Search results for: environmental value transfer platform

Authors: Ebrahim H. Kapeel, Ehab Safwat, Hossam Hendy, Ahmed M. Kamel, Yehia Z. Elhalwagy

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Motivated by the problem of the availability of high-fidelity flight simulation models for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This paper focuses on the geometric-mass inertia modeling and the actuation system modeling for the small fixed-wing UAVs. The UAV geometric parameters for the body, wing, horizontal and vertical tail are physically measured. Pendulum experiment with high-grade sensors and data analysis using MATLAB is used to estimate the airplane moment of inertia (MOI) model. Finally, UAV’s actuation system is modeled by estimating each servo transfer function by using the system identification, which uses experimental measurement for input and output angles through using field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Experimental results for the designed models are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the methodology. It also gives a very promising result to finalize the open-loop flight simulation model through modeling the propulsion system and the aerodynamic system.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle, geometric-mass inertia model, system identification, Simulink

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Authors: Mohd Khairezan Rahmat

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Since the impetus of becoming a develop country by the year 2020, the Malaysian government have been proactive in strengthening the integration of ICT into the national educational system. Teacher-education programs have the responsibility to prepare the nation future teachers by instilling in them the desire, confidence, and ability to fully utilized the potential of ICT into their instruction process. In an effort to fulfill this responsibility, teacher-education program are beginning to create alternatives means for preparing cutting-edge teachers. One of the alternatives is the student’s learning portal. In line with this mission, this study investigates the Faculty of Education, University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) pre-service teachers’ perception of usefulness, attitude, and ability toward the usage of the university learning portal, known as iLearn. The study also aimed to predict factors that might hinder the pre-service teachers’ decision to used iLearn as their platform in learning. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), was employed in analyzed the survey data. The suggested findings informed that pre-service teacher’s successful integration of the iLearn was highly influenced by their perception of usefulness of the system. The findings also suggested that the more familiar the pre-service teacher with the iLearn, the more possibility they will use the system. In light of similar study, the present findings hope to highlight the important to understand the user’s perception toward any proposed technology.

Keywords: e-learning, prediction factors, pre-service teacher, structural equation modeling (SEM)

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Authors: Ghada Moussa, Mamoud Owais

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Transit Route Network Design Problem (TrNDP) is the most important component in Transit planning, in which the overall cost of the public transportation system highly depends on it. The main purpose of this study is to develop a novel solution methodology for the TrNDP, which goes beyond pervious traditional sophisticated approaches. The novelty of the solution methodology, adopted in this paper, stands on the deterministic operators which are tackled to construct bus routes. The deterministic manner of the TrNDP solution relies on using linear and integer mathematical formulations that can be solved exactly with their standard solvers. The solution methodology has been tested through Mandl’s benchmark network problem. The test results showed that the methodology developed in this research is able to improve the given network solution in terms of number of constructed routes, direct transit service coverage, transfer directness and solution reliability. Although the set of routes resulted from the methodology would stand alone as a final efficient solution for TrNDP, it could be used as an initial solution for meta-heuristic procedures to approach global optimal. Based on the presented methodology, a more robust network optimization tool would be produced for public transportation planning purposes.

Keywords: integer programming, transit route design, transportation, urban planning

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Authors: Sylvie Studente, Filia J. Garivaldis

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The emotions and cognitions that underpin creative performance have been of interest for decades if not centuries, however, research evidence has still not conclusively offered reliable predictors of creativity. It is unclear whether stressors are detrimental to creative thinking, or whether some stress imposes necessary constraints to facilitate the creative process. The present research aims to examine the role of individual differences in self-regulation in influencing the links between emotions, cognitions, and creativity. Self-regulation is the capacity to disengage from moods that inhibit goal progress, and cope with failure, focus on impending intentions, and enhance the intrinsic appeal of tasks. Therefore, it is anticipated that individuals with an intuitive ability in self-regulation are able to harness their emotions and cognitions, to perform well on a creative task. In contrast, individuals with a deficiency in self-regulation will experience difficulty in such a task. Furthermore, stress in the form of positive and negative assessment feedback in the context of education will be manipulated to explore the interactive effects of environmental and individual difference factors on creative performance. The results will provide insight into the underlying factors associated with emotions and creativity, and inform future research in individual differences in cognition and emotion, and environmental triggers of creativity.

Keywords: creativity, feedback, self-regulation, stress

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Authors: A. V. Popa, C. Barna, V. Mihalache

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Being the largest port at the Black Sea and functioning as a civil and military nodal point between Europe and Asia, Constantza Port has become a potential target on the terrorist international agenda. The authors use qualitative research based on both face-to-face and online semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders (top decision-makers in the Romanian Naval Authority, Romanian Maritime Training Centre, National Company "Maritime Ports Administration" and military staff) in order to detect potential vulnerabilities which might be exploited by terrorists in the case of Constantza Port. Likewise, this will enable bringing together the experts’ opinions on potential mitigation measures. Subsequently, this paper formulates various counter-terrorism policies to enhance the robustness of Constantza Port under potential terror attacks and connects them with the attributions in the field of critical infrastructure protection conferred by the law to the lead national authority for preventing and countering terrorism, namely the Romanian Intelligence Service. Extending the national counterterrorism efforts to an international level, the authors propose the establishment – among the experts of the NATO member states of the Wider Black Sea Region – of a platform for the exchange of know-how and best practices in the field of critical infrastructure protection.

Keywords: Constantza Port, counter-terrorism policies, critical infrastructure protection, security, Wider Black Sea Region

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Authors: RAM PAL SINGH, VIKASH CHAUDHARY, MONIKA VERMA

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In this paper, we proposed the implementation of optimization based Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for watermarking of B-channel of color image in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain. ELM, a regularization algorithm, works based on generalized single-hidden-layer feed-forward neural networks (SLFNs). However, hidden layer parameters, generally called feature mapping in context of ELM need not to be tuned every time. This paper shows the embedding and extraction processes of watermark with the help of ELM and results are compared with already used machine learning models for watermarking.Here, a cover image is divide into suitable numbers of non-overlapping blocks of required size and DWT is applied to each block to be transformed in low frequency sub-band domain. Basically, ELM gives a unified leaning platform with a feature mapping, that is, mapping between hidden layer and output layer of SLFNs, is tried for watermark embedding and extraction purpose in a cover image. Although ELM has widespread application right from binary classification, multiclass classification to regression and function estimation etc. Unlike SVM based algorithm which achieve suboptimal solution with high computational complexity, ELM can provide better generalization performance results with very small complexity. Efficacy of optimization method based ELM algorithm is measured by using quantitative and qualitative parameters on a watermarked image even though image is subjected to different types of geometrical and conventional attacks.

Keywords: BER, DWT, extreme leaning machine (ELM), PSNR

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Authors: Lidan Wang, Shuyuan Zhao, Jianxin He

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In this paper, graphene-doped copper indium disulfide (rGO+CuInS2) composite nanofibers were fabricated via electrospinning, in situ synthesis, and carbonization, using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), copper dichloride (CuCl2), indium trichloride (InCl3), thiourea (C2H5NS) and graphene oxide nanosheets (Go) as the precursor solution for electrospinning. The average diameter of rGO+CuInS2 nanofibers were about 100 nm, and graphene nanosheets anchored with chalcopyrite CuInS2 nanocrystals 8-15 nm in diameter were overlapped and embedded, aligning along the fiber axial direction. The DSSC with a rGO+CuInS2 counter electrode exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 5.93%; better than the corresponding values for a DSSC with a CuInS2 counter electrode, and comparable to that of a reference DSSC with a Pt counter electrode. The excellent photoelectric performance of the rGO+CuInS2 counter electrode was attributed to its high specific surface area, which facilitated permeation of the liquid electrolytes, promoted electron and ion transfer and provided numerous catalytically active sites for the oxidation reaction of the electrolytic (I- /I3-).

Keywords: dye-sensitized solar cells, counter electrode, electrospinning, graphene

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Authors: Jinyoung Choi, Tae-Ho Yoon, Sunmook Lee

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Degradation of standard oxygen transfer efficiency (SOTE) with time was observed for the assessment of lifetime of metal-based air-diffuser, which displaced a polymer composite-based air-diffuser in order to attain a longer lifetime in the actual field. The degradation of air-diffuser occurred due to the failure of the formation of small and uniform air bubbles since the patterns formed on the disc of air-diffuser deteriorated and/or changed from their initial shapes while they were continuously exposed to the air blowing condition during the operation in the field. Therefore, the lifetime assessment of metal-based air-diffuser was carried out through an accelerated degradation test by accelerating the air-blowing conditions in 200 L/min, 300 L/min, and 400 L/min and the lifetime of normal operating condition at 120 L/min was predicted. It was found that Weibull distribution was the most proper one for describing the lifetime distribution of metal-based air-diffuser in the present study. The shape and scale parameters indicated that the accelerated blowing conditions were all within the acceleration domain. The lifetime was predicted by adopting inverse power model for a stress-life relationship and estimated to be B10=94,004 hrs with CL=95%. Acknowledgement: This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Grant number: N0001475).

Keywords: accelerated degradation test, air-diffuser, lifetime assessment, SOTE

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Authors: Asia Ashfaq, Muhammad Saud

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The present study aims to highlight the socio-economic aspect of international migration by analyzing the effect of remittances sent by adult male children on the well-being of left behind parents. Well-being of left behind parents was operationalized through two indicators as financial security and health-care facilities. For this purpose, quantitative research design was employed and a survey was conducted in three cities i.e. Gujrat, Jhelum and Mirpur. The data was collected from 94 respondents chosen--purposively--on the basis of certain characteristics including demographic profile of the respondents and their male children who must be living abroad. The findings of the study revealed that parents were getting money from their sons regularly. Parents were getting financial assistance from their children for managing their household expenditures, visiting good hospitals and the specialist doctors in case of illness. Lastly, the study concluded that the economic aspect of migration of male children has a significant impact on the health status of left behind parents with the value of correlation (r) =0.241 and level of significance as 0.019. The research study also gives some suggestions and provides future directions for research.

Keywords: international migration, left behind parents, Pakistan, remittances, well-being

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Authors: Víctor Martínez del Rey, Kourosh Nasr Esfahani, Amir Masoud Samani Majd

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In this experimental study, the behaviors of Mixed Oxidant solution components (MOS) and sodium hypochlorite (HYPO) as the most commonly applied surface disinfectant were compared through the effectiveness of chlorine disinfection as a function of the contact time and residual chlorine. In this regard, the variation of pH, free available chlorine (FAC) concentration, and electric conductivity (EC) of disinfection solutions in different concentrations were monitored over 48 h contact time. In parallel, the plant stress activated by chlorine-based disinfectants was assessed by comparing MOS and HYPO. The elements of pH and EC in the plant-soil and their environmental impacts, spread by disinfection solutions were analyzed through several concentrations of FAC including 500 mg/L, 1000 mg/L, and 5000 mg/L in irrigated water. All the experiments were carried out at the service station of Sant Cugat, Spain. The outcomes indicated lower pH and higher durability of MOS than HYPO at the same concentration of FAC which resulted in promising stability of FAC within MOS. Furthermore, the pH and EC value of plant-soil irrigated by NaOCl solution were higher than that of MOS solution at the same FAC concentration. On-site generation of MOS as a safe chlorination option might be considered an imaginary future of smart cities.

Keywords: disinfection, free available chlorine, on-site generation, sodium hypochlorite

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Authors: Alberto Veses, Olga Sanhauja, María Soledad Callén, Tomás García

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The appropriate use of renewable sources emerges as a decisive point to minimize the environmental impact caused by fossil fuels use. Particularly, the use of lignocellulosic biomass becomes one of the best promising alternatives since it is the only carbon-containing renewable source that can produce bioproducts similar to fossil fuels and it does not compete with food market. Among all the processes that can valorize lignocellulosic biomass, pyrolysis is an attractive alternative because it is the only thermochemical process that can produce a liquid biofuel (bio-oil) in a simple way and solid and gas fractions that can be used as energy sources to support the process. However, in order to incorporate bio-oils in current infrastructures and further process in future biorefineries, their quality needs to be improved. Introducing different low-cost catalysts and/or incorporating different polymer residues to the process are some of the new, simple and low-cost strategies that allow the user to directly obtain advanced bio-oils to be used in future biorefineries in an economic way. In this manner, from previous thermogravimetric analyses, local agricultural wastes such as grape seeds (GS) were selected as lignocellulosic biomass while, waste tires (WT) were selected as polymer residue. On the other hand, CaO was selected as low-cost catalyst based on previous experiences by the group. To reach this aim, a specially-designed fixed bed reactor using N₂ as a carrier gas was used. This reactor has the peculiarity to incorporate a vertical mobile liner that allows the user to introduce the feedstock in the oven once the selected temperature (550 ºC) is reached, ensuring higher heating rates needed for the process. Obtaining a well-defined phase distribution in the resulting bio-oil is crucial to ensure the viability to the process. Thus, once experiments were carried out, not only a well-defined two layers was observed introducing several mixtures (reaching values up to 40 wt.% of WT) but also, an upgraded organic phase, which is the one considered to be processed in further biorefineries. Radical interactions between GS and WT released during the pyrolysis process and dehydration reactions enhanced by CaO can promote the formation of better-quality bio-oils. The latter was reflected in a reduction of water and oxygen content of bio-oil and hence, a substantial increase of its heating value and its stability. Moreover, not only sulphur content was reduced from solely WT pyrolysis but also potential and negative issues related to a strong acidic environment of conventional bio-oils were minimized due to its basic pH and lower total acid numbers. Therefore, acidic compounds obtained in the pyrolysis such as CO₂-like substances can react with the CaO and minimize acidic problems related to lignocellulosic bio-oils. Moreover, this CO₂ capture promotes H₂ production from water gas shift reaction favoring hydrogen-transfer reactions, improving the final quality of the bio-oil. These results show the great potential of grapes seeds to carry out the catalytic co-pyrolysis process with different plastic residues in order to produce a liquid bio-oil that can be considered as a high-quality renewable vector.

Keywords: advanced bio-oils, biorefinery, catalytic co-pyrolysis of biomass and waste tires, lignocellulosic biomass

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Authors: N. S. Vassilieva-Vashakmadze, R. A. Gakhokidze, I. M. Khachatryan

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In the first part of the paper it is shown that both the depolarization of the cytoplasmic membrane of rods observed in invertebrates and hyperpolarization characteristic of vertebrates on the light may activate the functioning of ion (Na+) channels of cytoplasmic membrane of rods and thus provide the emergence of nerve impulse and its transfer to the neighboring neuron etc. In the second part, using the quantum mechanical program for modeling of the molecular processes, we got a clear picture demonstrating the effect of charged phosphate groups on the protein components of α-helical subunits of the visual rhodopsin receptor. The analysis shows that the phosphorylation of terminal amino acid of seventh α-helical subunits of the visual rhodopsin causes a redistribution of electron density on the atoms, i.e. polarization of subunits, also the changing the configuration of the nuclear subsystem, which corresponds to the deformation process in the molecule. Based on the use of models it can be concluded that this system has an internal relationship between polarization and deformation processes that indicates on the allosteric effect. The allosteric effect is based on quantum-mechanical principle of the self-consistency of the molecules.

Keywords: membrane potential, ion channels, visual rhodopsin, allosteric effect

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Authors: Jing Zhang

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Sustainable development in the new energy vehicles field is the requirement of the net zero aim. Green bonds are accepted as a practical financial tool to boost the transformation of relevant enterprises. The paper analyzes the interactions among governments, enterprises of new energy vehicles, and financial institutions by an evolutionary game theory model and offers advice to stakeholders in China. The decision-making subjects of green behavior are affected by experiences, interests, perception ability, and risk preference, so it is difficult for them to be completely rational. Based on the bounded rationality hypothesis, this paper applies prospect theory in the evolutionary game analysis framework and analyses the costs of government regulation of enterprises adopting green bonds. The influence of the perceived value of revenue prospect and the probability and risk transfer coefficient of the government's active regulation on the decision-making agent's strategy is verified by numerical simulation. Finally, according to the research conclusions, policy suggestions are given to promote green bonds.

Keywords: green bonds, new energy vehicles, sustainable development, evolutionary Game Theory model

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Authors: Vanessa Morgado, Ricardo Bettencourt da Silva, Carla Palma

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The environmental pollution by microplastics is well recognized. Microplastics were already detected in various matrices from distinct environmental compartments worldwide, some from remote areas. Various methodologies and techniques have been used to determine microplastic in such matrices, for instance, sediment samples from the ocean bottom. In order to determine microplastics in a sediment matrix, the sample is typically sieved through a 5 mm mesh, digested to remove the organic matter, and density separated to isolate microplastics from the denser part of the sediment. The physical analysis of microplastic consists of visual analysis under a stereomicroscope to determine particle size, colour, and shape. The chemical analysis is performed by an infrared spectrometer coupled to a microscope (micro-FTIR), allowing to the identification of the chemical composition of microplastic, i.e., the type of polymer. Creating legislation and policies to control and manage (micro)plastic pollution is essential to protect the environment, namely the coastal areas. The regulation is defined from the known relevance and trends of the pollution type. This work discusses the assessment of contamination trends of a 700 km² oceanic area affected by contamination heterogeneity, sampling representativeness, and the uncertainty of the analysis of collected samples. The methodology developed consists of objectively identifying meaningful variations of microplastic contamination by the Monte Carlo simulation of all uncertainty sources. This work allowed us to unequivocally conclude that the contamination level of the studied area did not vary significantly between two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) and that PET microplastics are the major type of polymer. The comparison of contamination levels was performed for a 99% confidence level. The developed know-how is crucial for the objective and binding determination of microplastic contamination in relevant environmental compartments.

Keywords: measurement uncertainty, micro-ATR-FTIR, microplastics, ocean contamination, sampling uncertainty

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Authors: Liz Carmem Silva-Pereira, Raffael Alencar Mesquita Rodrigues, Francisco Helton Mendes Barbosa, Emerson de Freitas Ferreira

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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic declared in March 2020 by the World Health Organization, the way of social coexistence across the planet was affected, especially in educational processes, from the implementation of the remote modality as a teaching strategy. This teaching-learning modality caused a change in the routine and learning of basic education students, which resulted in serious consequences for the return to face-to-face teaching in 2021. 2022, at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Pará (IFPA) – Campus Paragominas had their training process severely affected, having studied the initial half of their training in the remote modality, which compromised the carrying out of practical classes, technical visits and field classes, essential for the student formation on the environmental technician. With the objective of promoting the recomposition of these students' learning after returning to the face-to-face modality, an educational strategy was developed in the last period of the course. As teaching methodologies were used for research as an educational principle, the integrative project and the parallel recovery action applied jointly, aiming at recomposing the basic knowledge of the natural sciences, together with the technical knowledge of the environmental area applied to the course. The project assisted 58 finalist students of the environmental technical course. A research instrument was elaborated with parameters of evaluation of the environmental quality for study in 19 collection points, in the Uraim River urban hydrographic basin, in the Paragominas City – Pará – Brazilian Amazon. Students were separated into groups under the professors' and laboratory assistants’ orientation, and in the field, they observed and evaluated the places' environmental conditions and collected physical data and water samples, which were taken to the chemistry and biology laboratories at Campus Paragominas for further analysis. With the results obtained, each group prepared a technical report on the environmental conditions of each evaluated point. This work methodology enabled the practical application of theoretical knowledge received in various disciplines during the remote teaching modality, contemplating the integration of knowledge, people, skills, and abilities for the best technical training of finalist students. At the activity end, the satisfaction of the involved students in the project was evaluated, through a form, with the signing of the informed consent term, using the Likert scale as an evaluation parameter. The results obtained in the satisfaction survey were: on the use of research projects within the disciplines attended, 82% of satisfaction was obtained; regarding the revision of contents in the execution of the project, 84% of satisfaction was obtained; regarding the acquired field experience, 76.9% of satisfaction was obtained, regarding the laboratory experience, 86.2% of satisfaction was obtained, and regarding the use of this methodology as parallel recovery, 71.8% was obtained of satisfaction. In addition to the excellent performance of students in acquiring knowledge, it was possible to remedy the deficiencies caused by the absence of practical classes, technical visits, and field classes, which occurred during the execution of the remote teaching modality, fulfilling the desired educational recomposition.

Keywords: integrative project, parallel recovery, research as an educational principle, teaching-learning

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Authors: Ioannis Binas, Marios Moschakis

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Electrical faults in transmission and distribution networks can have great impact on the electrical equipment used. Fault effects depend on the characteristics of the fault as well as the network itself. It is important to anticipate the network’s behavior during faults when planning a new equipment installation, as well as troubleshooting. Moreover, working backwards, we could be able to estimate the characteristics of the fault when checking the perceived effects. Different transformer winding connections dominantly used in the Greek power transfer and distribution networks and the effects of 1-phase to neutral, phase-to-phase, 2-phases to neutral and 3-phase faults on different locations of the network were simulated in order to present voltage sag characteristics. The study was performed on a generic network with three steps down transformers on two voltage level buses (one 150 kV/20 kV transformer and two 20 kV/0.4 kV). We found that during faults, there are significant changes both on voltage magnitudes and on phase angles. The simulations and short-circuit analysis were performed using the PSCAD simulation package. This paper presents voltage characteristics calculated for the simulated network, with different approaches on the transformer winding connections during symmetrical and asymmetrical faults on various locations.

Keywords: Phase angle shift, power quality, transformer winding connections, voltage sag propagation

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Authors: Sónia Ribeiro, Diana Farinha, Elsa Pereira, Hélia Sales, Filipa Figueiredo, Rita Pontes, João Nunes

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Conventional plastic impacts on Planet, natural resources contamination, human health as well as animals are the most attractive environmental and health attention. The lack of treatment in the end-of-life (EOL) phase and uncontrolled discard allows plastic to be found everywhere in the world. Food waste is increasing significantly, with a final destination to landfills. To face these difficulties, new packaging solutions are needed with the objective of prolonging the shelf-life of products as well as equipment solutions for the development of the mentioned packaging. FLUI project thus presents relevance and innovation to reach a new level of knowledge and industrial development focused in Ecodesign. Industrial equipment field for the manufacture of new packaging solutions based on biodegradable plastics films to apply in the food sector. With lesser environmental impacts and new solutions that make it possible to prevent food waste, reduce the production e consequent poor disposal of plastic of fossil origin. It will be a paradigm shift at different levels, from industry to waste treatment stations, passing through commercial agents and consumers. It can be achieved through the life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign of the products, which integrates the environmental concerns in the design of the product as well as through the entire life cycle. The FLUI project aims to build a piece of new bio-PLA extrusion equipment with the incorporation of bioactive extracts through the production of flexible mono- and multi-layer functional films (FLUI systems). The biofunctional and biodegradable films will prompt the extension of packaged products’ shelf-life, reduce food waste and contribute to reducing the consumption of non-degradable fossil plastics, as well as the use of raw material from renewable sources.

Keywords: food packing, bioplastics, ecodesign, circular economy

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Authors: Emmanuel Ukpe, S. M. F. D. Syed Mustapha

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Trust in an organization has been perceived as one of the key factors behind knowledge sharing, mainly in an unstructured work environment. In an informal working environment, to instill trust among individuals is a challenge and even more in the virtual environment. The study has contributed in developing the framework for building trust in an unstructured organization in performing knowledge sharing in a virtual environment. The artifact called KAPE (Knowledge Acquisition, Processing, and Exchange) was developed for knowledge sharing for the informal organization where the framework was incorporated. It applies to Cassava farmers to facilitate knowledge sharing using web-based platform. A survey was conducted; data were collected from 382 farmers from 21 farm communities. Multiple regression technique, Cronbach’s Alpha reliability test; Tukey’s Honestly significant difference (HSD) analysis; one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and all trust acceptable measures (TAM) were used to test the hypothesis and to determine noteworthy relationships. The results show a significant difference when there is a trust in knowledge sharing between farmers, the ones who have high in trust acceptable factors found in the model (M = 3.66 SD = .93) and the ones who have low on trust acceptable factors (M = 2.08 SD = .28), (t (48) = 5.69, p = .00). Furthermore, when applying Cognitive Expectancy Theory, the farmers with cognitive-consonance show higher level of trust and satisfaction with knowledge and information from KAPE, as compared with a low level of cognitive-dissonance. These results imply that the adopted trust model KAPE positively improved knowledge sharing activities in an informal environment amongst rural farmers.

Keywords: trust, knowledge, sharing, knowledge acquisition, processing and exchange, KAPE

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Authors: Gurkirat Kaur, Manoj Kumar, Manju Bala

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Ethernet is the most influential and widely used technology in the world. With the growing demand of low latency and high throughput technologies like InfiniBand and RoCE, unique features viz. RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) have evolved. RDMA is an effective technology which is used for reducing system load and improving performance. InfiniBand is a well known technology which provides high-bandwidth and low-latency and makes optimal use of in-built features like RDMA. With the rapid evolution of InfiniBand technology and Ethernet lacking the RDMA and zero copy protocol, the Ethernet community has came out with a new enhancements that bridges the gap between InfiniBand and Ethernet. By adding the RDMA and zero copy protocol to the Ethernet a new networking technology is evolved, called RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE). RoCE is a standard released by the IBTA standardization body to define RDMA protocol over Ethernet. With the emergence of lossless Ethernet, RoCE uses InfiniBand’s efficient transport to provide the platform for deploying RDMA technology in mainstream data centres over 10GigE, 40GigE and beyond. RoCE provide all of the InfiniBand benefits transport benefits and well established RDMA ecosystem combined with converged Ethernet. In this paper, we evaluate the heterogeneous Linux cluster, having multi nodes with fast interconnects i.e. gigabit Ethernet and Soft RoCE. This paper presents the heterogeneous Linux cluster configuration and evaluates its performance using Intel’s MPI Benchmarks. Our result shows that Soft RoCE is performing better than Ethernet in various performance metrics like bandwidth, latency and throughput.

Keywords: ethernet, InfiniBand, RoCE, RDMA, MPI, Soft RoCE

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Authors: Dmitrii Glushkov, Aleksandr G. Nigay, Olga S. Yashutina

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In recent years, due to the intensive development of the Arctic and Antarctic areas, the actual task is to develop technology for the effective utilization of solid and liquid combustible wastes in an environment with low temperatures. Firstly, such technology will help to prevent the dumping of waste into the World Ocean and reduce the risks of causing environmental damage to the Far North areas. Secondly, promising actions will help to prepare fuel compositions from the waste in the places of their production. Such kind of fuels can be used as energy resources. It will reduce waste utilization costs when transporting them to the mainland. In the present study, we suggest a solution to the problem of waste utilization by the preparation of gel fuels based on solid and liquid combustible components with the addition of the thickener. Such kind of fuels is characterized by ease of preparation, storage, transportation and use (as energy resources). The main regularities and characteristics of physical and chemical processes are established with varying parameters of gel fuels and heating sources in wide ranges. The obtained results let us conclude about the prospects of gel fuels practical application for combustible wastes utilization. Appropriate technology will be characterized by positive environmental, operational and economic effects. The composition of the gel fuels can vary in a wide range. The fuels preparation based on one type of a combustible liquid or a several liquids mixture with the finely dispersed components addition makes it possible to obtain compositions with predicted rheological, energy or environmental characteristics. Besides, gel fuels have a lower level of the fire hazard compared to common solid and liquid fuels. This makes them convenient for storage and transportation. In such conditions, it is not necessary to transport combustible wastes from the territory of the Arctic and the Antarctic to the mainland for processing, which is now quite an expensive procedure. The research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 18-13-00031).

Keywords: combustible liquid waste, gel fuel, ignition and combustion, utilization

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Authors: Kathrin Endres, Daniela Greven

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Although chatbots are a widely known and established communication instrument in B2C customer services, B2B industries still hesitate to implement chatbots due to the incertitude of customer acceptance. While many studies examine the chatbot acceptance of B2C consumers, few studies are focusing on the B2B sector, where the customer is represented by a buying center consisting of several stakeholders. This study investigates the challenges of chatbot acceptance in B2B industries compared to challenges of chatbot acceptance from current B2C literature by interviewing experts from German chatbot vendors. The results show many similarities between the customer requirements of B2B customers and B2C consumers. Still, due to several stakeholders involved in the buying center, the features of the chatbot users are more diverse but obfuscated at the same time. Using a factorial survey, this study further examines the customer acceptance of varying situations of B2B chatbot designs based on the chatbot variables transparency, fault tolerance, complexity of products, value of products, as well as transfer to live chat service employees. The findings show that all variables influence the propensity to use the chatbot. The results contribute to a better understanding of how firms in B2B industries can design chatbots to advance their customer service and enhance customer satisfaction.

Keywords: chatbots, technology acceptance, B2B customer service, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Jalal Karam

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The methods of Fourier, Laplace, and Wavelet Transforms provide transfer functions and relationships between the input and the output signals in linear time invariant systems. This paper shows the equivalence among these three methods and in each case presenting an application of the appropriate (Fourier, Laplace or Wavelet) to the convolution theorem. In addition, it is shown that the same holds for a direct integration method. The Biorthogonal wavelets Bior3.5 and Bior3.9 are examined and the zeros distribution of their polynomials associated filters are located. This paper also presents the significance of utilizing wavelets as effective tools in processing speech signals for common multimedia applications in general, and for recognition and compression in particular. Theoretically and practically, wavelets have proved to be effective and competitive. The practical use of the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) in processing and analysis of speech is then presented along with explanations of how the human ear can be thought of as a natural wavelet transformer of speech. This generates a variety of approaches for applying the (CWT) to many paradigms analysing speech, sound and music. For perception, the flexibility of implementation of this transform allows the construction of numerous scales and we include two of them. Results for speech recognition and speech compression are then included.

Keywords: continuous wavelet transform, biorthogonal wavelets, speech perception, recognition and compression

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Authors: Nwachukwu M. A., Nwachukwu J. I., Anyanwu J., Emeka U., Okorondu J., Acholonu C.

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Actualization of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) conceived by the United Nations in 2015 is a global challenge that may not be feasible in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2030, except universities play a committed role. This is because; there is a need to educate the people about the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in the region to make the desired change. Here is a sensitization paper with a model of intervention and curricular planning to allow advancement in understanding and knowledge of SDGs. This Model Center for Sustainability Studies (MCSS) will enable partnerships with institutions in Africa and in advanced nations, thereby creating a global network for sustainability studies not found in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS will train and certify public servants, government agencies, policymakers, entrepreneurs and personnel from organizations, and students on aspects of the SDGs and sustainability science. There is a need to add sustainability knowledge into environmental education and make environmental education a compulsory course in higher institutions and a secondary school certificate exam subject in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS has 11 training modules that can be replicated anywhere in the world.

Keywords: sustainability, higher institutions, training, SDGs, collaboration, sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: Radka Králová, Libor Kvítek, Václav Ranc, Aleš Panáček, Radek Zbořil

Abstract:

Surface–Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) is an optical spectroscopic technique with very good potential for sensitive detection of substances. In this research, active substrates with high enhancement were provided. Novel silver particles (nanostructures) with high roughened, flower–like morphology were prepared by reduction of cation complex [Ag(NH3)2]+ in presence of sodium borohydride as reducing agent and stabilized polyacrylic acid. The products were characterized by UV/VIS absorption spectrophotometry. Special shapes of silver particles were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM). Dispersions of this particle were put on fixed substrate to producing suitable layer for SERS. Adenine was applied as basic substance whose effect of enhancement on the layer of silver nanostructures was studied. By comparison with our work, the important influence of stabilizers, polyacrylic acid with various molecular weight and concentration, on the transfer of particles and formation of new structure was confirmed.

Keywords: metals, nanostructures, chemical reduction, Raman spectroscopy, optical properties

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Authors: Gimhani Madhushika Hewayalage, Thilini Ariyadasa, Sanja Gunawardena

Abstract:

In Sri Lanka, the largest contribution for the industrial export earnings is governed by textile and apparel industry. However, this industry generates huge quantities of effluent consists of unfixed dyes which enhance the effluent colour and toxicity thereby leading towards environmental pollution. Therefore, the effluent should properly be treated prior to the release into the environment. The biological technique has now captured much attention as an environmental-friendly and cost-competitive effluent decolourization method due to the drawbacks of physical and chemical treatment techniques. The present study has focused on identifying dye decolourizing potential of several bacterial isolates obtained from the effluent of the local textile industry. Yellow EXF, Red EXF, Blue EXF, Nova Black WNN and Nylosan-Rhodamine-EB dyes have been selected for the study to represent different chromophore groups such as Azo and Xanthene. The rates of decolorization of each dye have been investigated by employing distinct bacterial isolates. Bacterial isolate which exhibited effective dye decolorizing potential was identified as Proteus mirabilis using 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. The high decolorizing rates of identified bacterial strain indicate its potential applicability in the treatment of dye-containing wastewaters.

Keywords: azo, bacterial, biological, decolourization, xanthene

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Authors: Rashmi Tomar, A. Srinivasan, Nayan K. Mohanty, Arun K. Jain

Abstract:

Phthalates have been used as additives in industrial products since the 1930s, and are universally considered to be ubiquitous environmental contaminants. The general population is exposed to phthalates through consumer products, as well as diet and medical treatments. Animal studies showing the existence of an association between some phthalates and testicular toxicity have generated public and scientific concern about the potential adverse effects of environmental changes on male reproductive health. Unprecedented declines in fertility rates and semen quality have been reported during the last half of the 20th century in developed countries and increasing interest exists on the potential relationship between exposure to environmental contaminants, including phthalates, and human male reproductive health Studies. Phthalates may be associated with altered endocrine function and adverse effects on male reproductive development and function, but human studies are limited. The aim of the present study was detection of phthalate compounds, estimation of their metabolites in infertile & fertile male. Blood and urine samples were collected from 150 infertile patients & 75 fertile volunteers recruited through Department of Urology, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. Blood have been collected in separate glass tubes from the antecubital vein of the patients, serum have been separate and estimate the phthalate level in serum samples by Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry using NIOSH / OSHA detailed protocol. Urine of Infertile & Fertile Subjects was collected & extracted using solid phase extraction method, analysis by HPLC. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge the present study based on human is first to show the presence of phthalate in human serum samples and their metabolites in urine samples. Significant differences were observed between several phthalates in infertile and fertile healthy individuals.

Keywords: Gas Chromatography, HPLC, male infertility, phthalates, serum, toxicity, urine

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Authors: Anthony Chidi Ezika, Gbolahan Joseph Adekoya, Emmanuel Rotimi Sadiku, Yskandar Hamam, Suprakas Sinha Ray

Abstract:

High-energy-density polymer/ceramic composites require a high breakdown strength and dielectric constant. Interface polarization and electric percolation are responsible for the high dielectric constant. In order to create composite dielectrics, high conductivity ceramic particles are combined with polymers to increase the dielectric constant. In this study, bonding and the non-uniform distribution of charges in the ceramic/ceramic interface zone are investigated using density functional theory (DFT) modeling. This non-uniform distribution of charges is intended to improve the ceramic/ceramic interface's dipole polarization (dielectric response). The interfacial chemical bond formation can also improve the structural stability of the hybrid filler and, consequently, of the composite films. To comprehend the electron-transfer process, the density of state and electron localization function of the PPy with hybrid fillers are also studied. The polymer nanocomposite is anticipated to provide a suitable dielectric response for energy storage applications.

Keywords: energy storage, V₂C/ ZnS hybrid, polypyrrole, MXene, nanocomposite, dielectric

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Authors: S. P. Praveen Kumar, Bong-Su Sin, Kwon-Hee Lee

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Finned-tube heat exchangers are predominantly used in space conditioning systems, as well as other applications requiring heat exchange between two fluids. The design of finned-tube heat exchangers requires the selection of over a dozen design parameters by the designer such as tube pitch, tube diameter, tube thickness, etc. Finned-tube heat exchangers are common devices; however, their performance characteristics are complicated. In this paper, numerical studies have been carried out to analyze the performances of finned tube heat exchanger (without fins considered for experimental purpose) by predicting the characteristics of temperature difference and pressure drop. In this study, a design considering 5 design variables, maximizing the temperature difference and minimizing the pressure drop was suggested by applying DOE. In this process, L18 orthogonal array was adopted. Parametric analytical studies have been carried out using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the relative importance of each variable with respect to the temperature difference and the pressure drop. Following the results, the final design was suggested by predicting the optimum design therefore confirming the optimized condition.

Keywords: heat exchanger, fluid analysis, heat transfer, design of experiment, analysis of variance

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Authors: Chaouki Ghenai

Abstract:

Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis of co-combustion of coal/biomass waste fuel blends is presented in this study. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of biomass portions (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%: weight percent) blended with coal and oxygen concentrations (21% for air, 35%, 50%, 75% and 100 % for pure oxygen) on the combustion performance and emissions. The goal is to reduce the air emissions from power plants coal combustion. Sub-bituminous Nigerian coal with calorific value of 32.51 MJ/kg and sawdust (biomass) with calorific value of 16.68 MJ/kg is used in this study. Coal/Biomass fuel blends co-combustion is modeled using mixture fraction/pdf approach for non-premixed combustion and Discrete Phase Modeling (DPM) to predict the trajectories and the heat/mass transfer of the fuel blend particles. The results show the effects of oxygen concentrations and biomass portions in the coal/biomass fuel blends on the gas and particles temperatures, the flow field, the devolitization and burnout rates inside the combustor and the CO2 and NOX emissions at the exit from the combustor. The results obtained in the course of this study show the benefits of enriching combustion air with oxygen and blending biomass waste with coal for reducing the harmful emissions from coal power plants.

Keywords: co-combustion, coal, biomass, fuel blends, CFD, air emissions

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Authors: Juan Sebastián Hernández

Abstract:

The Nevado del Ruíz volcano, located between the limits of the Departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, presented an unstable behaviour in the course of the year 2020, this volcanic activity led to secondary effects on the crust, which is why the prediction of deformations becomes the task of geoscientists. In the course of this article, the use of tropospheric variables such as evapotranspiration, UV aerosol index, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, methane, surface temperature, among others, is used to train a set of neural networks that can predict the behaviour of the resulting phase of an unrolled interferogram with the DInSAR technique, whose main objective is to identify and characterise the behaviour of the crust based on the environmental conditions. For this purpose, variables were collected, a generalised linear model was created, and a set of neural networks was created. After the training of the network, validation was carried out with the test data, giving an MSE of 0.17598 and an associated r-squared of approximately 0.88454. The resulting model provided a dataset with good thematic accuracy, reflecting the behaviour of the volcano in 2020, given a set of environmental characteristics.

Keywords: crustal deformation, Tropomi, neural networks (ANN), volcanic activity, DInSAR

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