Search results for: Spin Generated Forces

Authors: Maria Miranda-Medina, Sara Salopek, Andras Vernes, Martin Jech

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Sliding lubricated surfaces induce the formation of tribofilms that reduce friction, wear and prevent large-scale damage of contact parts. Engine oils and lubricants use antiwear and antioxidant additives such as zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) from where protective tribofilms are formed by degradation. The ZDDP tribofilms are described as a two-layer structure composed of inorganic polymer material. On the top surface, the long chain polyphosphate is a zinc phosphate and in the bulk, the short chain polyphosphate is a mixed Fe/Zn phosphate with a gradient concentration. The polyphosphate chains are partially adherent to steel surface through a sulfide and work as anti-wear pads. In this contribution, ZDDP tribofilms formed on gray cast iron surfaces are studied. The tribofilms were generated in a reciprocating sliding tribometer with a piston ring-cylinder liner configuration. Fully formulated oil of SAE grade 5W-30 was used as lubricant during two tests at 40Hz and 50Hz. For the estimation of the tribofilm thicknesses, spectroscopic ellipsometry was used due to its high accuracy and non-destructive nature. Ellipsometry works under an optical principle where the change in polarisation of light reflected by the surface, is associated with the refractive index of the surface material or to the thickness of the layer deposited on top. Ellipsometrical responses derived from tribofilms are modelled by effective medium approximation (EMA), which includes the refractive index of involved materials, homogeneity of the film and thickness. The materials composition was obtained from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies, where the presence of ZDDP, O and C was confirmed. From EMA models it was concluded that tribofilms formed at 40 Hz are thicker and more homogeneous than the ones formed at 50 Hz. In addition, the refractive index of each material is mixed to derive an effective refractive index that describes the optical composition of the tribofilm and exhibits a maximum response in the UV range, being a characteristic of glassy semitransparent films.

Keywords: effective medium approximation, reciprocating sliding tribometer, spectroscopic ellipsometry, zinc dialkyldithiophosphate

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Authors: M. Amparo Nunez-Andres, Nieves Lantada

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One of the most harmful geological risks is rockfalls. They cause both economic lost, damaged in buildings and infrastructures, and personal ones. Therefore, in order to estimate the risk of the exposed elements, it is necessary to know the mechanism of this kind of events, since the characteristics of the rock walls, to the propagation of fragments generated by the initial detached rock mass. In the framework of the research RockModels project, several inventories of rockfalls were carried out along the northeast of the Spanish peninsula and the Mallorca island. These inventories have general information about the events, although the important fact is that they contained detailed information about fragmentation. Specifically, the IBSD (Insitu Block Size Distribution) is obtained by photogrammetry from drone or TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) and the RBSD (Rock Block Size Distribution) from the volume of the fragment in the deposit measured by hand. In order to share all this information with other scientists, engineers, members of civil protection, and stakeholders, it is necessary a platform accessible from the internet and following interoperable standards. In all the process, open-software have been used: PostGIS 2.1., Geoserver, and OpenLayers library. In the first step, a spatial database was implemented to manage all the information. We have used the data specifications of INSPIRE for natural risks adding specific and detailed data about fragmentation distribution. The next step was to develop a WMS with Geoserver. A previous phase was the creation of several views in PostGIS to show the information at different scales of visualization and with different degrees of detail. In the first view, the sites are identified with a point, and basic information about the rockfall event is facilitated. In the next level of zoom, at medium scale, the convex hull of the rockfall appears with its real shape and the source of the event and fragments are represented by symbols. The queries at this level offer a major detail about the movement. Eventually, the third level shows all elements: deposit, source, and blocks, in their real size, if it is possible, and in their real localization. The last task was the publication of all information in a web mapping site (www.rockdb.upc.edu) with data classified by levels using libraries in JavaScript as OpenLayers.

Keywords: geological risk, web mapping, WMS, rockfalls

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Authors: Xiaobo Liu, Rakesh Mishra, Yun Zhang

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Continuous monitoring of forest canopy height with large coverage is essential for obtaining forest carbon stocks and emissions, quantifying biomass estimation, analyzing vegetation coverage, and determining biodiversity. LiDAR can be used to collect accurate woody vegetation structure such as canopy height. However, LiDAR’s coverage is usually limited because of its high cost and limited maneuverability, which constrains its use for dynamic and large area forest canopy monitoring. On the other hand, optical satellite images, like Sentinel-2, have the ability to cover large forest areas with a high repeat rate, but they do not have height information. Hence, exploring the solution of integrating LiDAR data and Sentinel-2 images to enlarge the coverage of forest canopy height prediction and increase the prediction repeat rate has been an active research topic in the environmental remote sensing community. In this study, we explore the potential of training a Random Forest Regression (RFR) model and a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, respectively, to develop two predictive models for predicting and validating the forest canopy height of the Acadia Forest in New Brunswick, Canada, with a 10m ground sampling distance (GSD), for the year 2018 and 2021. Two 10m airborne LiDAR-derived canopy height models, one for 2018 and one for 2021, are used as ground truth to train and validate the RFR and CNN predictive models. To evaluate the prediction performance of the trained RFR and CNN models, two new predicted canopy height maps (CHMs), one for 2018 and one for 2021, are generated using the trained RFR and CNN models and 10m Sentinel-2 images of 2018 and 2021, respectively. The two 10m predicted CHMs from Sentinel-2 images are then compared with the two 10m airborne LiDAR-derived canopy height models for accuracy assessment. The validation results show that the mean absolute error (MAE) for year 2018 of the RFR model is 2.93m, CNN model is 1.71m; while the MAE for year 2021 of the RFR model is 3.35m, and the CNN model is 3.78m. These demonstrate the feasibility of using the RFR and CNN models developed in this research for predicting large-coverage forest canopy height at 10m spatial resolution and a high revisit rate.

Keywords: remote sensing, forest canopy height, LiDAR, Sentinel-2, artificial intelligence, random forest regression, convolutional neural network

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Authors: Ahmet Karagoz, Irfan Karagoz

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Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a radar mechanism that can be integrated into manned and unmanned aerial vehicles to create high-resolution images in all weather conditions, regardless of day and night. In this study, SAR images of military vehicles with different azimuth and descent angles are pre-processed at the first stage. The main purpose here is to reduce the high speckle noise found in SAR images. For this, the Wiener adaptive filter, the mean filter, and the median filters are used to reduce the amount of speckle noise in the images without causing loss of data. During the image segmentation phase, pixel values are ordered so that the target vehicle region is separated from other regions containing unnecessary information. The target image is parsed with the brightest 20% pixel value of 255 and the other pixel values of 0. In addition, by using appropriate parameters of statistical region merging algorithm, segmentation comparison is performed. In the step of feature extraction, the feature vectors belonging to the vehicles are obtained by using Gabor filters with different orientation, frequency and angle values. A number of Gabor filters are created by changing the orientation, frequency and angle parameters of the Gabor filters to extract important features of the images that form the distinctive parts. Finally, images are classified by sparse representation method. In the study, l₁ norm analysis of sparse representation is used. A joint database of the feature vectors generated by the target images of military vehicle types is obtained side by side and this database is transformed into the matrix form. In order to classify the vehicles in a similar way, the test images of each vehicle is converted to the vector form and l₁ norm analysis of the sparse representation method is applied through the existing database matrix form. As a result, correct recognition has been performed by matching the target images of military vehicles with the test images by means of the sparse representation method. 97% classification success of SAR images of different military vehicle types is obtained.

Keywords: automatic target recognition, sparse representation, image classification, SAR images

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Authors: Rui-heng Ray Huang

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This study compares the syntax and semantics of two kinds of passives in Mandarin Chinese: bèi passives and yóu passives. To express a Chinese equivalent for ‘The thief was taken away by the police,’ either bèi or yóu can be used, as in Xiǎotōu bèi/yóu jǐngchá dàizǒu le. It is shown in this study that bèi passives and yóu passives differ semantically and syntactically. The semantic observations are based on the theta theory, dealing with thematic roles. On the other hand, the syntactic analysis draws heavily upon the generative grammar, looking into thematic structures. The findings of this study are as follows. First, the core semantics of bèi passives is centered on the Patient NP in the subject position. This Patient NP is essentially an Affectee, undergoing the outcome or consequence brought up by the action represented by the predicate. This may explain why in the sentence Wǒde huà bèi/*yóu tā niǔqū le ‘My words have been twisted by him/her,’ only bèi is allowed. This is because the subject NP wǒde huà ‘my words’ suffers a negative consequence. Yóu passives, in contrast, place the semantic focus on the post-yóu NP, which is not an Affectee though. Instead, it plays a role which has to take certain responsibility without being affected in a way like an Affectee. For example, in the sentence Zhèbù diànyǐng yóu/*bèi tā dānrèn dǎoyǎn ‘This film is directed by him/her,’ only the use of yóu is possible because the post-yóu NP tā ‘s/he’ refers to someone in charge, who is not an Affectee, nor is the sentence-initial NP zhèbù diànyǐng ‘this film’. When it comes to the second finding, the syntactic structures of bèi passives and yóu passives differ in that the former involve a two-place predicate while the latter a three-place predicate. The passive morpheme bèi in a case like Xiǎotōu bèi jǐngchá dàizǒu le ‘The thief was taken away by the police’ has been argued by some Chinese syntacticians to be a two-place predicate which selects an Experiencer subject and an Event complement. Under this analysis, the initial NP xiǎotōu ‘the thief’ in the above example is a base-generated subject. This study, however, proposes that yóu passives fall into a three-place unergative structure. In the sentence Xiǎotōu yóu jǐngchá dàizǒu le ‘The thief was taken away by the police,’ the initial NP xiǎotōu ‘the thief’ is a topic which serves as a Patient taken by the verb dàizǒu ‘take away.’ The subject of the sentence is assumed to be an Agent, which is in a null form and may find its reference from the discourse or world knowledge. Regarding the post-yóu NP jǐngchá ‘the police,’ its status is dual. On the one hand, it is a Patient introduced by the light verb yóu; on the other, it is an Agent assigned by the verb dàizǒu ‘take away.’ It is concluded that the findings in this study contribute to better understanding of what makes the distinction between the two kinds of Chinese passives.

Keywords: affectee, passive, patient, unergative

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Authors: K. V. Venugopalan

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Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been accepted as the engine of economic growth and for promoting equitable development. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. The labour intensity of the MSME sector is much higher than that of the large enterprises. The MSMEs constitute over 90% of total enterprises in most of the economies and are credited with generating the highest rates of employment growth and account for a major share of industrial production and exports. Kerala is a small state in India with the limited land area with high potential in educated human resources need micro, small and medium enterprises for development. Kerala has the highest Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) in India and the highest Human Development Index (HDI) at par with the developed countries SME play an important role in alleviating poverty and contribute significantly towards the growth of developing economies. Financial institutions can play a vital role for the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises in Kerala. The study entitled “Financial Institutions and its role in the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises in Kerala “examine the progress of MSME in Kerala and India and also the role of financial institutions and the problems faced by entrepreneurs for getting advances with reference to ‘Kerala Financial Corporation’-an agency set up by the government for promoting small and medium enterprises in the state. This study is based on both secondary and primary data. Primary data for the study was collected from those entrepreneurs who availed advances from financial institutions. The secondary data include the investment made, goods and services provided, the employment generated and the number of units registered in MSME sector for the last 10 years in Kerala. The study concluded that financial institutions providing finance with simple procedures and charging smaller interest rates will increase the number of MSME's and also contribute gross state domestic product and reduce the unemployment problem and poverty in the economy.

Keywords: gross state domestic product, human development index, micro, small and medium enterprises

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Authors: Rinku Dhanker, Suman Chaudhary, Tanvi Bhatia, Sneh Goyal

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Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), being a rich source of organic materials, can be used for agricultural applications as an important source of nutrients for soil and plants. This is also an alternative beneficial management practice for MSW generated in developing countries. In the present study, MSW treated soil samples from last four to six years at farmer’s field in Rohtak and Gurgaon states (Haryana, India) were collected. The samples were analyzed for all-important agricultural parameters and compared with the control untreated soil samples. The treated soil at farmer’s field showed increase in total N by 48 to 68%, P by 45.7 to 51.3%, and K by 60 to 67% compared to untreated soil samples. Application of sewage sludge at different sites led to increase in microbial biomass C by 60 to 68% compared to untreated soil. There was significant increase in total Cu, Cr, Ni, Fe, Pb, and Zn in all sewage sludge amended soil samples; however, concentration of all the metals were still below the current permitted (EU) limits. To study the adverse effect of heavy metals accumulation on various soil microbial activities, the sewage sludge samples (from wastewater treatment plant at Gurgaon) were artificially contaminated with heavy metal concentration above the EU limits. They were then applied to soil samples with different rates (0.5 to 4.0%) and incubated for 90 days under laboratory conditions. The samples were drawn at different intervals and analyzed for various parameters like pH, EC, total N, P, K, microbial biomass C, carbon mineralization, and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) exactable heavy metals. The results were compared to the uncontaminated sewage sludge. The increasing level of sewage sludge from 0.5 to 4% led to build of organic C and total N, P and K content at the early stages of incubation. But, organic C was decreased after 90 days because of decomposition of organic matter. Biomass production was significantly increased in both contaminated and uncontaminated sewage soil samples, but also led to slight increases in metal accumulation and their bioavailability in soil. The maximum metal concentrations were found in treatment with 4% of contaminated sewage sludge amendment.

Keywords: heavy metal, municipal sewage sludge, sustainable agriculture, soil fertility and quality

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Authors: Camille Van Eupen, Dirk Maes, Marc Herremans, Kristijn R. R. Swinnen, Ben Somers, Stijn Luca

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In ecology, species distribution models are commonly implemented to study species-environment relationships. These models increasingly rely on opportunistic citizen science data when high-quality species records collected through standardized recording protocols are unavailable. While these opportunistic data are abundant, uncertainty is usually high, e.g., due to observer effects or a lack of metadata. Data quality filtering is often used to reduce these types of uncertainty in an attempt to increase the value of studies relying on opportunistic data. However, filtering should not be performed blindly. In this study, recommendations are built for data quality filtering of opportunistic species occurrence data that are used as input for species distribution models. Using an extensive database of 5.7 million citizen science records from 255 species in Flanders, the impact on model performance was quantified by applying three data quality filters, and these results were linked to species traits. More specifically, presence records were filtered based on record attributes that provide information on the observation process or post-entry data validation, and changes in the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were analyzed using the Maxent algorithm with and without filtering. Controlling for sample size enabled us to study the combined impact of data quality filtering, i.e., the simultaneous impact of an increase in data quality and a decrease in sample size. Further, the variation among species in their response to data quality filtering was explored by clustering species based on four traits often related to data quality: commonness, popularity, difficulty, and body size. Findings show that model performance is affected by i) the quality of the filtered data, ii) the proportional reduction in sample size caused by filtering and the remaining absolute sample size, and iii) a species ‘quality profile’, resulting from a species classification based on the four traits related to data quality. The findings resulted in recommendations on when and how to filter volunteer generated and opportunistically collected data. This study confirms that correctly processed citizen science data can make a valuable contribution to ecological research and species conservation.

Keywords: citizen science, data quality filtering, species distribution models, trait profiles

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Authors: Beryl Rene R. Lopez, Lesley Anne M. Lipat, Rhogene Barbette C. Lirio, Laurice Joy H. Llanes, Karl Philippe M. Llapitan, Einstein James R. Lopez, Socorro S. GuanHing

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Background: Measles remain as one of the most common childhood diseases despite the availability of the vaccine that is safe and cost-effective. Because of morbidity and mortality associated with the recent measles outbreak in the Philippines, there is an increasing concern from the health care professionals. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the compliance of Filipino mothers to measles vaccination and their health beliefs when grouped according to the given socio-demographic factors using a researcher-made questionnaire. Research Methodology: This research utilized the descriptive-correlational research design. With the use of purposive sampling technique, the study involved 200 Filipino mothers aged 18 years old and above excluding those who are healthcare professionals with children aged 2-3 years old with either urban or rural as their settlements. Pre-testing was done prior to the actual data gathering. A questionnaire composed of 26 items involving socio-demographic, compliance, and health beliefs was distributed to the sample population. Statistical analysis was done with the use of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for the first research question and Structural Equation Model (SEM) for the second research question. Results: Four dimensions were generated with the use of EFA namely: Vulnerability-Oriented Beliefs (VOB), Knowledge-Oriented Beliefs (KOB), Accessibility-Oriented Beliefs (AOB), and Outcomes-Oriented Beliefs (OOB). These were then correlated with the mothers’ socio-demographic factors (age, educational attainment, the area of residence, the number of children, and family income) and their compliance to the measles vaccination schedule. Results showed significant and direct relationships between area of residence and compliance, family income and compliance, KOB and compliance, education and KOB, KOB and VOB, KOB and OOB, AOB and KOB, AOB and OOB, AOB and VOB, and lastly, OOB and VOB. Conclusion: The Knowledge – Oriented Belief dimension greatly influence compliance to measles vaccination. Other determinants of compliance like the area of residence, educational attainment, and family income significantly increase the Filipino mothers’ likelihood of compliance to measles vaccination, which have implications to health education.

Keywords: socio-demographic, health beliefs, compliance, measles vaccination

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Authors: Akhila Jose

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The cement industry is one of the major contributors to the global warming due to the release of greenhouse gases. The primary binder in conventional concrete is Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and billions of tons are produced annually all over the world. An alternative binding material to OPC is needed to reduce the environmental impact caused during the cement manufacturing process. Geopolymer concrete is an ideal material to substitute cement-based binder. Geopolymer is an inorganic alumino-silicate polymer. Geopolymer Concrete (GPC) is formed by the polymerization of aluminates and silicates formed by the reaction of solid aluminosilicates with alkali hydroxides or alkali silicates. Various Industrial bye- products like Fly Ash (FA), Rice Husk Ash (RHA), Ground granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS), Silica Fume (SF), Red mud (RM) etc. are rich in aluminates and silicates. Using by-products from other industries reduces the carbon dioxide emission and thus giving a sustainable way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also a way to dispose the huge wastes generated from the major industries like thermal plants, steel plants, etc. The earlier research about geopolymer were focused on heat cured fly ash based precast members and this limited its applications. The heat curing mechanism itself is highly cumbersome and costly even though they possess high compressive strength, low drying shrinkage and creep, and good resistance to sulphate and acid environments. GPC having comparable strength and durability characteristics of OPC were able to develop under ambient cured conditions is the solution making it a sustainable alternative in future. In this paper an attempt has been made to review and compare the feasibility of ambient cured GPC over heat cured geopolymer concrete with respect to strength and serviceability characteristics. The variation on the behavior of structural members is also reviewed to identify the research gaps for future development of ambient cured geopolymer concrete. The comparison and analysis of studies showed that GPC most importantly ambient cured type has a comparable behavior with respect to OPC based concrete in terms strength and durability criteria.

Keywords: geopolymer concrete, oven heated, durability properties, mechanical properties

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Authors: Hammad Majeed, Hanna Knuutila, Magne Hillestad, Hallvard F. Svendsen

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Formation of aerosols can cause serious complications in industrial exhaust gas CO2 capture processes. SO3 present in the flue gas can cause aerosol formation in an absorption based capture process. Small mist droplets and fog formed can normally not be removed in conventional demisting equipment because their submicron size allows the particles or droplets to follow the gas flow. As a consequence of this aerosol based emissions in the order of grams per Nm3 have been identified from PCCC plants. In absorption processes aerosols are generated by spontaneous condensation or desublimation processes in supersaturated gas phases. Undesired aerosol development may lead to amine emissions many times larger than what would be encountered in a mist free gas phase in PCCC development. It is thus of crucial importance to understand the formation and build-up of these aerosols in order to mitigate the problem. Rigorous modelling of aerosol dynamics leads to a system of partial differential equations. In order to understand mechanics of a particle entering an absorber an implementation of the model is created in Matlab. The model predicts the droplet size, the droplet internal variable profiles and the mass transfer fluxes as function of position in the absorber. The Matlab model is based on a subclass method of weighted residuals for boundary value problems named, orthogonal collocation method. The model comprises a set of mass transfer equations for transferring components and the essential diffusion reaction equations to describe the droplet internal profiles for all relevant constituents. Also included is heat transfer across the interface and inside the droplet. This paper presents results describing the basic simulation tool for the characterization of aerosols formed in CO2 absorption columns and gives examples as to how various entering droplets grow or shrink through an absorber and how their composition changes with respect to time. Below are given some preliminary simulation results for an aerosol droplet composition and temperature profiles.

Keywords: absorption columns, aerosol formation, amine emissions, internal droplet profiles, monoethanolamine (MEA), post combustion CO2 capture, simulation

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Authors: Zh. Saffari, A. Naeimi, M. S. Ekrami-Kakhki, Kh. Khandan-Barani

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The textile industries are becoming a major source of environmental contamination because an alarming amount of dye pollutants are generated during the dyeing processes. Organic dyes are one of the largest pollutants released into wastewater from textile and other industrial processes, which have shown severe impacts on human physiology. Nano-structure compounds have gained importance in this category due their anticipated high surface area and improved reactive sites. In recent years several novel adsorbents have been reported to possess great adsorption potential due to their enhanced adsorptive capacity. Nano-MnO2 has great potential applications in environment protection field and has gained importance in this category because it has a wide variety of structure with large surface area. The diverse structures, chemical properties of manganese oxides are taken advantage of in potential applications such as adsorbents, sensor catalysis and it is also used for wide catalytic applications, such as degradation of dyes. In this study, adsorption of Methyl Violet (MV) dye from aqueous solutions onto MnO2 nanoparticles (MNP) has been investigated. The surface characterization of these nano particles was examined by Particle size analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The effects of process parameters such as initial concentration, pH, temperature and contact duration on the adsorption capacities have been evaluated, in which pH has been found to be most effective parameter among all. The data were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich for explaining the equilibrium characteristics of adsorption. And kinetic models like pseudo first- order, second-order model and Elovich equation were utilized to describe the kinetic data. The experimental data were well fitted with Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and pseudo second order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters, such as Free energy of adsorption (ΔG°), enthalpy change (ΔH°) and entropy change (ΔS°) were also determined and evaluated.

Keywords: MnO2 nanoparticles, adsorption, methyl violet, isotherm models, kinetic models, surface chemistry

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Authors: K. P. Valdés García, E. I. Rodríguez Fonseca, L. G. Juárez Cantú

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Suicide is a global, multidimensional and dynamic problem of mental health, which requires a constant study for its understanding and prevention. When research of this phenomenon is done, it is necessary to consider the different characteristics it may have because of the individual and sociocultural variables, the importance of this consideration is related to the generation of effective treatments and interventions. Adolescents are a vulnerable population due to the characteristics of the development stage. The investigation was carried out with the objective of identifying and describing the conceptualization of adolescents of suicide, and in this process, we find possible differences between men and women. The study was carried out in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. The sample was composed of 418 volunteer students aged between 11 and 18 years. The ethical aspects of the research were reviewed and considered in all the processes of the investigation with the participants, their parents and the schools to which they belonged, psychological attention was offered to the participants and preventive workshops were carried in the educational institutions. Natural semantic networks were the instrument used, since this hybrid method allows to find and analyze the social concept of a phenomenon; in this case, the word suicide was used as an evocative stimulus and participants were asked to evoke at least five words and a maximum 10 that they thought were related to suicide, and then hierarchize them according to the closeness with the construct. The subsequent analysis was carried with Excel, yielding the semantic weights, affective loads and the distances between each of the semantic fields established according to the words reported by the subjects. The results showed similarities in the conceptualization of suicide in adolescents, men and women. Seven semantic fields were generated; the words were related in the discourse analysis: 1) death, 2) possible triggering factors, 3) associated moods, 4) methods used to carry it out, 5) psychological symptomatology that could affect, 6) words associated with a rejection of suicide, and finally, 7) specific objects to carry it out. One of the necessary aspects to consider in the investigations of complex issues such as suicide is to have a diversity of instruments and techniques that adjust to the characteristics of the population and that allow to understand the phenomena from the social constructs and not only theoretical. The constant study of suicide is a pressing need, the loss of a life from emotional difficulties that can be solved through psychiatry and psychological methods requires governments and professionals to pay attention and work with the risk population.

Keywords: adolescents, psychological construct, semantic networks, suicide

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Authors: Kyomin Lee, Joohee Kim, Sangho Kang

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The commercial nuclear power reactor in South Korea, Kori Unit 1, which was a 587 MWe pressurized water reactor that started operation since 1978, was permanently shut down in June 2017 without an additional operating license extension. The Kori 1 Unit is scheduled to become the nuclear power unit to enter the decommissioning phase. In this study, the preliminary evaluation of the decommissioning wastes for the Kori Unit 1 was performed based on the following series of process: firstly, the plant inventory is investigated based on various documents (i.e., equipment/ component list, construction records, general arrangement drawings). Secondly, the radiological conditions of systems, structures and components (SSCs) are established to estimate the amount of radioactive waste by waste classification. Third, the waste management strategies for Kori Unit 1 including waste packaging are established. Forth, selection of the proper decontamination and dismantling (D&D) technologies is made considering the various factors. Finally, the amount of decommissioning waste by classification for Kori 1 is estimated using the DeCAT program, which was developed by KEPCO-E&C for a decommissioning cost estimation. The preliminary evaluation results have shown that the expected amounts of decommissioning wastes were less than about 2% and 8% of the total wastes generated (i.e., sum of clean wastes and radwastes) before/after waste processing, respectively, and it was found that the majority of contaminated material was carbon or alloy steel and stainless steel. In addition, within the range of availability of information, the results of the evaluation were compared with the results from the various decommissioning experiences data or international/national decommissioning study. The comparison results have shown that the radioactive waste amount from Kori Unit 1 decommissioning were much less than those from the plants decommissioned in U.S. and were comparable to those from the plants in Europe. This result comes from the difference of disposal cost and clearance criteria (i.e., free release level) between U.S. and non-U.S. The preliminary evaluation performed using the methodology established in this study will be useful as a important information in establishing the decommissioning planning for the decommissioning schedule and waste management strategy establishment including the transportation, packaging, handling, and disposal of radioactive wastes.

Keywords: characterization, classification, decommissioning, decontamination and dismantling, Kori 1, radioactive waste

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Authors: Ruyang Ren, Yaohua Zhao, Yanhua Diao

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

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

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Authors: Danying Gu, Xiaoyan Li, Yuanlei He

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As a knowledge-intensive industry, nuclear industry highly values the importance of safety and quality. The life cycle of a NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) can last 100 years from the initial research and design to its decommissioning. How to implement the high-quality knowledge management and how to contribute to a more safe, advanced and economic NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) is the most important issue and responsibility for knowledge management. As the lead of nuclear industry, nuclear research and design institute has competitive advantages of its advanced technology, knowledge and information, DKM (Design Knowledge Management) of nuclear research and design institute is the core of the knowledge management in the whole nuclear industry. In this paper, the study and practice on DKM and knowledge transfer across the life cycle of a new-built NPP in China is introduced. For this digital intelligent NPP, the whole design process is based on a digital design platform which includes NPP engineering and design dynamic analyzer, visualization engineering verification platform, digital operation maintenance support platform and digital equipment design, manufacture integrated collaborative platform. In order to make all the design data and information transfer across design, construction, commissioning and operation, the overall architecture of new-built digital NPP should become a modern knowledge management system. So a digital information transfer model across the NPP life cycle is proposed in this paper. The challenges related to design knowledge transfer is also discussed, such as digital information handover, data center and data sorting, unified data coding system. On the other hand, effective delivery of design information during the construction and operation phase will contribute to the comprehensive understanding of design ideas and components and systems for the construction contractor and operation unit, largely increasing the safety, quality and economic benefits during the life cycle. The operation and maintenance records generated from the NPP operation process have great significance for maintaining the operating state of NPP, especially the comprehensiveness, validity and traceability of the records. So the requirements of an online monitoring and smart diagnosis system of NPP is also proposed, to help utility-owners to improve the safety and efficiency.

Keywords: design knowledge management, digital nuclear power plant, knowledge transfer, life cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 262

Authors: Jim O'brien

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Contemporary global representation and consumption of La Liga across a plethora of media platform outlets has resulted in significant implications for the historical, political and cultural developments which shaped the development of Spanish club football. This has established and reinforced a hierarchy of a small number of teams belonging to or aspiring to belong to a cluster of global elite clubs seeking to imitate the blueprint of the English Premier League in respect of corporate branding and marketing in order to secure a global fan base through success and exposure in La Liga itself and through the Champions League. The synthesis between globalization, global sport and the status of high profile clubs has created radical change within the folkloric iconography of Spanish football. The main focus of this paper is to critically evaluate the consequences of globalization on the rich tapestry at the core of the game’s distinctive history in Spain. The seminal debate underpinning the study considers whether the divergent aspects of globalization have acted as a malevolent force, eroding tradition, causing financial meltdown and reducing much of the fabric of club football to the status of by standers, or have promoted a renaissance of these traditions, securing their legacies through new fans and audiences. The study draws on extensive sources on the history, politics and culture of Spanish football, in both English and Spanish. It also uses primary and archive material derived from interviews and fieldwork undertaken with scholars, media professionals and club representatives in Spain. The paper has four main themes. Firstly, it contextualizes the key historical, political and cultural forces which shaped the landscape of Spanish football from the late nineteenth century. The seminal notions of region, locality and cultural divergence are pivotal to this discourse. The study then considers the relationship between football, ethnicity and identity as a barometer of continuity and change, suggesting that tradition is being reinvented and re-framed to reflect the shifting demographic and societal patterns within the Spanish state. Following on from this, consideration is given to the paradoxical function of ‘El Clasico’ and the dominant duopoly of the FC Barcelona – Real Madrid axis in both eroding tradition in the global nexus of football’s commodification and in protecting historic political rivalries. To most global consumers of La Liga, the mega- spectacle and hyperbole of ‘El Clasico’ is the essence of Spanish football, with cultural misrepresentation and distortion catapulting the event to the global media audience. Finally, the paper examines La Liga as a sporting phenomenon in which elite clubs, cult managers and galacticos serve as commodities on the altar of mass consumption in football’s global entertainment matrix. These processes accentuate a homogenous mosaic of cultural conformity which obscures local, regional and national identities and paradoxically fuses the global with the local to maintain the distinctive hue of La Liga, as witnessed by the extraordinary successes of Athletico Madrid and FC Eibar in recent seasons.

Keywords: Spanish football, globalization, cultural identity, tradition, folklore

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: Ifigeneia V. Mavragani, Zacharenia Nikitaki, George Kalantzis, George Iliakis, Alexandros G. Georgakilas

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Complex DNA damage consisting of a combination of DNA lesions, such as Double Strand Breaks (DSBs) and non-DSB base lesions occurring in a small volume is considered as one of the most important biological endpoints regarding ionizing radiation (IR) exposure. Strong theoretical (Monte Carlo simulations) and experimental evidence suggests an increment of the complexity of DNA damage and therefore repair resistance with increasing linear energy transfer (LET). Experimental detection of complex (clustered) DNA damage is often associated with technical deficiencies limiting its measurement, especially in cellular or tissue systems. Our groups have recently made significant improvements towards the identification of key parameters relating to the efficient detection of complex DSBs and non-DSBs in human cellular systems exposed to IR of varying quality (γ-, X-rays 0.3-1 keV/μm, α-particles 116 keV/μm and 36Ar ions 270 keV/μm). The induction and processing of DSB and non-DSB-oxidative clusters were measured using adaptations of immunofluorescence (γH2AX or 53PB1 foci staining as DSB probes and human repair enzymes OGG1 or APE1 as probes for oxidized purines and abasic sites respectively). In the current study, Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) values for DSB and non-DSB induction have been measured in different human normal (FEP18-11-T1) and cancerous cell lines (MCF7, HepG2, A549, MO59K/J). The experimental results are compared to simulation data obtained using a validated microdosimetric fast Monte Carlo DNA Damage Simulation code (MCDS). Moreover, this simulation approach is implemented in two realistic clinical cases, i.e. prostate cancer treatment using X-rays generated by a linear accelerator and a pediatric osteosarcoma case using a 200.6 MeV proton pencil beam. RBE values for complex DNA damage induction are calculated for the tumor areas. These results reveal a disparity between theory and experiment and underline the necessity for implementing highly precise and more efficient experimental and simulation approaches.

Keywords: complex DNA damage, DNA damage simulation, protons, radiotherapy

Procedia PDF Downloads 302

Authors: Wisam H. Muragaa, Kamaruzzaman Seman, Mohd Fadzli Marhusin

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Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new norm of networks. It is designed to facilitate the way of managing, measuring, debugging and controlling the network dynamically, and to make it suitable for the modern applications. Generally, measurement methods can be divided into two categories: Active and passive methods. Active measurement method is employed to inject test packets into the network in order to monitor their behaviour (ping tool as an example). Meanwhile the passive measurement method is used to monitor the traffic for the purpose of deriving measurement values. The measurement methods, both active and passive, are useful for the collection of traffic statistics, and monitoring of the network traffic. Although there has been a work focusing on measuring traffic statistics in SDN environment, it was only meant for measuring packets and bytes rates for non-web traffic. In this study, a feasible method will be designed to measure the number of packets and bytes in a certain time, and facilitate obtaining statistics for both web traffic and non-web traffic. Web traffic refers to HTTP requests that use application layer; while non-web traffic refers to ICMP and TCP requests. Thus, this work is going to be more comprehensive than previous works. With a developed module on POX OpenFlow controller, information will be collected from each active flow in the OpenFlow switch, and presented on Command Line Interface (CLI) and wireshark interface. Obviously, statistics that will be displayed on CLI and on wireshark interfaces include type of protocol, number of bytes and number of packets, among others. Besides, this module will show the number of flows added to the switch whenever traffic is generated from and to hosts in the same statistics list. In order to carry out this work effectively, our Python module will send a statistics request message to the switch requesting its current ports and flows statistics in every five seconds; while the switch will reply with the required information in a message called statistics reply message. Thus, POX controller will be notified and updated with any changes could happen in the entire network in a very short time. Therefore, our aim of this study is to prepare a list for the important statistics elements that are collected from the whole network, to be used for any further researches; particularly, those that are dealing with the detection of the network attacks that cause a sudden rise in the number of packets and bytes like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).

Keywords: mininet, OpenFlow, POX controller, SDN

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: Gaoyang Meng, Philip Harrison

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When manufacturing composite laminates, the fibre directions within the laminate are never perfectly straight and inevitably contain some degree of stochastic in-plane waviness or ‘meandering’. In this work we aim to understand the relationship between the degree of meandering of the fibre paths, and the resulting uncertainty in the laminate’s final mechanical properties. To do this, a numerical tool is developed to automatically generate meandering fibre paths in each of the laminate's 8 plies (using Matlab) and after mapping this information into finite element simulations (using Abaqus), the statistical variability of the tensile mechanical properties of a [45°/90°/-45°/0°]s carbon/epoxy (IM7/8552) laminate is predicted. The stiffness, first ply failure strength and ultimate failure strength are obtained. Results are generated by inputting the degree of variability in the fibre paths and the laminate is then examined in all directions (from 0° to 359° in increments of 1°). The resulting predictions are output as flower (polar) plots for convenient analysis. The average fibre orientation of each ply in a given laminate is determined by the laminate layup code [45°/90°/-45°/0°]s. However, in each case, the plies contain increasingly large amounts of in-plane waviness (quantified by the standard deviation of the fibre direction in each ply across the laminate. Four different amounts of variability in the fibre direction are tested (2°, 4°, 6° and 8°). Results show that both the average tensile stiffness and the average tensile strength decrease, while the standard deviations increase, with an increasing degree of fibre meander. The variability in stiffness is found to be relatively insensitive to the rotation angle, but the variability in strength is sensitive. Specifically, the uncertainty in laminate strength is relatively low at orientations centred around multiples of 45° rotation angle, and relatively high between these rotation angles. To concisely represent all the information contained in the various polar plots, rotation-angle dependent Weibull distribution equations are fitted to the data. The resulting equations can be used to quickly estimate the size of the errors bars for the different mechanical properties, resulting from the amount of fibre directional variability contained within the laminate. A longer term goal is to use these equations to quickly introduce realistic variability at the component level.

Keywords: advanced composite laminates, FE simulation, in-plane waviness, tensile properties, uncertainty quantification

Procedia PDF Downloads 71

Authors: Sebastian Töpfer, Marta Gilaberte Basset, Jorge Fuenzalida, Fabian Steinlechner, Juan P. Torres, Markus Gräfe

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This work introduces a combination of digital phase-shifting holography with a non-linear interferometer using undetected photons. Non-linear interferometers can be used in combination with a measurement scheme called quantum imaging with undetected photons, which allows for the separation of the wavelengths used for sampling an object and detecting it in the imaging sensor. This method recently faced increasing attention, as it allows to use of exotic wavelengths (e.g., mid-infrared, ultraviolet) for object interaction while at the same time keeping the detection in spectral areas with highly developed, comparable low-cost imaging sensors. The object information, including its transmission and phase influence, is recorded in the form of an interferometric pattern. To collect these, this work combines the method of quantum imaging with undetected photons with digital phase-shifting holography with a minimal sampling of the interference. With this, the quantum imaging scheme gets extended in its measurement capabilities and brings it one step closer to application. Quantum imaging with undetected photons uses correlated photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a non-linear interferometer to create indistinguishable photon pairs, which leads to an effect called induced coherence without induced emission. Placing an object inside changes the interferometric pattern depending on the object’s properties. Digital phase-shifting holography records multiple images of the interference with determined phase shifts to reconstruct the complete interference shape, which can afterward be used to analyze the changes introduced by the object and conclude its properties. An extensive characterization of this method was done using a proof-of-principle setup. The measured spatial resolution, phase accuracy, and transmission accuracy are compared for different combinations of camera exposure times and the number of interference sampling steps. The current limits of this method are shown to allow further improvements. To summarize, this work presents an alternative holographic measurement method using non-linear interferometers in combination with quantum imaging to enable new ways of measuring and motivating continuing research.

Keywords: digital holography, quantum imaging, quantum holography, quantum metrology

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Shoukat Ali, Amjad Hussain, Latif-ur-Rehman, Sehrish Inam

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Radiotherapy plays an important role in the management of cancer patients. Approximately 50% of the cancer patients receive radiotherapy at one point or another during the course of treatment. The entire radiotherapy treatment of curative intent is divided into different phases, depending on the histology of the tumor. The established protocols are useful in deciding the total dose, fraction size, and numbers of phases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dosimetric differences between the conventional treatment protocols and the three-dimensional conformal simultaneously integrated boost (SIB) plans for three different tumors sites (i.e. bladder, breast, and brain). A total of 30 patients with brain, breast and bladder cancers were selected in this retrospective study. All the patients were CT simulated initially. The primary physician contoured PTV1 and PTV2 in the axial slices. The conventional doses prescribed for brain and breast is 60Gy/30 fractions, and 64.8Gy/36 fractions for bladder treatment. For the SIB plans biological effective doses (BED) were calculated for 25 fractions. The two conventional (Phase I and Phase II) and a single SIB plan for each patient were generated on Eclipse™ treatment planning system. Treatment plans were compared and analyzed for coverage index, conformity index, homogeneity index, dose gradient and organs at risk doses.In both plans 95% of PTV volume received a minimum of 95% of the prescribe dose. Dose deviation in the optic chiasm was found to be less than 0.5%. There is no significant difference in lung V20 and heart V30 in the breast plans. In the rectum plans V75%, V50% and V25% were found to be less than 1.2% different. Deviation in the tumor coverage, conformity and homogeneity indices were found to be less than 1%. SIB plans with three dimensional conformal radiotherapy technique reduce the overall treatment time without compromising the target coverage and without increasing dose to the organs at risk. The higher dose per fraction may increase the late effects to some extent. Further studies are required to evaluate the late effects with the intention of standardizing the SIB technique for practical implementation.

Keywords: coverage index, conformity index, dose gradient, homogeneity index, simultaneously integrated boost

Procedia PDF Downloads 463

Authors: Hristina Šalipur, Jasmina Dostanić, Davor Lončarević, Matej Huš

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Photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming has been used for the conversion of sunlight energy in the process of hydrogen production due to its sustainability, environmental safety, effectiveness and simplicity. Titanate nanotubes are frequently studied materials since they combine the properties of photo-active semiconductors with the properties of layered titanates, such as the ion-exchange ability. Platinum (Pt) doping into titanate structure has been considered an effective strategy in better separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs and lowering the overpotential for hydrogen production, which results in higher photocatalytic activity. In our work, Pt doped titanate catalysts were synthesized via simple alkaline hydrothermal treatment, incipient wetness impregnation method and temperature-programmed reduction. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the prepared catalysts were investigated using various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 physisorption, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The activities of the prepared Pt-doped titanate photocatalysts were tested for hydrogen production via photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming process under simulated solar light irradiation. Characterization of synthesized Pt doped titanate catalysts showed crystalline anatase phase, preserved nanotubular structure and high specific surface area. The result showed enhancement of activity in photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming in the following order 2-butanol>1-butanol>tert-butanol, with obtained maximal hydrogen production rate of 7.5, 5.3 and 2 mmol g-1 h-1, respectively. Different possible factors influencing the hole scavenging ability, such as hole scavenger redox potential and diffusivity, adsorption and desorption rate of the hole scavenger on the surface and stability of the alcohol radical species generated via hole scavenging, were investigated. The theoretical evaluation using density functional theory (DFT) further elucidated the reaction kinetics and detailed mechanism of photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming.

Keywords: hydrogen production, platinum, semiconductor, water splitting, density functional theory

Procedia PDF Downloads 98

Authors: Naveen Porika, Snigdho Majumdar, Niraj Sethi

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Water, food and energy securities are emerging as increasingly important and vital issues for India and the world. Hyderabad urban agglomeration (HUA), the capital city of Andhra Pradesh State in India, is the sixth largest city has a population of about 8.2 million. The Musi River, which is a tributary of Krishna river flows from west to east right through the heart of Hyderabad, about 80% of the water used by people is released back as sewage, which flows back into Musi every day with detrimental effects on the environment and people downstream of the city. The average daily sewage generated in Hyderabad city is 950 MLD, however, treatment capacity exists only for 541 Million Liters per Day (MLD) but only 407 MLD of sewage is treated. As a result, 543 MLD of sewage daily flows into Musi river. Hyderabad’s current estimated water demand stands at 320 Million Gallons per Day (MGD). However, its installed capacity is merely 270 MGD; by 2020 estimated demand will grow to 400 MGD. There is huge gap between current supply and demand, and this is likely to widen by 2021. Developing new fresh water sources is a challenge for Hyderabad, as the fresh water sources are few and far from the City (about 150-200 km) and requires excessive pumping. The constraints presented above make the conventional alternatives for supply augmentation unsustainable and unattractive .One such dependable and captive source of easily available water is the treated sewage. With proper treatment, water of desired quality can be recovered from the waste water (sewage) for recycle and reuse. Hyderabad Amberpet sewage treatment of capacity 339 MLD is Asia’s largest sewage treatment plant. Tertiary sewage treatment Standard basic engineering modules of 30 MLD,60 MLD, 120MLD & 180 MLD for sewage treatment plants has been developed which are utilized for developing Sewage Reclamation & Reuse model in Asia’s largest sewage treatment plant. This paper will focus on Hyderabad Water Supply & Demand, Sewage Generation & Treatment, Technical aspects of Tertiary Sewage Treatment and Utilization of developed standard modules for reclamation & reuse of treated sewage to overcome the deficit of 130 MGD as projected by 2021.

Keywords: water reclamation, reuse, Andhra Pradesh, hyderabad, musi river, sewage, demand and supply, recycle, Amberpet, 339 MLD, engineering modules, tertiary treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 603

Authors: Sweta Pandey, Samridhi Dhyani, Susmita Chaudhuri

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Klebsiella pneumoniae causes a wide range of infections, including urinary tract infections, sepsis, bacteremia, pneumonia, and liver abscesses. The emergence of multi-drug resistance in this bacterium led to a major setback for clinical management. WHO also endorsed a need for finding alternative therapy to antibiotics for the treatment of these infections. Development of vaccines and passive antibody therapy has been proven as a potent alternative to antibiotics in the case of MDR, XDR, and PDR Klebsiella infections. Siderophore receptors have been demonstrated to be overexpressed for the internalization of iron siderophore complexes during infections in most Gram-negative bacteria. For the present study, immune response to siderophore receptors to establish this protein as a potential immunogen for the development of therapeutic leads was explored. Clinical strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae were grown in iron-deficient conditions, and the iron-regulated outer membrane proteins were extracted and characterized through mass spectrometry for specific identification. The gene for identified protein was cloned in pET- 28a vector and expressed in E. coli. The native protein and the recombinant protein were isolated and purified and used as antigens for the generation of immune response in BALB/c mice. The native protein of Klebsiella pneumoniae grown in iron-deficient conditions was identified as FepA (Ferrienterobactin receptor) and other siderophore receptors. This 80 kDa protein generated an immune response in BALB/c mice. The antiserum from mice after subsequent booster doses was collected and showed binding with FepA protein in western blot and phagocytic uptake of the K. pneumoniae in the presence antiserum from immunized mice also observed from the animal studies after bacterial challenge post immunisation in mice have shown bacterial clearance. The antiserum from mice showed binding and clearance of the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria in vitro and in vivo. These antigens used for generating an active immune response in mice can further be used for therapeutic monoclonal antibody development against Klebsiella pneumoniae infections.

Keywords: antiserum, FepA, Klebsiella pneumoniae, multi drug resistance, siderophore receptor

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: A. Kaćunić, M. Ćosić, N. Kuzmanić

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Interaction between mixing and crystallization is often ignored despite the fact that it affects almost every aspect of the operation including nucleation, growth, and maintenance of the crystal slurry. This is especially pronounced in multiple impeller systems where flow complexity is increased. By choosing proper mixing parameters, what closely depends on the knowledge of the hydrodynamics in a mixing vessel, the process of batch cooling crystallization may considerably be improved. The values that render useful information when making this choice are mixing time and power consumption. The predominant motivation for this work was to investigate the extent to which radial dual impeller configuration influences mixing time, power consumption and consequently the values of metastable zone width and nucleation rate. In this research, crystallization of borax was conducted in a 15 dm3 baffled batch cooling crystallizer with an aspect ratio (H/T) of 1.3. Mixing was performed using two straight blade turbines (4-SBT) mounted on the same shaft that generated radial fluid flow. Experiments were conducted at different values of N/NJS ratio (impeller speed/ minimum impeller speed for complete suspension), D/T ratio (impeller diameter/crystallizer diameter), c/D ratio (lower impeller off-bottom clearance/impeller diameter), and s/D ratio (spacing between impellers/impeller diameter). Mother liquor was saturated at 30°C and was cooled at the rate of 6°C/h. Its concentration was monitored in line by Na-ion selective electrode. From the values of supersaturation that was monitored continuously over process time, it was possible to determine the metastable zone width and subsequently the nucleation rate using the Mersmann’s nucleation criterion. For all applied dual impeller configurations, the mixing time was determined by potentiometric method using a pulse technique, while the power consumption was determined using a torque meter produced by Himmelstein & Co. Results obtained in this investigation show that dual impeller configuration significantly influences the values of mixing time, power consumption as well as the metastable zone width and nucleation rate. A special attention should be addressed to the impeller spacing considering the flow interaction that could be more or less pronounced depending on the spacing value.

Keywords: dual impeller crystallizer, mixing time, power consumption, metastable zone width, nucleation rate

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Atlal El-Assaad

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Viruses change with time through mutations and result in new variants that may persist or disappear. A Mutation refers to an actual change in the virus genetic sequence, and a variant is a viral genome that may contain one or more mutations. Critical mutations may cause the virus to be more transmissible, with high disease severity, and more vulnerable to diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Thus, variants carrying such mutations may increase the risk to human health and are considered variants of concern (VOC). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) - the contagious in humans, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that caused coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - has been studied thoroughly, and several variants were revealed across the world with their corresponding mutations. SARS-CoV-2 has four structural proteins, known as the S (spike), E (envelope), M (membrane), and N (nucleocapsid) proteins, but prior study and vaccines development focused on genetic mutations in the S protein due to its vital role in allowing the virus to attach and fuse with the membrane of a host cell. Specifically, subunit S1 catalyzes attachment, whereas subunit S2 mediates fusion. In this perspective, we studied all charged amino acid mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 viral spike protein S1 when bound to Antibody CC12.1 in a crystal structure and assessed the effect of different mutations. We generated all missense mutants of SARS-CoV-2 protein amino acids (AAs) within the SARS-CoV-2:CC12.1 complex model. To generate the family of mutants in each complex, we mutated every charged amino acid with all other charged amino acids (Lysine (K), Arginine (R), Glutamic Acid (E), and Aspartic Acid (D)) and studied the new binding of the complex after each mutation. We applied Poisson-Boltzmann electrostatic calculations feeding into free energy calculations to determine the effect of each mutation on binding. After analyzing our data, we identified charged amino acids keys for binding. Furthermore, we validated those findings against published experimental genetic data. Our results are the first to propose in silico potential life-threatening mutations of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the present mutations found in the five common variants found worldwide.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, variant, ionic amino acid, protein-protein interactions, missense mutation, AESOP

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Babajide S. Adeokin, Oguntoyinbo O. Kazeem

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The not so pleasing state of the nation's quality of education has been a major area of research. Many researchers have looked into various aspects of the educational system and organizational structure in relation to the quality of service delivery of the staff members. However, there is paucity of research in areas relating to the sense of competence and commitment in relation to leadership styles. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the impact of leadership style and sense of competence on the performance of post-primary school teachers in Oyo state Nigeria. Data were generated across public secondary schools in the city using survey design method. Ibadan as a metropolis has eleven local government areas contained in it. A systematic random sampling technique of the eleven local government areas in Ibadan was done and five local government areas were selected. The selected local government areas are Akinyele, Ibadan North, Ibadan North-East, Ibadan South and Ibadan South-West. Data were obtained from a range of two – three public secondary schools selected in each of the local government areas mentioned above. Also, these secondary schools are a representation of the variations in the constructs under consideration across the Ibadan metropolis. Categorically, all secondary school teachers in Ibadan were clustered into selected schools in those found across the five local government areas. In all, a total of 272 questionnaires were administered to public secondary school teachers, while 241 were returned. Findings revealed that transformational leadership style makes room for job commitment when compared with transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. Teachers with a high sense of competence are more likely to demonstrate more commitment to their job than others with low sense of competence. We recommend that, it is important an assessment is made of the leadership styles employed by principals and school administrators. This guides administrators and principals in to having a clear, comprehensive knowledge of the style they currently adopt in the management of the staff and the school as a whole; and know where to begin the adjustment process from. Also to make an impact on student achievement, being attentive to teachers’ levels of commitment may be an important aspect of leadership for school principals.

Keywords: Ibadan, leadership style, sense of competence, teachers, public secondary schools

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Sahar Navabakhsh, Rokia Raslan, Yair Schwartz

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Decision-making on regeneration of housing estates, whether to refurbish or re-build, has been mostly triggered by economic factors. To enable sustainable growth, it is vital that environmental and social impacts of different scenarios are also taken into account. The methodology used to include all the three sustainable development pillars is called Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which comprises of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the assessment of environmental impacts of buildings. Current practice of LCA is regularly conducted post design stage and by sustainability experts. Not only is undertaking an LCA at this stage less effective, but issues such as the limited scope for the definition and assessment of environmental impacts, the implication of changes in the system boundary and the alteration of each of the variable metrics, employment of different Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods and use of various inventory data for Life Cycle Inventory Analysis can result in considerably contrasting results. Given the niche nature and scarce specialist domain of LCA of buildings, the majority of the stakeholders do not contribute to the generation or interpretation of the impact assessment, and the results can be generated and interpreted subjectively due to the mentioned uncertainties. For an effective and democratic assessment of environmental impacts, different stakeholders, and in particular the community and design team should collaborate in the process of data collection, assessment and analysis. This paper examines and evaluates a participatory approach to LCSA through the analysis of a case study of a housing estate in South West London. The study has been conducted throughout tier-based collaborative methods to collect and share data through surveys and co-design workshops with the community members and the design team as the main stakeholders. The assessment of lifecycle impacts is conducted throughout the process and has influenced the decision-making on the design of the Community Plan. The evaluation concludes better assessment transparency and outcome, alongside other socio-economic benefits of identifying and engaging the most contributive stakeholders in the process of conducting LCSA.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, participatory LCA, life cycle sustainability assessment, participatory processes, decision-making, housing estate regeneration

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Naghmeh M. Bandari, Javad Dargahi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy

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Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) has been widely performed around the world during the last two decades. RMIS demonstrates significant advantages over conventional surgery, e.g., improving the accuracy and dexterity of a surgeon, providing 3D vision, motion scaling, hand-eye coordination, decreasing tremor, and reducing x-ray exposure for surgeons. Despite benefits, surgeons cannot touch the surgical site and perceive tactile information. This happens due to the remote control of robots. The literature survey identified the lack of force feedback as the riskiest limitation in the existing technology. Without the perception of tool-tissue contact force, the surgeon might apply an excessive force causing tissue laceration or insufficient force causing tissue slippage. The primary use of force sensors has been to measure the tool-tissue interaction force in real-time in-situ. Design of a tactile sensor is subjected to a set of design requirements, e.g., biocompatibility, electrical-passivity, MRI-compatibility, miniaturization, ability to measure static and dynamic force. In this study, a planar optical fiber-based sensor was proposed to mount at the surgical grasper. It was developed based on the light intensity modulation principle. The deflectable part of the sensor was a beam modeled as a cantilever Euler-Bernoulli beam on rigid substrates. A semi-cylindrical indenter was attached to the bottom surface the beam at the mid-span. An optical fiber was secured at both ends on the same rigid substrates. The indenter was in contact with the fiber. External force on the sensor caused deflection in the beam and optical fiber simultaneously. The micro-bending of the optical fiber would consequently result in light power loss. The sensor was simulated and studied using finite element methods. A laser light beam with 800nm wavelength and 5mW power was used as the input to the optical fiber. The output power was measured using a photodetector. The voltage from photodetector was calibrated to the external force for a chirp input (0.1-5Hz). The range, resolution, and hysteresis of the sensor were studied under monotonic and harmonic external forces of 0-2.0N with 0 and 5Hz, respectively. The results confirmed the validity of proposed sensing principle. Also, the sensor demonstrated an acceptable linearity (R2 > 0.9). A minimum external force was observed below which no power loss was detectable. It is postulated that this phenomenon is attributed to the critical angle of the optical fiber to observe total internal reflection. The experimental results were of negligible hysteresis (R2 > 0.9) and in fair agreement with the simulations. In conclusion, the suggested planar sensor is assessed to be a cost-effective solution, feasible, and easy to use the sensor for being miniaturized and integrated at the tip of robotic graspers. Geometrical and optical factors affecting the minimum sensible force and the working range of the sensor should be studied and optimized. This design is intrinsically scalable and meets all the design requirements. Therefore, it has a significant potential of industrialization and mass production.

Keywords: force sensor, minimally invasive surgery, optical sensor, robotic surgery, tactile sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 212