the RAS stayed > 2 mg L-1 and DO was more evenly distributed. For the validation trial, the culture tank was stocked with Centropomus undecimalis (common snook) and the system was operated at τ= 1 hr. Preliminary results showed that a RAS with an integrated periphyton biofilter could support fish health with low nutrient concentrations DO > 6 mg L-1.

Keywords: sustainable aquaculture, resource recovery, nitrogen, microalgae, hydrodynamics, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture

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Authors: Evgeniya Y. Yuzbasheva, Tigran V. Yuzbashev, Natalia I. Perkovskaya, Elizaveta B. Mostova

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Cell-surface display of lipase is of great interest as it has many applications in the field of biotechnology owing to its unique advantages: simplified product purification, and cost-effective downstream processing. One promising area of application for whole-cell biocatalysts with surface displayed lipase is biodiesel synthesis. Biodiesel is biodegradable, renewable, and nontoxic alternative fuel for diesel engines. Although the alkaline catalysis method has been widely used for biodiesel production, it has a number of limitations, such as rigorous feedstock specifications, complicated downstream processes, including removal of inorganic salts from the product, recovery of the salt-containing by-product glycerol, and treatment of alkaline wastewater. Enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel can overcome these drawbacks. In this study, Lip2p lipase was displayed on Yarrowia lipolytica cells via C- and N-terminal fusion variant. The active site of lipase is located near the C-terminus, therefore to prevent the activity loosing the insertion of glycine-serine linker between Lip2p and C-domains was performed. The hydrolytic activity of the displayed lipase reached 12,000–18,000 U/g of dry weight. However, leakage of enzyme from the cell wall was observed. In case of C-terminal fusion variant, the leakage was occurred due to the proteolytic cleavage within the linker peptide. In case of N-terminal fusion variant, the leaking enzyme was presented as three proteins, one of which corresponded to the whole hybrid protein. The calculated number of recombinant enzyme displayed on the cell surface is approximately 6–9 × 105 molecules per cell, which is close to the theoretical maximum (2 × 106 molecules/cell). Thus, we attribute the enzyme leakage to the limited space available on the cell surface. Nevertheless, cell-bound lipase exhibited greater stability to short-term and long-term temperature treatment than the native enzyme. It retained 74% of original activity at 60°C for 5 min of incubation, and 83% of original activity after incubation at 50°C during 5 h. Cell-bound lipase had also higher stability in organic solvents and detergents. The developed whole-cell biocatalyst was used for recycling biodiesel synthesis. Two repeated cycles of methanolysis yielded 84.1–% and 71.0–% methyl esters after 33–h and 45–h reactions, respectively.

Keywords: biodiesel, cell-surface display, lipase, whole-cell biocatalyst

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Authors: Julian David Hunt, Andreas Nascimento

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Green hydrogen is the most environmental, renewable alternative to produce hydrogen. However, an important challenge to make hydrogen a competitive energy carrier is a constant supply of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and hydropower. Given that the electricity generation potential of these sources vary seasonally and interannually, this paper proposes installing an electrolysis hydrogen production plant in a ship and move the ship to the locations where electricity is cheap, or where the seasonal potential for renewable generation is high. An example of electrolysis ship application is to produce green hydrogen with hydropower from the North region of Brazil and then sail to the Northeast region of Brazil and generate hydrogen using excess electricity from offshore wind power. The electrolysis ship concept is interesting because it has the flexibility to produce green hydrogen using the cheapest renewable electricity available in the market.

Keywords: green hydrogen, electrolysis ship, renewable energies, seasonal variations

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Authors: Yu-Hsuan Chang, Jian-Hao Su, Chen-Yu Chen, Wei-Mon Yan

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In this work, the experimental measurement was applied to examine the membrane type and flow field design on the performance of a planar membrane humidifier. The performance indexes were used to evaluate the planar membrane humidifier. The performance indexes of the membrane humidifier include the dew point approach temperature (DPAT), water recovery ratio (WRR), water flux (J) and pressure loss (P). The experiments contain mainly three parts. In the first part, a single membrane humidifier was tested using different flow field under different dry-inlet temperatures. The measured results show that the dew point approach temperature decreases with increasing the depth of flow channel at the same width of flow channel. However, the WRR and J reduce with an increase in the dry air-inlet temperature. The pressure loss tests indicate that pressure loss decreases with increasing the hydraulic diameter of flow channel, resulting from an increase in Darcy friction. Owing to the comparison of humidifier performances and pressure losses, the flow channel of width W=1 and height H=1.5 was selected as the channel design of the multi-membrane humidifier in the second part of experiment. In the second part, the multi-membrane humidifier was used to evaluate the humidification performance under different relative humidity and flow rates. The measurement results indicate that the humidifier at both lower temperature and relative humidity of inlet dry air have higher DPAT but lower J and WRR. In addition, the counter flow approach has better mass and heat transfer performance than the parallel flow approach. Moreover, the effects of dry air temperature, relative humidity and humidification approach are not significant to the pressure loss in the planar membrane humidifier. For the third part, different membranes were tested in this work in order to find out which kind membrane is appropriate for humidifier.

Keywords: water management, planar membrane humidifier, heat and mass transfer, pressure loss, PEM fuel cell

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Authors: Bryan M. Baltazar, Marjorie V. Remolador, Klathea H. Sevilla, Imee Saladaga, Loureal Camille Inocencio, Ma. Rosario Concepcion O. Ang

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Biomass energy is a traditional source of sustainable energy, which has been widely used in developing countries. The Philippines, specifically Central Luzon, has an abundant source of biomass. Hence, it could supply abundant agricultural residues (rice husks), as feedstock in a biomass power plant. However, locating a potential site for biomass development is a complex process which involves different factors, such as physical, environmental, socio-economic, and risks that are usually diverse and conflicting. Moreover, biomass distribution is highly dispersed geographically. Thus, this study develops an integrated method combining Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and methods for energy planning; Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), for locating suitable site for biomass power plant development in Central Luzon, Philippines by considering different constraints and factors. Using MCDA, a three level hierarchy of factors and constraints was produced, with corresponding weights determined by experts by using AHP. Applying the results, a suitability map for Biomass power plant development in Central Luzon was generated. It showed that the central part of the region has the highest potential for biomass power plant development. It is because of the characteristics of the area such as the abundance of rice fields, with generally flat land surfaces, accessible roads and grid networks, and low risks to flooding and landslide. This study recommends the use of higher accuracy resource maps, and further analysis in selecting the optimum site for biomass power plant development that would account for the cost and transportation of biomass residues.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, biomass energy, GIS, multi-criteria decision analysis, site suitability analysis

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Authors: Cotran Mabeya

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This focuses on an artificially intelligent telemedicine application that aims to enrich the access to health care services, especially for those who live in remote and underserved areas. This app is highly packed with very advanced AI technologies—symptom checkers and virtual consultations—as well as health data integration for very efficient and user-friendly remote health support with main features: AI-based diagnostics, real-time health monitoring through wearables, and an intuitive interface. The Telemedicine Application tries too hard to address some of the healthcare problems, such as limited access in remote areas, high costs, lengthy wait times for certain services, as well as difficulty in getting second opinions. By making it friendlier for consultation remotely, the application removes geographic and financial barriers to accessing affordable and timely medical care. In addition, by having centralized patient records and communication between healthcare providers, it allows continuity of care by making it easier to transition to treatment. It has been confirmed that this multi-design approach incorporated both quantitative and qualitative designs to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of artificial intelligence and telemedicine on patients in Nairobi County. Adults made up the target population, while informers and respondents were categorized into patients, healthcare providers, and specialists in law, IT, and AI. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to ensure diversely inclusive representation to enhance accuracy and triangulation in the data collected. Moreover, the study provides several recommendations, which include regular updating accuracy of AI symptom checkers, improving data security through encryption and multi-factor authentication, as well as real-time health data integration from bodily wearables for personal healthcare

Keywords: artificial intelligence, virtual consultations, user-friendly, remote areas

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Authors: Mina Malak Zakaria Henin

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The finite detail evaluation of magnetic fields in electromagnetic devices shows that the machine cores revel in extraordinary flux patterns consisting of alternating and rotating fields. The rotating fields are generated in different configurations variety, among circular and elliptical, with distinctive ratios between the fundamental and minor axes of the flux locus. Experimental measurements on electrical metal uncovered one-of-a-kind flux patterns that divulge distinctive magnetic losses in the samples below the test. Therefore, electric machines require unique interest throughout the core loss calculation technique to bear in mind the flux styles. In this look, a circular rotational unmarried sheet tester is employed to measure the middle losses in the electric-powered metallic pattern of M36G29. The sample becomes exposed to alternating fields, circular areas, and elliptical fields with axis ratios of zero.2, zero. Four, 0.6 and 0.8. The measured statistics changed into applied on 6-4 switched reluctance motors at 3 distinctive frequencies of interest to the industry 60 Hz, 400 Hz, and 1 kHz. The effects reveal an excessive margin of error, which can arise at some point in the loss calculations if the flux pattern difficulty is overlooked. The mistake in exceptional components of the gadget associated with considering the flux styles may be around 50%, 10%, and a couple of at 60Hz, 400Hz, and 1 kHz, respectively. The future paintings will focus on the optimization of gadget geometrical shape, which has a primary effect on the flux sample on the way to decrease the magnetic losses in system cores.

Keywords: converters, electric machines, MEA (more electric aircraft), PES (power electronics systems) synchronous machine, vector control Multi-machine/ Multi-inverter, matrix inverter, Railway tractionalternating core losses, finite element analysis, rotational core losses

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Authors: Ufuk Tosun, Reza Aghazadeh, Mehmet Bülent Özer

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This study puts forward a method to analyze the sloshing characteristics of liquid in a tuned sloshing absorber system by using image processing tools. Tuned sloshing vibration absorbers have recently attracted researchers’ attention as a seismic load damper in constructions due to its practical and logistical convenience. The absorber is liquid which sloshes and applies a force in opposite phase to the motion of structure. Experimentally characterization of the sloshing behavior can be utilized as means of verifying the results of numerical analysis. It can also be used to identify the accuracy of assumptions related to the motion of the liquid. There are extensive theoretical and experimental studies in the literature related to the dynamical and structural behavior of tuned sloshing dampers. In most of these works there are efforts to estimate the sloshing behavior of the liquid such as free surface motion and total force applied by liquid to the wall of container. For these purposes the use of sensors such as load cells and ultrasonic sensors are prevalent in experimental works. Load cells are only capable of measuring the force and requires conducting tests both with and without liquid to obtain pure sloshing force. Ultrasonic level sensors give point-wise measurements and hence they are not applicable to measure the whole free surface motion. Furthermore, in the case of liquid splashing it may give incorrect data. In this work a method for evaluating the sloshing wave height by using camera records and image processing techniques is presented. In this method the motion of the liquid and its container, made of a transparent material, is recorded by a high speed camera which is aligned to the free surface of the liquid. The video captured by the camera is processed frame by frame by using MATLAB Image Processing toolbox. The process starts with cropping the desired region. By recognizing the regions containing liquid and eliminating noise and liquid splashing, the final picture depicting the free surface of liquid is achieved. This picture then is used to obtain the height of the liquid through the length of container. This process is verified by ultrasonic sensors that measured fluid height on the surface of liquid.

Keywords: fluid structure interaction, image processing, sloshing, tuned liquid damper

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Authors: Ali Khoshraftar, S. A. Hashemi

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This paper is focused on the advantages of Viscoelastic Dampers (VED) to be used as energy-absorbing devices in buildings. The properties of VED are briefly described. The analytical studies of the model structures exhibiting the structural response reduction due to these viscoelastic devices are presented. Computer simulation of the damped response of a multi-storey steel frame structure shows significant reduction in floor displacement levels.

Keywords: dampers, seismic evaluation, steel frames, viscoelastic

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Authors: Gulshan Mammadova

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This paper presents the results of studying the surface microrelief in 2D and 3D models and analyzing the spectroscopy of a three-junction TlInSe₂ crystal. Analysis of the results obtained showed that with a change in the composition of the TlInSe₂ crystal, sharp changes occur in the microrelief of its surface. An X-ray optical diffraction analysis of the TlInSe₂ crystal was experimentally carried out. Based on ellipsometric data, optical functions were determined - the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric permittivity of crystals, the coefficients of optical absorption and reflection, the dependence of energy losses and electric field power on the effective density, the spectral dependences of the real (σᵣ) and imaginary (σᵢ) parts, optical electrical conductivity were experimentally studied. The fluorescence spectra of the ternary compound TlInSe₂ were isolated and analyzed when excited by light with a wavelength of 532 nm. X-ray studies of TlInSe₂ showed that this phase crystallizes into tetragonal systems. Ellipsometric measurements showed that the real (ε₁) and imaginary (ε₂) parts of the dielectric constant are components of the dielectric constant tensor of the uniaxial joints under consideration and do not depend on the angle. Analysis of the dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of the TlInSe₂ crystal on photon energy showed that the nature of the change in the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant does not differ significantly. When analyzing the spectral dependences of the real (σr) and imaginary (σi) parts of the optical electrical conductivity, it was noticed that the real part of the optical electrical conductivity increases exponentially in the energy range 0.894-3.505 eV. In the energy range of 0.654-2.91 eV, the imaginary part of the optical electrical conductivity increases linearly, reaches a maximum value, and decreases at an energy of 2.91 eV. At 3.6 eV, an inversion of the imaginary part of the optical electrical conductivity of the TlInSe₂ compound is observed. From the graphs of the effective power density versus electric field energy losses, it is known that the effective power density increases significantly in the energy range of 0.805–3.52 eV. The fluorescence spectrum of the ternary compound TlInSe₂ upon excitation with light with a wavelength of 532 nm has been studied and it has been established that this phase has luminescent properties.

Keywords: optical properties, dielectric permittivity, real and imaginary dielectric permittivity, optical electrical conductivity

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Authors: Nida Iftikhar, Jamaluddin Thaheem, Bilal Iftikhar

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In the construction industry, adequate and effective decision-making can mean the difference between success and failure. Bidding is the most important element of the construction business since it is a mean by which contractors obtain work. This is probably the only option for any contractor firm to sustain in the market and achieve its objective of earning the profits by winning tenders. The capability to select most appropriate ventures not only defines the success and wellbeing of contractor firms but also their survival and sustainability in the industry. The construction practitioners are usually on their own when it comes to deciding on bidding for a project or not. Usually, experience-based solutions are offered where a lot of subjectivity is involved. This research has been opted considering the local construction industry of Pakistan in order to examine the critical success factors from contractors’ perspective while making bidding decisions, listing and evaluating critical factors in order of their importance, categorization of these factors into decision support & decision oppose groups and to develop a framework to help contractors in the decision-making process. Literature review, questionnaires, and structured interviews are used for identification and quantification of factors affecting bid/no bid decision-making. Statistical methods of ranking analysis and analytical hierarchy process of multi-criteria decision-making method are used for analysis. It is found that profitability, need for work and financial health of client are the most decisive factors in bid/no bid decision-making while project size, project type, fulfilling the tender conditions imposed by the client and relationship, identity & reputation of the client are least impact factors in bid/no bid decision-making. Further, to verify the developed framework, case studies have been conducted to evaluate the bid/no bid decision-making in building procurement. This is the first of its nature study in the context of the local construction industry and recommends using a holistic decision-making framework for such business-critical deliberations.

Keywords: bidding, bid decision-making, construction procurement, contractor

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Authors: R. Abd-Rahman, M. M. Isa, H. H. Goh

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A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a well known non-imaging concentrator that will concentrate the solar radiation onto receiver (PV cell). One of disadvantage of CPC is has tall and narrow height compared to its diameter entry aperture area. Therefore, for economic reason, a truncation had been done by removed from the top of the full height CPC. This is also will lead to the decreases of concentration ratio but it will be negligible. In this paper, the flux distribution of untruncated and truncated 2-D hollow compound parabolic trough concentrator (hCPTC) design is presented. The untruncated design has initial height, H=193.4mm with concentration ratio, C_(2-D)=4. This paper presents the optical simulation of compound parabolic trough concentrator using ray-tracing software TracePro. Results showed that, after the truncation, the height of CPC reduced 45% from initial height with the geometrical concentration ratio only decrease 10%. Thus, the cost of reflector and material dielectric usage can be saved especially at manufacturing site.

Keywords: compound parabolic trough concentrator, optical modelling, ray-tracing analysis, improved performance

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Authors: Ewelina Grabowska, Martyna Marchelek

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Among the various semiconductors, nanosized TiO2 has been widely studied due to its high photosensitivity, low cost, low toxicity, and good chemical and thermal stability. However, there are two main drawbacks to the practical application of pure TiO2 films. One is that TiO2 can be induced only by ultraviolet (UV) light due to its intrinsic wide bandgap (3.2 eV for anatase and 3.0 eV for rutile), which limits its practical efficiency for solar energy utilization since UV light makes up only 4-5% of the solar spectrum. The other is that a high electron-hole recombination rate will reduce the photoelectric conversion efficiency of TiO2. In order to overcome the above drawbacks and modify the electronic structure of TiO2, some semiconductors (eg. CdS, ZnO, PbS, Cu2O, Bi2S3, and CdSe) have been used to prepare coupled TiO2 composites, for improving their charge separation efficiency and extending the photoresponse into the visible region. It has been proved that the fabrication of p-n heterostructures by combining n-type TiO2 with p-type semiconductors is an effective way to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of TiO2. SrTiO3 is a good candidate for coupling TiO2 and improving the photocatalytic performance of the photocatalyst because its conduction band edge is more negative than TiO2. Due to the potential differences between the band edges of these two semiconductors, the photogenerated electrons transfer from the conduction band of SrTiO3 to that of TiO2. Conversely, the photogenerated electrons transfer from the conduction band of SrTiO3 to that of TiO2. Then the photogenerated charge carriers can be efficiently separated by these processes, resulting in the enhancement of the photocatalytic property in the photocatalyst. Additionally, one of the methods for improving photocatalyst performance is addition of nanoparticles containing one or two noble metals (Pt, Au, Ag and Pd) deposited on semiconductor surface. The mechanisms were proposed as (1) the surface plasmon resonance of noble metal particles is excited by visible light, facilitating the excitation of the surface electron and interfacial electron transfer (2) some energy levels can be produced in the band gap of TiO2 by the dispersion of noble metal nanoparticles in the TiO2 matrix; (3) noble metal nanoparticles deposited on TiO2 act as electron traps, enhancing the electron–hole separation. In view of this, we recently obtained series of TiO2@SrTiO3 and SrTiO3 photocatalysts loaded with noble metal NPs. using photodeposition method. The M- TiO2@SrTiO3 and M-SrTiO3 photocatalysts (M= Rh, Rt, Pt) were studied for photodegradation of phenol in aqueous phase under UV-Vis and visible irradiation. Moreover, in the second part of our research hydroxyl radical formations were investigated. Fluorescence of irradiated coumarin solution was used as a method of ˙OH radical detection. Coumarin readily reacts with generated hydroxyl radicals forming hydroxycoumarins. Although the major hydroxylation product is 5-hydroxycoumarin, only 7-hydroxyproduct of coumarin hydroxylation emits fluorescent light. Thus, this method was used only for hydroxyl radical detection, but not for determining concentration of hydroxyl radicals.

Keywords: composites TiO2, SrTiO3, photocatalysis, phenol degradation

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Authors: Weiliang Wen, Xinyu Guo, Ying Zhang, Jianjun Du, Boxiang Xiao

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Reconstructing and analyzing three-dimensional (3D) models from situ measured data is important for a number of researches and applications in plant science, including plant phenotyping, functional-structural plant modeling (FSPM), plant germplasm resources protection, agricultural technology popularization. It has many scales like cell, tissue, organ, plant and canopy from micro to macroscopic. The techniques currently used for data capture, feature analysis, and 3D reconstruction are quite different of different scales. In this context, morphological data acquisition, 3D analysis and modeling of plants on different scales are introduced systematically. The commonly used data capture equipment for these multiscale is introduced. Then hot issues and difficulties of different scales are described respectively. Some examples are also given, such as Micron-scale phenotyping quantification and 3D microstructure reconstruction of vascular bundles within maize stalks based on micro-CT scanning, 3D reconstruction of leaf surfaces and feature extraction from point cloud acquired by using 3D handheld scanner, plant modeling by combining parameter driven 3D organ templates. Several application examples by using the 3D models and analysis results of plants are also introduced. A 3D maize canopy was constructed, and light distribution was simulated within the canopy, which was used for the designation of ideal plant type. A grape tree model was constructed from 3D digital and point cloud data, which was used for the production of science content of 11th international conference on grapevine breeding and genetics. By using the tissue models of plants, a Google glass was used to look around visually inside the plant to understand the internal structure of plants. With the development of information technology, 3D data acquisition, and data processing techniques will play a greater role in plant science.

Keywords: plant, three dimensional modeling, multi-scale, plant phenotyping, three dimensional data acquisition

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Authors: Philip Friedlander, John Rutledge, Jason Suh

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Inhibition of programmed death-1 (PD-1) or its ligand PD-L1 confers therapeutic efficacy in a wide range of solid tumor malignancies. Primary or acquired resistance can develop through activation of immunosuppressive immune cells such as tumor-associated macrophages. The renin angiotensin system (RAS) systemically regulates fluid and sodium hemodynamics, but components are expressed on and regulate the activity of immune cells, particularly of myeloid lineage. We hypothesized that inhibition of RAS would improve the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L-1 treatment. A retrospective analysis was performed through a chart review of patients with solid metastatic malignancies treated with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor between 1/2013 and 6/2019 at Valley Hospital, a community hospital in New Jersey, USA. Efficacy was determined by medical oncologist documentation of clinical benefit in visit notes and by the duration of time on immunotherapy treatment. The primary endpoint was the determination of efficacy differences in patients treated with an inhibitor of RAS ( ace inhibitor, ACEi, or angiotensin blocker, ARB) compared to patients not treated with these inhibitors. To control for broader antihypertensive effects, efficacy as a function of treatment with beta blockers was assessed. 173 patients treated with PD-1/PD-L-1 inhibitors were identified of whom 52 were also treated with an ACEi or ARB. Chi-square testing revealed a statistically significant relationship between being on an ACEi or ARB and efficacy to PD-1/PD-L-1 therapy (p=0.001). No statistically significant relationship was seen between patients taking or not taking beta blocker antihypertensives (p= 0.33). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed statistically significant improvement in the duration of therapy favoring patients concomitantly treated with ACEi or ARB compared to patients not exposed to antihypertensives and to those treated with beta blockers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age, gender, and cancer type did not have significant effects on the odds of experiencing clinical benefit (p=0.74, p=0.75, and p=0.81, respectively). We conclude that retrospective analysis of the treatment of patients with solid metastatic tumors with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in a community setting demonstrates greater clinical benefit in the context of concomitant ACEi or ARB inhibition, irrespective of gender or age. This data supports the development of prospective assessment through randomized clinical trials.

Keywords: angiotensin, cancer, immunotherapy, PD-1, efficacy

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Authors: Debasis Mondal, Chandan Datta, S. K. Sazim

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Quantum coherence is a key resource like entanglement and discord in quantum information theory. Wigner- Yanase skew information, which was shown to be the quantum part of the uncertainty, has recently been projected as an observable measure of quantum coherence. On the other hand, the quantum speed limit has been established as an important notion for developing the ultra-speed quantum computer and communication channel. Here, we show that both of these quantities are related. Thus, cast coherence as a resource to control the speed of quantum communication. In this work, we address three basic and fundamental questions. There have been rigorous attempts to achieve more and tighter evolution time bounds and to generalize them for mixed states. However, we are yet to know (i) what is the ultimate limit of quantum speed? (ii) Can we measure this speed of quantum evolution in the interferometry by measuring a physically realizable quantity? Most of the bounds in the literature are either not measurable in the interference experiments or not tight enough. As a result, cannot be effectively used in the experiments on quantum metrology, quantum thermodynamics, and quantum communication and especially in Unruh effect detection et cetera, where a small fluctuation in a parameter is needed to be detected. Therefore, a search for the tightest yet experimentally realisable bound is a need of the hour. It will be much more interesting if one can relate various properties of the states or operations, such as coherence, asymmetry, dimension, quantum correlations et cetera and QSL. Although, these understandings may help us to control and manipulate the speed of communication, apart from the particular cases like the Josephson junction and multipartite scenario, there has been a little advancement in this direction. Therefore, the third question we ask: (iii) Can we relate such quantities with QSL? In this paper, we address these fundamental questions and show that quantum coherence or asymmetry plays an important role in setting the QSL. An important question in the study of quantum speed limit may be how it behaves under classical mixing and partial elimination of states. This is because this may help us to choose properly a state or evolution operator to control the speed limit. In this paper, we try to address this question and show that the product of the time bound of the evolution and the quantum part of the uncertainty in energy or quantum coherence or asymmetry of the state with respect to the evolution operator decreases under classical mixing and partial elimination of states.

Keywords: completely positive trace preserving maps, quantum coherence, quantum speed limit, Wigner-Yanase Skew information

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Authors: Alok Madan, Arshad K. Hashmi

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The paper presents a plastic analysis procedure based on the energy balance concept for performance based seismic retrofit of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames with a ‘soft’ ground story using passive energy dissipation (PED) devices with the objective of achieving a target performance level of the retrofitted R/C frame for a given seismic hazard level at the building site. The proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure was employed for developing performance based design (PBD) formulations for PED devices for a simulated application in seismic retrofit of existing frame structures designed in compliance with the prevalent standard codes of practice. The PBD formulations developed for PED devices were implemented for simulated seismic retrofit of a representative code-compliant masonry infilled R/C frame with a ‘soft’ ground story using friction dampers as the PED device. Non-linear dynamic analyses of the retrofitted masonry infilled R/C frames is performed to investigate the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure in achieving the target performance level under design level earthquakes. Results of non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrate that the maximum inter-story drifts in the masonry infilled R/C frames with a ‘soft’ ground story that is retrofitted with the friction dampers designed using the proposed PBD formulations are controlled within the target drifts under near-field as well far-field earthquakes.

Keywords: energy methods, masonry infilled frame, near-field earthquakes, seismic protection, supplemental damping devices

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Authors: Abeer N. Alshukairi, Abdulrahman A. Alrajhi, Abdulfattah W. Alamri, Adel F. Alothman

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We described the nosocomial transmission of a pre-XDR or an MDR case of pulmonary tuberculosis in a HIV negative health care worker in an area endemic for MDR & XDR tuberculosis. With inadequate therapy and non-compliance, his strain developed acquired resistance and he presented with extra-pulmonary XDR tuberculosis in the form of multi-focal osteomyelitis and encysted pleural effusion. He was cured after 2 years of therapy with various anti-tuberculous drugs in addition to interferon gamma.

Keywords: osteomyelitis, treatment, XDR tuberculosis, successful treatment

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Authors: Mehdi Khaki, Ehsan Forootan, Joseph Awange, Michael Kuhn

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Terrestrial water storage, as a source of freshwater, plays an important role in human lives. Hydrological models offer important tools for simulating and predicting water storages at global and regional scales. However, their comparisons with 'reality' are imperfect mainly due to a high level of uncertainty in input data and limitations in accounting for all complex water cycle processes, uncertainties of (unknown) empirical model parameters, as well as the absence of high resolution (both spatially and temporally) data. Data assimilation can mitigate this drawback by incorporating new sets of observations into models. In this effort, we use multi-mission satellite-derived remotely sensed observations to improve the performance of World-Wide Water Resources Assessment system (W3RA) hydrological model for estimating terrestrial water storages. For this purpose, we assimilate total water storage (TWS) data from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and surface soil moisture data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) into W3RA. This is done to (i) improve model estimations of water stored in ground and soil moisture, and (ii) assess the impacts of each satellite of data (from GRACE and AMSR-E) and their combination on the final terrestrial water storage estimations. These data are assimilated into W3RA using the Ensemble Square-Root Filter (EnSRF) filtering technique over Mississippi Basin (the United States) and Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) between 2002 and 2013. In order to evaluate the results, independent ground-based groundwater and soil moisture measurements within each basin are used.

Keywords: data assimilation, GRACE, AMSR-E, hydrological model, EnSRF

Procedia PDF Downloads 291