Search results for: bioactive compounds interaction

Authors: Azeez Shaik, Amit Salvi, B. P. Gautham

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Fiber reinforced polymer resin composite materials are finding wide variety of applications in automotive and aerospace industry because of their high specific stiffness and specific strengths when compared to metals. New class of 2D and 3D textile and woven fabric composites offer excellent fracture toughens as they bridge the cracks formed during fracture. Due to complexity of their fiber architectures and its resulting composite microstructures, optimized design and analysis of these structures is very complicated. A traditional homogenization approach is typically used to analyze structures made up of these materials. This approach usually fails to predict damage initiation as well as damage propagation and ultimate failure of structure made up of woven and textile composites. This study demonstrates a methodology to analyze woven and textile composites by using the multi-level multi-scale modelling approach. In this approach, a geometric repetitive unit cell (RUC) is developed with all its constituents to develop a representative volume element (RVE) with all its constituents and their interaction modeled correctly. The structure is modeled based on the RUC/RVE and analyzed at different length scales with desired levels of fidelity incorporating the damage and failure. The results are passed across (up and down) the scales qualitatively as well as quantitatively from the perspective of material, configuration and architecture.

Keywords: cohesive zone, multi-scale modeling, rate dependency, RUC, woven textiles

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Authors: Rong Wang, Sandra Hasanefendic, Elizabeth von Hauff, Bart Bossink

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Technological learning and learning curve models have been continuously used to estimate the photovoltaics (PV) cost development over time for the climate mitigation targets. They can integrate a number of technological learning sources which influence the learning process. Yet the accuracy and realistic predictions for cost estimations of PV development are still difficult to achieve. This paper develops four hypothetical-alternative learning curve models by proposing different combinations of technological learning sources, including both local and global technology experience and the knowledge stock. This paper specifically focuses on the non-linear relationship between the costs and technological learning source and their dynamic interaction and uses the system dynamics approach to predict a more accurate PV cost estimation for future development. As the case study, the data from China is gathered and drawn to illustrate that the learning curve model that incorporates both the global and local experience is more accurate and realistic than the other three models for PV cost estimation. Further, absorbing and integrating the global experience into the local industry has a positive impact on PV cost reduction. Although the learning curve model incorporating knowledge stock is not realistic for current PV cost deployment in China, it still plays an effective positive role in future PV cost reduction.

Keywords: photovoltaic, system dynamics, technological learning, learning curve

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Authors: Qiang Wang, Hongyang Yu

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Multi-human 3D pose estimation is a challenging task in computer vision, which aims to recover the 3D joint locations of multiple people from multi-view images. In contrast to traditional methods, which typically only use color (RGB) images as input, our approach utilizes both color and depth (D) information contained in RGB-D images. We also employ a transformer-based model as the backbone of our approach, which is able to capture long-range dependencies and has been shown to perform well on various sequence modeling tasks. Our method is trained and tested on the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Panoptic dataset, which contains a diverse set of indoor and outdoor scenes with multiple people in varying poses and clothing. We evaluate the performance of our model on the standard 3D pose estimation metrics of mean per-joint position error (MPJPE). Our results show that the transformer-based approach outperforms traditional methods and achieves competitive results on the CMU Panoptic dataset. We also perform an ablation study to understand the impact of different design choices on the overall performance of the model. In summary, our work demonstrates the effectiveness of using a transformer-based approach with RGB-D images for multi-human 3D pose estimation and has potential applications in real-world scenarios such as human-computer interaction, robotics, and augmented reality.

Keywords: multi-human 3D pose estimation, RGB-D images, transformer, 3D joint locations

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Authors: Denise Schrama, Claudia Raposo, Pedro Rodrigues

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Background: Food allergies are conducted by a hypersensitive response of the immune system. These allergies are a global concern for the public health. Consumption of fish is increasing worldwide as it is a healthy meat with high nutritional value. Unfortunately, fish can cause adverse immune-mediate reactions, affecting part of the population with higher incidence in children. β-parvalbumin, a small, highly conserved stable, calcium or magnesium binding muscle protein is the main fish allergen. In fish-allergic patients, cross-reactivity between different fish species exist due to recognition of highly identical protein regions. Enolases, aldolases, or fish gelatin are other identified fish allergens in some fish species. With no available cure for fish allergies, clinical management is only based on an avoidance diet aiming at the total exclusion of offending food. Methods: Mediterranean fish (S. aurata and D. labrax) were fed specifically designed diets, enriched in components that target the expression or inactivation of parvalbumin (creatine and EDTA, respectively). After 90 days fish were sampled and biological tissues were excised. Proteomics was used to access fish allergens characterization and expression in muscle while IgE assays to confirm the lower allergenic potential are conducted in patients with history of fish allergies. Fish welfare and quality of flesh were established with biochemical, texture and sensorial analysis. Results: Fish welfare shows no major impact between diets. In case of creatine supplementation in D. labrax proteomic analysis show a slight decrease in parvalbumin expression. No accumulation of this compound was found in muscle. For EDTA supplementation in S. aurata IgE assay show a slight decrease in allergenicity when using sera of fish allergic patients. Conclusion: Supplementation with these two compounds seems to change slightly the allergenicity of the two mean Mediterranean species.

Keywords: fish allergies, fish nutrition, proteomics, aquaculture

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Authors: Divya Dawadi, Kerry Bissaker

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Inclusion of children with a disability (CwD) in Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) programs in Nepal while viewed as desirable is not widespread. Even though the ECED program is currently providing access to ECED services for one million young children, with the aim to improve children's school readiness by equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed more effectively in their primary schooling, access to early year's education in inclusive settings for CwD is challenging. Using a heuristic qualitative design, this research aims to construct a framework by analyzing the perspectives of parents and professionals through interviews and focus group discussions, with a view to recommending a new policy to address the rights of CwD and their families. Several school-based and/or organizational and contextual factors interact to contribute to CwD becoming victims of multiple layers of exclusion. The school-based factors include policy, attitudes, teacher efficacy, resources, coordination and parental engagement. The contextual factors are spirituality, caste ethnicity, language, economic status, and geographic location. However, there is a varied effect of the interaction between school-based and contextual factors on different groups of CwD. A policy needs to recognize the multiplicity of the interactions between these factors that inhibit the inclusion of varied groups of CwD in ECED programs and address them separately.

Keywords: children with a disability, early childhood education and development, framework, inclusion

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Authors: Malgorzata Rudnicka, Waldemar Karcz

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Introduction: Naphthoquinones are widely occurring organic compounds produced by bacteria, fungi, and plants. They can act as the functional components of biochemical systems (plastoquinone) as well as biologically active substances, which have a negative impact on environmental processes. Naphthoquinones seem to act through two mechanisms: a covalent modification of biological molecules at their nucleophilic sites or by generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) connected with redox cycling. Investigating the effect of naphthoquinones (1,4-naphthoquinone, lawsone and naphthazarin) on the elongation growth, membrane potential and the level of oxidative stress of maize cells seems to be important due to the possibility of using these substances as herbicides. Methods: All experiments were performed on etiolated maize coleoptile segments. Simultaneous measurements of elongation growth and pH of the incubation medium were carried out using an angular position transducer, allowing a precise record of the growth kinetics. To compare the oxidative stress level induced by all tested naphthoquinones, the changes in malondialdehyde content, as well as superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were measured. In order to measure the membrane potential of parenchymal cells the standard electrophysiology technique was used. Results: Naphthoquinones such as: 1,4-naphthoquinone, lawsone and naphthazarin were studied. It was found that all of the naphthoquinones diminished the growth of the maize coleoptile cells depending on the type of naphthoquinones and their concentration. Interestingly, naphthazarin at the intermediate concentration was less toxic compared to the others. In addition, the effect of naphthoquinones on the oxidative stress was dependent on their concentration as well. Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were changed in the presence of higher concentrations of naphthoquinones. Similar interrelations were observed for membrane potential changes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that naphthoquinones tested differ in their toxic effect on the growth of maize coleoptile cells. Furthermore, naphthoquinones can be distinguish considering the oxidative stress level and membrane potential changes. The results presented here give new insight into the possible opportunities of practical usage of naphthoquinones for herbicides improvement.

Keywords: growth rate, membrane potential, naphthoquinones, oxidative stress

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Authors: Narasamma Nippatlapallia

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Communities across the world are desperate to get their environment free of toxic per-poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) especially when these chemicals are in aqueous media. In the present study, two different chain length PFAS (PFHxA (C6), PFDA (C10)) are selected for degradation using a modified continuous flow nonthermal plasma. The results showed 82.3% PFHxA and 94.1 PFDA degradation efficiencies, respectively. The defluorination efficiency is also evaluated which is 28% and 34% for PFHxA and PFDA, respectively. The results clearly indicates that the structure of PFAS has a great impact on degradation efficiency. The effect of flow rate is studied. increase in flow rate beyond 2 mL/min, decrease in degradation efficiency of the targeted PFAS was noticed. PFDA degradation was decreased from 85% to 42%, and PFHxA was decreased to 32% from 64% with increase in flow rate from 2 to 5 mL/min. Similarly, with increase in flow rate the percentage defluorination was decreased for both C10, and C6 compounds. This observation can be attributed to mainly because of change in residence time (contact time). Real water/wastewater is a composition of various organic, and inorganic ions that may affect the activity of oxidative species such as 𝑂𝐻. radicals on the target pollutants. Therefore, it is important to consider radicals quenching chemicals to understand the efficiency of the reactor. In gas-liquid NTP discharge reactors 𝑂𝐻. , 𝑒𝑎𝑞 − , 𝑂 . , 𝑂3, 𝐻2𝑂2, 𝐻. are often considered as reactive species for oxidation and reduction of pollutants. In this work, the role played by two distinct 𝑂 .𝐻 Scavengers, ethanol and glycerol, on PFAS percentage degradation, and defluorination efficiency (i,e., fluorine removal) are measured was studied. The addition of scavenging agents to the PFAS solution diminished the PFAS degradation to different extents depending on the target compound molecular structure. In comparison with the degradation of only PFAS solution, the addition of 1.25 M ethanol inhibited C10, and C6 degradation by 8%, and 12%, respectively. This research was supported with energy efficiency, production rate, and specific yield, fluoride, and PFAS concentration analysis with respect to optimum hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the continuous flow reactor.

Keywords: wastewater, PFAS, nonthermal plasma, mineralization, defluorination

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Authors: Sekkal Nawel

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The Web of Things (WoT), integration of smart technologies from the Internet or network to Web architecture or application, is becoming more complex, larger, and dynamic. The WoT is associated with various elements such as sensors, devices, networks, protocols, data, functionalities, and architectures to perform services for stakeholders. These services operate in the context of the interaction of stakeholders and the WoT elements. Such context is becoming a key information source from which data are of various nature and uncertain, thus leading to complex situations. In this paper, we take interest in the development of intelligent Web services. The key ingredients of this “intelligent” notion are the context diversity, the necessity of a semantic representation to manage complex situations and the capacity to reason with uncertain data. In this perspective, we introduce a multi-layered architecture based on a generic intelligent Web service model dealing with various contexts, which proactively predict future situations and reactively respond to real-time situations in order to support decision-making. For semantic context data representation, we use PR-OWL, which is a probabilistic ontology based on Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks (MEBN). PR-OWL is flexible enough to represent complex, dynamic, and uncertain contexts, the key requirements of the development for the intelligent Web services. A case study was carried out using the proposed architecture for intelligent plant watering to show the role of proactive and reactive contextual reasoning in terms of WoT.

Keywords: smart web service, the web of things, context reasoning, proactive, reactive, multi-entity bayesian networks, PR-OWL

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Authors: Raheleh Saifiabolhassan

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After the post-industrial era, when a wide variety of foods and drinks are readily available everywhere, the motive has shifted from meeting basic nutritional needs to enjoy the eating experience. Today, behavioral environmental studies are an essential branch of science when it comes to understanding, analyzing, and evaluating how humans react to the environment. Similarly, these studies explore customer-influencing factors and the effectiveness of restaurant designs. To facilitate a pleasant dining experience, the authors focused on acoustics, flexibility, and lighting. In this study, 2700 square feet of surface area was used to plan a restaurant (called Mesineh) based on behavioral science, considering many factors related to the interaction between the building and the users, such as flexibility and privacy, acoustics, and light. Environment psychology considerations in architectural design have been lacking for several decades. To fill this gap, the author evaluated environmental psychology standards and applied them to Mesineh's design. A sense of nostalgia will be felt by customers of the Mesineh restaurant thanks to its interior design, which combines historical elements with contemporary elements. Additionally, vernacular Persian architectural elements were incorporated into a modern context to fulfill the behavioral science component of interior design.

Keywords: Mesineh restaurant, interior design, behavioral sciences, environment psychology, traditional persian architecture

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Authors: Maureen Royce, Joshi Jariwala, Sally Kah

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Change is inevitable, but the change process is progressive. Organisational change is the process in which an organisation changes strategies, operational methods, systems, culture, and structure to affect something different in the organisation. This process can be continuous or developed over a period and driven by internal and external factors. Organisational change is essential if organisations are to survive in dynamic and uncertain environments. However, evidence from research shows that many change initiatives fail, leading to severe consequences for organisations and their resources. The complex models of third sector organisations, i.e., social enterprise, compounds the levels of change in these organisations. Interestingly, innovation is associated with a change in social enterprises due to the hybridity of product and service development. Furthermore, the creation of social intervention has offered a new process and outcomes to the lifecycle of change. Therefore, different forms of organisational innovation are developed, i.e., total, evolutionary, expansionary, and developmental, which affect the interventions of social enterprises. This raises both theoretical and business concerns on how the competing hybrid nature of social enterprises change, how change is managed, and the impact on these organisations. These perspectives present critical questions for further investigation. In this study, we investigate the impact of organisational change on employees and organisational development at DaDaFest –a disability arts organisation with a social focus based in Liverpool. The three main objectives are to explore the drivers of change and the implementation process; to examine the impact of organisational change on employees and; to identify barriers to organisation change and development. To address the preceding research objectives, qualitative research design is adopted using semi-structured interviews. Data is analysed using a six-step thematic analysis framework, which enables the study to develop themes depicting the impact of change on employees and organisational development. This study presents theoretical and practical contributions for academics and practitioners. The knowledge contributions encapsulate the evolution of change and the change cycle in a social enterprise. However, practical implications provide critical insights into the change management process and the impact of change on employees and organisational development.

Keywords: organisational change, change management, organisational change system, social enterprise

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Authors: Ayman Abd-Elhamed, Sayed Mahmoud

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The present research work investigates the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frame building considering the effect of modeling masonry infill (MI) walls. The seismic behavior of a residential 6-storey RC frame building, considering and ignoring the effect of masonry, is numerically investigated using response spectrum (RS) analysis. The considered herein building is designed as a moment resisting frame (MRF) system following the Egyptian code (EC) requirements. Two developed models in terms of bare frame and infill walls frame are used in the study. Equivalent diagonal strut methodology is used to represent the behavior of infill walls, whilst the well-known software package ETABS is used for implementing all frame models and performing the analysis. The results of the numerical simulations such as base shear, displacements, and internal forces for the bare frame as well as the infill wall frame are presented in a comparative way. The results of the study indicate that the interaction between infill walls and frames significantly change the responses of buildings during earthquakes compared to the results of bare frame building model. Specifically, the seismic analysis of RC bare frame structure leads to underestimation of base shear and consequently damage or even collapse of buildings may occur under strong shaking. On the other hand, considering infill walls significantly decrease the peak floor displacements and drifts in both X and Y-directions.

Keywords: masonry infill, bare frame, response spectrum, seismic response

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Authors: Martin Leroux, Sylvain Brisebois

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Eating a meal is among the Activities of Daily Living, but it takes a lot of time and effort for people with physical or functional limitations. Dedicated technologies are cumbersome and not portable, while general-purpose assistive robots such as wheelchair-based manipulators are too hard to control for elaborate continuous motion like eating. Eating with such devices has not previously been automated, since there existed no description of a feeding motion for uncontrolled environments. In this paper, we introduce a feeding mode for assistive manipulators, including a mathematical description of trajectories for motions that are difficult to perform manually such as gathering and scooping food at a defined/desired pace. We implement these trajectories in a sequence of movements for a semi-automated feeding mode which can be controlled with a very simple 3-button interface, allowing the user to have control over the feeding pace. Finally, we demonstrate the feeding mode with a JACO robotic arm and compare the eating speed, measured in bites per minute of three eating methods: a healthy person eating unaided, a person with upper limb limitations or disability using JACO with manual control, and a person with limitations using JACO with the feeding mode. We found that the feeding mode allows eating about 5 bites per minute, which should be sufficient to eat a meal under 30min.

Keywords: assistive robotics, automated feeding, elderly care, trajectory design, human-robot interaction

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Authors: Pamir Gogoi, Ratree Wayland

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This study investigates the acoustic measures of breathiness when coarticulated with nasality. The acoustic correlates of breathiness and nasality that has already been well established after years of empirical research. Some of these acoustic parameters - like low frequency peaks and wider bandwidths- are common for both nasal and breathy voice. Therefore, it is likely that these parameters interact when a sound is coarticulated with breathiness and nasality. This leads to the hypothesis that the acoustic parameters, which usually act as robust cues in differentiating between breathy and modal voice, might not be reliable cues for differentiating between breathy and modal voice when breathiness is coarticulated with nasality. The effect of nasality on the perception of breathiness has been explored in earlier studies using synthesized speech. The results showed that perceptually, nasality and breathiness do interact. The current study investigates if a similar pattern is observed in natural speech. The study is conducted on Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language which has a three-way contrast between nasality and breathiness. That is, there is a phonemic distinction between nasals, breathy voice and breathy-nasals. Voice quality parameters like – H1-H2 (Difference between the amplitude of first and second harmonic), H1-A3 (Difference between the amplitude of first harmonic and third formant, CPP (Cepstral Peak Prominence), HNR (Harmonics to Noise ratio) and B1 (Bandwidth of first formant) were extracted. Statistical models like linear mixed effects regression and Random Forest classifiers show that measures that capture the noise component in the signal- like CPP and HNR- can classify breathy voice from modal voice better than spectral measures when breathy voice is coarticulated with nasality.

Keywords: breathiness, marathi, nasality, voice quality

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Authors: Ya-Chuan Hsu, Wen-Chen Ouyang, Wei-Siang Huang

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Problem/Background: With constantly increasing aged populations, quality of life (QOL) in persons with dementia has become a significant research concern. The Alzheimer’s Related Quality of Life (ADRQL) is a high-validated, theory-derived, and multidimensional instrument. It has widely utilized in many countries, except in Taiwan. However, diverse results of quality of life from different countries by using the same measurement can provide the potential to help understand the impact of cultural contributor on QOL. Objective: To investigate the extent to which quality of life on older adults with dementia in Taiwan. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted in an assisting living facility affiliated with a daycare center in southern Taiwan. A purposeful sample of 34 participants was recruited. Inclusion criteria included those who were at least 65 years old, able to communicate, and diagnosed with mild to moderate dementia. The QOL was measured by Chinese version ADRQL. This observational instrument consists of 30 items that is divided into five subscales with the full range of each subscale scores from 0 to 100.0. Higher scores indicate better QOL. Results: The means for subscale of the Social Interaction, Awareness of Self, Feelings and Mood, Enjoyment of Activities, and Response to Surroundings were 87.9, 74.7, 91.3, 64.5, and 90.3, respectively. The overall mean for the ADQOL was 0.83. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the level of Enjoyment of Activities is the lowest and may convey information about a need of evaluation on arrangement of facility’s activities.

Keywords: dementia, quality of life, elders, Alzheimer’s related quality of life

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Authors: Weiju Zhou, Alex Hopkins, Ruoling Chen

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Background: China has increased the gap in income between richer and poorer over the past 40 years, and the number of deaths from people with angina has been rising. It is unclear whether socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased mortality in older people with angina. Methods: Data from a cohort study of 2,380 participants aged ≥ 65 years, who were randomly recruited from 5-province urban communities were examined in China. The cohort members were interviewed to record socio-demographic and risk factors and document doctor-diagnosed angina at baseline and were followed them up in 3-10 years, including monitoring vital status. Multivariate Cox regression models were employed to examine all-cause mortality in relation to low SES. Results: The cohort follow-up identified 373 deaths occurred; 41 deaths in 208 angina patients. Compared to participants without angina (n=2,172), patients with angina had increased mortality (multivariate adjusted hazard ratio (HR) was 1.41, 95% CI 1.01-1.97). Within angina patients, the risk of mortality increased with low satisfactory income (2.51, 1.08-5.85) and having financial problem (4.00, 1.07-15.00), but significantly with levels of education and occupation. In non-angina participants, none of these four SES indicators were associated with mortality. There was a significant interaction effect between angina and low satisfactory income on mortality. Conclusions: In China, having low income and financial problem increase mortality in older people with angina. Strategies to improve economic circumstances in older people could help reduce inequality in angina survival.

Keywords: angina, mortality, older people, socio-economic status

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Authors: Constance Chivengwa, Tinashe Mandimutsira, Jephris Gere, Charles Magogo, Irene Chikanza, Jerneja Vidmar, Walter Chingwaru

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The use of traditional methods in the management of diarrhoea has remained a common practice among the indigenous African tribes of Southern Africa. Despite the widespread use of traditional medicines in Zimbabwe, very little research validating the activities of phytomedicines against diarrhoea, as claimed by the Shona people of Zimbabwe, has been reported. This study sought to determine the efficacies of the plants that are frequently used to treat stomach complaints, namely Dicoma anomala, Cassia abbreviata, Lannea edulis and Peltophorum africanum against Escherichia coli (an indicator of faecal contamination of water, and whose strains such as EHEC (O157), ETEC and EPEC, are responsible for a number of outbreaks of diarrhoea) and Salmonella spp. Ethanol and aqueous extracts from these plants were obtained, evaporated, dried and stored. The dried extracts were reconstituted and diluted 10-fold in nutrient broth (from 100 to 0.1 microgram/mL) and tested for inhibition against the bacteria. L. edulis exhibited the best antimicrobial effect (minimum inhibition concentration = 10 microgram/mL for both extracts and microorganisms). Runners up to L. edulis were C. abbreviata (20 microgram/mL for both microorganisms) and P. africanum (20 and 30 microgram/mL respectively). Interestingly, D. anomala, which is widely considered panacea in African medicinal practices, showed low antimicrobial activity (60 and 100 microgram/mL respectively). The high antimicrobial activity of L. edulis can be explained by its content of flavonoids, tannins, alkylphenols (cardonol 7 and cardonol 13) and dihydroalkylhexenones. The antimicrobial activities of C. abbreviata can be linked to its content of anthraquinones and triterpenoids. P. africanum is known to contain benzenoids, flavanols, flavonols, terpenes, xanthone and coumarins. This study therefore demonstrated that, among the plants that are used against diarrhoea in African traditional medicine, L. edulis is a clear winner against E. coli and Salmonella spp. Activity guided extraction is encouraged to establish the complement of compounds that have antimicrobial activities.

Keywords: diarrhoea, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, phytomedicine, MIC, Zimbabwe

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Authors: Mohsen Noroozi, Maryam Khalili

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Creating cities, objects and spaces that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable and which meet the challenge of social interaction and generation change will be one of the biggest tasks of designers. Social sustainability is about how individuals, communities and societies live with each other and set out to achieve the objectives of development model which they have chosen for themselves. Urban lightning as one of the most important elements of urban furniture that people constantly interact with it in public spaces; can be a significant object for designers. Using intelligence by internet of things for urban lighting makes it more interactive in public environments. It can encourage individuals to carry out appropriate behaviors and provides them the social awareness through new interactions. The greatest strength of this technology is its strong impact on many aspects of everyday life and users' behaviors. The analytical phase of the research is based on a multiple method survey strategy. Smart lighting proposed in this paper is an urban lighting designed on results obtained from a collective point of view about the social sustainability. In this paper, referring to behavioral design methods, the social behaviors of the people has been studied. Data show that people demands for a deeper experience of social participation, safety perception and energy saving with the meaningful use of interactive and colourful lighting effects. By using intelligent technology, some suggestions are provided in the field of future lighting to consider the new forms of social sustainability.

Keywords: behavior pattern, internet of things, social sustainability, urban lighting

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Authors: Shrawan Baghel, Helen Cathcart, Biall J. O'Reilly

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Amorphous drug formulations have great potential to enhance solubility and thus bioavailability of BCS class II drugs. However, the higher free energy and molecular mobility of the amorphous form lowers the activation energy barrier for crystallization and thermodynamically drives it towards the crystalline state which makes them unstable. Accurate determination of the crystallization tendency/kinetics is the key to the successful design and development of such systems. In this study, dipyridamole (DPM) and cinnarizine (CNZ) has been selected as model compounds. Thermodynamic fragility (m_T) is measured from the heat capacity change at the glass transition temperature (Tg) whereas dynamic fragility (m_D) is evaluated using methods based on extrapolation of configurational entropy to zero 〖(m〗_(D_CE )), and heating rate dependence of Tg 〖(m〗_(D_Tg)). The mean relaxation time of amorphous drugs was calculated from Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher (VTF) equation. Furthermore, the correlation between fragility and glass forming ability (GFA) of model drugs has been established and the relevance of these parameters to crystallization of amorphous drugs is also assessed. Moreover, the crystallization kinetics of model drugs under isothermal conditions has been studied using Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (JMA) approach to determine the Avrami constant ‘n’ which provides an insight into the mechanism of crystallization. To further probe into the crystallization mechanism, the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of model systems was also analysed by statistically fitting the crystallization data to 15 different kinetic models and the relevance of model-free kinetic approach has been established. In addition, the crystallization mechanism for DPM and CNZ at each extent of transformation has been predicted. The calculated fragility, glass forming ability (GFA) and crystallization kinetics is found to be in good correlation with the stability prediction of amorphous solid dispersions. Thus, this research work involves a multidisciplinary approach to establish fragility, GFA and crystallization kinetics as stability predictors for amorphous drug formulations.

Keywords: amorphous, fragility, glass forming ability, molecular mobility, mean relaxation time, crystallization kinetics, stability

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Authors: Szu-Hua Wang

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Urban ecosystems, as complex coupled human-environment systems, contain abundant natural resources for breeding natural assets and, at the same time, attract urban assets and consume natural resources, triggered by urban development. Land use change illustrates the interaction between human activities and environments factually. However, IPCC (2014) announces that land use change and urbanization due to human activities are the major cause of climate change, leading to serious impacts on urban ecosystem resilience and risk. For this reason, risk assessment and resilience analysis are the keys for responding to climate change on urban ecosystems. Urban spatial planning can guide urban development by land use planning, transportation planning, and environmental planning and affect land use allocation and human activities by building major constructions and protecting important national land resources simultaneously. Urban spatial planning can aggravate climate change and, on the other hand, mitigate and adapt climate change. Research on effects of spatial planning on land use change and climate change is one of intense issues currently. Therefore, this research focuses on developing frameworks for risk assessment and resilience analysis from the aspect of ecosystem based on typhoon precipitation in Taipei area. The integrated method of risk assessment and resilience analysis will be also addressed for applying spatial planning practice and sustainable development.

Keywords: ecosystem, land use change, risk analysis, resilience

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Authors: M. Tomaschko

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The integration of technology in educational settings has gained a lot of interest. Especially the use of mobile devices and accompanying mobile applications can offer great potentials to complement traditional education with new technologies and enrich students’ learning in various ways. Nevertheless, the usability of the deployed mathematics application is an indicative factor to exploit the full potential of technology enhanced learning because directing cognitive load toward using an application will likely inhibit effective learning. For this reason, the purpose of this research study is the identification of possible usability issues of the mobile GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application. Therefore, eye tracking in combination with task scenarios, think aloud method, and a SUS questionnaire were used. Based on the revealed usability issues, the mobile application was iteratively redesigned and assessed in order to verify the success of the usability improvements. In this paper, the identified usability issues are presented, and recommendations on how to overcome these concerns are provided. The main findings relate to the conception of a mathematics keyboard and the interaction design in relation to an equation editor, as well as the representation of geometrical construction tools. In total, 12 recommendations were formed to improve the usability of a mobile graphing calculator application. The benefit to be gained from this research study is not only the improvement of the usability of the existing GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application but also to provide helpful hints that could be considered from designers and developers of mobile math applications.

Keywords: GeoGebra, graphing calculator, math education, smartphone, usability

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Authors: Nirmal Kumar Verma, Pallavi Jha

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Terahertz (THz) radiation generation by propagation of two-color laser pulses in plasma is an active area of research due to its potential applications in various areas, including security screening, material characterization and spectroscopic techniques. Due to non ionizing nature and the ability to penetrate several millimeters, THz radiation is suitable for diagnosis of cancerous cells. Traditional THz emitters like optically active crystals when irradiated with high power laser radiation, are subject to material breakdown and hence low conversion efficiencies. This problem is not encountered in laser - plasma based THz radiation sources. The present paper is devoted to the simulation study of the enhanced THz radiation generation by propagation of two-color, linearly polarized laser pulses through magnetized plasma. The two laser pulses orthogonally polarized are co-propagating along the same direction. The direction of the external magnetic field is such that one of the two laser pulses propagates in the ordinary mode, while the other pulse propagates in the extraordinary mode through homogeneous plasma. A transverse electromagnetic wave with frequency in the THz range is generated due to the presence of the static magnetic field. It is observed that larger amplitude terahertz can be generated by mixing of ordinary and extraordinary modes of two-color laser pulses as compared with a single laser pulse propagating in the extraordinary mode.

Keywords: two-color laser pulses, terahertz radiation, magnetized plasma, ordinary and extraordinary mode

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Authors: Exa Heydemans, Jessica Sjah, Dwinanti Rika Marthanty

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This paper presents numerical simulations using an open boundary algorithm with modified dynamic boundary condition (mDBC) for weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics models from particle-based code Dualsphysics. The problems of piping erosion in dams and dikes are aimed for studying the algorithm. The case 2D model of unsteady fluid flow past around a fixed cylinder is simulated, where various values of Reynold’s numbers (Re40, Re60, Re80, and Re100) and different model’s resolution are considered. A constant velocity with different values of viscosity for generating various Reynold’s numbers and different numbers of particles over a cylinder for the resolution are modeled. The interaction between solid particles of the cylinder and fluid particles is concerned. The cylinder is affected by the hydrodynamics force caused by the flow of fluid particles. The solid particles of the cylinder are the observation points to obtain force and pressure due to the hydrodynamics forces. As results of the simulation, which is to show the capability to model 2D unsteady with various Reynold’s numbers, the pressure coefficient, drag coefficient, lift coefficient, and Strouhal number are compared to the previous work from literature.

Keywords: hydrodynamics, internal erosion, dualsphysics, viscous fluid flow

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Authors: Vedat Uyak

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Seasonal variations of trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) concentrations were investigated within three distribution systems of a coastal city of Istanbul, Turkey. Moreover, total trihalomethanes and other organics concentration were also analyzed. The investigation was based on an intensive 16 month (2009-2010) sampling program, undertaken during the spring, summer, fall and winter seasons. Four THM (chloroform, dichlorobromomethane, chlorodibromomethane, bromoform), and nine HAA (the most commonly occurring one being dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA); other compounds are monochloroacetic acid (MCAA), monobromoacetic acid (MBAA), dibromoacetic acid (DBAA), tribromoacetic acid (TBAA), bromochloroacetic acid (BCAA), bromodichloroacetic acid (BDCAA) and chlorodibromoacetic acid (CDBAA)) species and other water quality and operational parameters were monitored at points along the distribution system between the treatment plant and the system’s extremity. The effects of coastal water sources, seasonal variation and spatial variation were examined. The results showed that THMs and HAAs concentrations vary significantly between treated waters and water at the distribution networks. When water temperature exceeds 26°C in summer, the THMs and HAAs levels are 0.8 – 1.1, and 0.4 – 0.9 times higher than treated water, respectively. While when water temperature is below 12°C in the winter, the measured THMs and HAAs concentrations at the system’s extremity were very rarely higher than 100 μg/L, and 60 μg/L, respectively. The highest THM concentrations occurred in the Buyukcekmece distribution system, with an average total HAA concentration of 92 μg/L. Moreover, the lowest THM levels were observed in the Omerli distribution network, with a mean concentration of 7 μg/L. For HAA levels, the maximum concentrations again were observed in the Buyukcekmece distribution system, with an average total HAA concentration of 57 μg/l. High spatial and seasonal variation of disinfection by-products in the drinking water of Istanbul was attributed of illegal wastewater discharges to water supplies of Istanbul city.

Keywords: disinfection byproducts, drinking water, trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, seasonal variation

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Authors: Ejaz Ahmed, Huang Yong

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The operation of aero engines has a critical importance in the vicinity of lean blowout (LBO) limits. Lefebvre’s model of LBO based on empirical correlation has been extended to flame volume concept by the authors. The flame volume takes into account the effects of geometric configuration, the complex spatial interaction of mixing, turbulence, heat transfer and combustion processes inside the gas turbine combustion chamber. For these reasons, flame volume based LBO predictions are more accurate. Although LBO prediction accuracy has improved, it poses a challenge associated with Vf estimation in real gas turbine combustors. This work extends the approach of flame volume prediction previously based on fuel iterative approximation with cold flow simulations to reactive flow simulations. Flame volume for 11 combustor configurations has been simulated and validated against experimental data. To make prediction methodology robust as required in the preliminary design stage, reactive flow simulations were carried out with the combination of probability density function (PDF) and discrete phase model (DPM) in FLUENT 15.0. The criterion for flame identification was defined. Two important parameters i.e. critical injection diameter (Dp,crit) and critical temperature (Tcrit) were identified, and their influence on reactive flow simulation was studied for Vf estimation. Obtained results exhibit ±15% error in Vf estimation with experimental data.

Keywords: CFD, combustion, gas turbine combustor, lean blowout

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Hongbin Yang, Mingxue Liao, Changwen Zheng, Mengyao Kong, Chaohui Liu

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Microfacet-based reflection models are widely used to model light reflections for rough surfaces. Microfacet models have become the standard surface material building block for describing specular components with varying roughness; and yet, while they possess many desirable properties as well as produce convincing results, their design ignores important sources of scattering, which can cause a significant loss of energy. Specifically, they only simulate the single scattering on the microfacets and ignore the subsequent interactions. As the roughness increases, the interaction will become more and more important. So a multiple-scattering microfacet model based on specular V-cavity is presented for this important open problem. However, it spends much unnecessary rendering time because of setting the same number of scatterings for different roughness surfaces. In this paper, we design a geometric attenuation term G to compute the BRDF (Bidirectional reflection distribution function) of multiple scattering of rough surfaces. Moreover, we consider determining the number of scattering by deterministic heuristics for different roughness surfaces. As a result, our model produces a similar appearance of the objects with the state of the art model with significantly improved rendering efficiency. Finally, we derive a multiple scattering BRDF based on the original microfacet framework.

Keywords: bidirectional reflection distribution function, BRDF, geometric attenuation term, multiple scattering, V-cavity model

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Authors: Omar Ibrahim, Aly A. Gaafar, K. A. Ratib

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Two field experiments in micro plots were carried out during the winter seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, Soil Salinity Laboratory, Alexandria, Egypt, to study the effect of three levels of salicylic acid (SA) as a growth regulator (0, 50, 100 ppm) and three rates of nitrogen fertilizer (75, 100, 125 kg N/feddan) on growth and yield of a spring wheat (Giza 168). The experimental design was a split plot with the main plots in randomized complete block design (RCBD) and four replicates. The results indicated that increasing nitrogen fertilizer rates resulted in insignificant effect on both plant height (cm) and grain weight/spike only. However, a significant effect was observed in all the other studied characters due to the increase in nitrogen fertilizer. On the other hand, increasing salicylic acid rates resulted in insignificant effect in all the studied characters except for chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, number of grain/spike, and grain yield (gm/ plot). The highest effects on grain yield in wheat were obtained by the rate of 125 kg/feddan of nitrogen fertilizer and 100 ppm of salicylic acid. In conclusion, the data indicated that a high grain yield could be obtained by adding 100 kg/feddan of nitrogen fertilizer and spraying of 50 ppm of salicylic acid with no significant difference with the highest rates. Finally, the interaction had no significant effect on all the studied characters.

Keywords: growth regulator, nitrogen fertilizer, spring wheat, salicylic acid

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: T. Moremedi, L. Katata-Seru, S. Sardar, A. Bandyopadhyay, E. Makhado, M. Joseph Hato

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The rapid industrialisation and population growth have led to a steady fall in freshwater supplies worldwide. As a result, water systems are affected by modern methods upon use due to secondary contamination. The application of novel adsorbents derived from natural polymer holds a great promise in addressing challenges in water treatment. In this study, the UV irradiation technique was used to prepare acrylamide (AAm) monomer, and acrylic acid (AA) monomer grafted xanthan gum (XG) copolymer. Furthermore, the factors affecting rhodamine B (RhB) adsorption from aqueous media, such as pH, dosage, concentration, and time were also investigated. The FTIR results confirmed the formation of graft copolymer by the strong vibrational bands at 1709 cm^-1 and 1612 cm^-1 for AA and AAm, respectively. Additionally, more irregular, porous and wrinkled surface observed from SEM of XG-g-AAm/AA indicated copolymerization interaction of monomers. The optimum conditions for removing RhB dye with a maximum adsorption capacity of 313 mg/g at 25 ⁰C from aqueous solution were pH approximately 5, initial dye concentration = 200 ppm, adsorbent dose = 30 mg. Also, the detailed investigation of the isothermal and adsorption kinetics of RhB from aqueous solution showed that the adsorption of the dye followed a Freundlich model (R² = 0.96333) and pseudo-second-order kinetics. The results further indicated that this absorbent based on XG had the universality to remove dye through the mechanism of chemical adsorption. The outstanding adsorption potential of the grafted copolymer could be used to remove cationic dyes from aqueous solution as a low-cost product.

Keywords: xanthan gum, adsorbents, rhodamine B, Freundlich

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Authors: Tesfay Gebremicheal Reda, K. Samatha, Paul Douglas Sanasi, D. Parajuli

Abstract:

Nanoparticle technology is fast progressing and is being employed in innumerable medical applications. At this time, the public's health is seriously threatened by the rise of bacterial strains resistant to several medications. Metal nanoparticles are a potential alternate approach for tackling this global concern, and this is the main focus of this study. The citrate precursor sol-gel synthesis method was used to synthesize the Niₓ Co₁₋ₓ Fe₂ O₄, (where x = 0.0:0.2:1.0) nanoparticle. XRD identified the development of the cubic crystal structure to have a preferential orientation along (311), and the average particle size was found to be 29-38 nm. The average crystallizes assessed with ImageJ software and origin 22 of the SEM are nearly identical to the XRD results. In the created NCF NPs, the FT-IR spectroscopy reveals structural examinations and the redistribution of cations between octahedral (505-428 cm⁻¹) and tetrahedral (653-603 cm⁻¹) locales. As the Co²⁺ cation is substituted with Ni²⁺, the coercive fields HC decrease from 2384 Oe to 241.93 Oe. Band gap energy rises as Ni concentration increases, which may be attributed to the fact that the ionic radii of Ni²⁺ ions are smaller than that of Co²⁺ ions, which results in a strong electrostatic interaction. On the contrary, except at x = 0.4, the dielectric constant decreases as the nickel concentration increases. According to the findings of this research work, nanoparticles are composed of Ni₀.₄ Co₀.₆ Fe₂ O₄ have demonstrated a promising value against S. aureus and E. coli, and it suggests a proposed model for their potential use as a source of antibacterial agent.

Keywords: antimicrobial, band gap, citrate precursor, dielectric, nanoparticle

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Authors: Stewart A. Keir, Faik A. Hamad

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This study aims to use both analytical and experimental methods of analysis to examine the accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models that can then be used for more complex analyses, accurately representing more elaborate flow phenomena such as internal shockwaves and boundary layers. The geometry used in the analytical study and CFD model is taken from the experimental rig. The analytical study is undertaken using isentropic and adiabatic relationships and the output of the analytical study, the 'shockwave location tool', is created. The results from the analytical study are then used to optimize the redesign an experimental rig for more favorable placement of pressure taps and gain a much better representation of the shockwaves occurring in the divergent section of the nozzle. The CFD model is then optimized through the selection of different parameters, e.g. turbulence models (Spalart-Almaras, Realizable k-epsilon & Standard k-omega) in order to develop an accurate, robust model. The results from the CFD model can then be directly compared to experimental and analytical results in order to gauge the accuracy of each method of analysis. The CFD model will be used to visualize the variation of various parameters such as velocity/Mach number, pressure and turbulence across the shock. The CFD results will be used to investigate the interaction between the shock wave and the boundary layer. The validated model can then be used to modify the nozzle designs which may offer better performance and ease of manufacture and may present feasible improvements to existing high-speed flow applications.

Keywords: CFD, nozzle, fluent, gas dynamics, shock-wave

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Authors: T. R. Bandara, H. Jaelani, G. J. Griffin

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The conversion of lignocellulosic waste materials, such as sugar cane bagasse, to biofuels such as ethanol has attracted significant interest as a potential element for transforming transport fuel supplies to totally renewable sources. However, the refractory nature of the cellulosic structure of lignocellulosic materials has impeded progress on developing an economic process, whereby the cellulose component may be effectively broken down to glucose monosaccharides and then purified to allow downstream fermentation. Ionic liquid (IL) treatment of lignocellulosic biomass has been shown to disrupt the crystalline structure of cellulose thus potentially enabling the cellulose to be more readily hydrolysed to monosaccharides. Furthermore, conventional hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials yields byproducts that are inhibitors for efficient fermentation of the monosaccharides. However, selective extraction of monosaccharides from an aqueous/IL phase into an organic phase utilizing a combination of boronic acids and quaternary amines has shown promise as a purification process. Hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse immersed in an aqueous solution with IL (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) was conducted at different pH and temperature below 100 ºC. It was found that the use of a high concentration of hydrochloric acid to acidify the solution inhibited the hydrolysis of bagasse. At high pH (i.e. basic conditions), using sodium hydroxide, catalyst yields were reduced for total reducing sugars (TRS) due to the rapid degradation of the sugars formed. For purification trials, a supported liquid membrane (SLM) apparatus was constructed, whereby a synthetic solution containing xylose and glucose in an aqueous IL phase was transported across a membrane impregnated with phenyl boronic acid/Aliquat 336 to an aqueous phase. The transport rate of xylose was generally higher than that of glucose indicating that a SLM scheme may not only be useful for purifying sugars from undesirable toxic compounds, but also for fractionating sugars to improve fermentation efficiency.

Keywords: biomass, bagasse, hydrolysis, monosaccharide, supported liquid membrane, purification

Procedia PDF Downloads 241