Search results for: power conversion

Authors: Jagdeep Nayak, Biswajit Paul, Anup Gupta

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Characterization of coal refuses to fly ash, and steel slag from steel industries have been performed to develop a mixture of both these materials to enhance strength properties of their utilization in other sectors like mine fill, construction work, etc. A large amount of Linz-Donawitz (LD) slag and fly ash waste are generated from steel and thermal power industries respectively. Management of these wastes is problematic, and their reutilization may provide a sustainable waste management option. LD slag and fly ash mixed in different proportions were tested to analyse the micro structural improvement and hardening rate of the matrix. Mixing of activators such as sodium hydroxide and potassium silicate with silica-alumina of LD slag-fly ash mixture, geopolymeric structure were found to be developed. The effect of geo-polymerization behaviour and subsequent structural rearrangement has been studied using compressibility; shear strength and permeability tests followed by micro-graphical analysis. Densification in the mixture was observed along with an improvement of geotechnical properties due to the addition of LD slag. Due to suitable strength characteristics of these two waste materials as mixture, it can be used in the various construction field or may be used as a filling material in mine voids.

Keywords: LD slag, fly-ash, geopolymer, strength property, compressibility

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Authors: Javier Menéndez, Jorge Loredo

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Large scale energy storage systems (LSESS) such as pumped-storage hydro-power (PSH) are required in the current energy transition towards a low carbon economy by using green energies that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Coal mines are currently being closed in the European Union and their underground facilities may be used to build PSH plants. However, the development of this projects requires the excavation of a network of tunnels and a large cavern that would be used as a powerhouse to install the Francis turbine and motor-generator. The technical feasibility to excavate the powerhouse cavern has been analyzed in the North of Spain. Three-dimensional numerical models have been conducted to analyze the stability considering shale and sandstone rock mass. Total displacements and thickness of plastic zones were examined considering different support systems. Systematic grouted rock bolts and fibre reinforced shotcrete were applied at the cavern walls and roof. The results obtained show that the construction of the powerhouse is feasible applying proper support systems.

Keywords: closed mines, mine water, numerical model, pumped-storage, renewable energies

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Authors: Mei Xutao, Nakano Kimihiko

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In order to enhance the energy harvesting efficiency, this paper presents a novel tri-stable energy harvesting system (TEHS), which is realized by the effect of magnetic force, in rotational motion to scavenge vibration energy. The device is meant to provide the power supply for wireless autonomous systems in low-frequency environment. The nonlinear TEHS is composed of the cantilever beam which is mounted on a rotating hub and partially covered by piezoelectric patch, a tip mass magnet in the end and two fixed magnets. A theoretical investigation using the Lagrangian formulation is derived to describe the motion of the energy harvesting system and the output voltage. Additionally, several numerical simulations were carried out to characterize the system under different external excitations and to validate its performance. The results demonstrated that TEHS owns a wide range of frequency of snap-through and high output voltage compared with the bi-stable energy harvesting system (BEHS). Moreover, some sets of experimental validations will be performed in the future work because the experimental setup is in the configuration now.

Keywords: piezoelectric beam, rotational motion, snap-through, tri-stable energy harvester

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Authors: Maryam Fallahpoor, Biswajeet Pradhan

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Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) serves as a valuable tool in mitigating the scarcity of human resources required for the evaluation and categorization of vast quantities of medical imaging data. When AI operates with optimal precision, it minimizes the demand for human interpretations and, thereby, reduces the burden on radiologists. Among various AI approaches, deep learning (DL) stands out as it obviates the need for feature extraction, a process that can impede classification, especially with intricate datasets. The advent of DL models has ushered in a new era in medical imaging, particularly in the context of COVID-19 detection. Traditional 2D imaging techniques exhibit limitations when applied to volumetric data, such as Computed Tomography (CT) scans. Medical images predominantly exist in one of two formats: neuroimaging informatics technology initiative (NIfTI) and digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM). Purpose: This study aims to employ DL for the classification of COVID-19-infected pulmonary patients and normal cases based on 3D CT scans while investigating the impact of image format. Material and Methods: The dataset used for model training and testing consisted of 1245 patients from IranMehr Hospital. All scans shared a matrix size of 512 × 512, although they exhibited varying slice numbers. Consequently, after loading the DICOM CT scans, image resampling and interpolation were performed to standardize the slice count. All images underwent cropping and resampling, resulting in uniform dimensions of 128 × 128 × 60. Resolution uniformity was achieved through resampling to 1 mm × 1 mm × 1 mm, and image intensities were confined to the range of (−1000, 400) Hounsfield units (HU). For classification purposes, positive pulmonary COVID-19 involvement was designated as 1, while normal images were assigned a value of 0. Subsequently, a U-net-based lung segmentation module was applied to obtain 3D segmented lung regions. The pre-processing stage included normalization, zero-centering, and shuffling. Four distinct 3D CNN models (ResNet152, ResNet50, DensNet169, and DensNet201) were employed in this study. Results: The findings revealed that the segmentation technique yielded superior results for DICOM images, which could be attributed to the potential loss of information during the conversion of original DICOM images to NIFTI format. Notably, ResNet152 and ResNet50 exhibited the highest accuracy at 90.0%, and the same models achieved the best F1 score at 87%. ResNet152 also secured the highest Area under the Curve (AUC) at 0.932. Regarding sensitivity and specificity, DensNet201 achieved the highest values at 93% and 96%, respectively. Conclusion: This study underscores the capacity of deep learning to classify COVID-19 pulmonary involvement using real 3D hospital data. The results underscore the significance of employing DICOM format 3D CT images alongside appropriate pre-processing techniques when training DL models for COVID-19 detection. This approach enhances the accuracy and reliability of diagnostic systems for COVID-19 detection.

Keywords: deep learning, COVID-19 detection, NIFTI format, DICOM format

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Authors: Zeyu Zhou, Ziyu Zhao, Xiaochen Yang, Ling AI, Heng Zhai, Stuart Holmes

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As a promising sustainable alternative to traditional fossil fuels, fuel cell technology is highly favoured due to its enhanced working efficiency and reduced emissions. In the context of high-temperature fuel cells (operating above 100 °C), the most commonly used proton exchange membrane (PEM) is the Polybenzimidazole (PBI) doped phosphoric acid (PA) membrane. Grafting is a promising strategy to advance PA-doped PBI PEM technology. The existing grafting modification on PBI PEMs mainly focuses on grafting phosphate-containing or alkaline groups onto the PBI molecular chains. However, quaternary ammonium-based grafting approaches face a common challenge. To initiate the N-alkylation reaction, deacidifying agents such as NaH, NaOH, KOH, K2CO3, etc., can lead to ionic crosslinking between the quaternary ammonium group and PBI. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is another widely used polymer, the N-heterocycle groups within PVP endow it with a significant ability to absorb PA. Recently, PVP has attracted substantial attention in the field of fuel cells due to its reduced environmental impact and impressive fuel cell performance. However, due to the the poor compatibility of PVP in PBI, few research apply PVP in PA-doped PBI PEMs. This work introduces an innovative strategy to graft PVP onto PBI to form a network-like polymer. Due to the absence of quaternary ammonium groups, PVP does not pose issues related to crosslinking with PBI. Moreover, the nitrogen-containing functional groups on PVP provide PBI with a robust phosphoric acid retention ability. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) hydrogen spectrum analysis results indicate the successful completion of the grafting reaction where N-alkylation reactions happen on both sides of the grafting agent 1,4-bis(chloromethyl)benzene. On one side, the reaction takes place with the hydrogen atoms on the imidazole groups of PBI, while on the other side, it reacts with the terminal amino group of PVP. The XPS results provide additional evidence from the perspective of the element. On synthesized PBI-g-PVP surfaces, there is an absence of chlorine (chlorine in grafting agent 1,4-bis(chloromethyl)benzene is substituted) element but a presence of sulfur element (sulfur element in terminal amino PVP appears in PBI), which demonstrates the occurrence of the grafting reaction and PVP is successfully grafted onto PBI. Prepare these modified membranes into MEA. It was found that during the fuel cell operation, all the grafted membranes showed substantial improvement in maximum current density and peak power density compared to unmodified one. For PBI-g-PVP 30, with a grafting degree of 22.4%, the peak power density reaches 1312 mW cm⁻², marking a 59.6% enhancement compared to the pristine PBI membrane. The improvement is caused by the improved PA binding ability of the membrane after grafting. The AST test result shows that the grafting membranes have better long-term durability and performance than unmodified membranes attributed to the presence of added PA binding sites, which can effectively prevent the PA leaching caused by proton migration. In conclusion, the test results indicate that grafting PVP onto PBI is a promising strategy which can effectively improve the fuel cell performance.

Keywords: fuel cell, grafting modification, PA doping ability, PVP

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Authors: Felix U. Asoiro, Meshack I. Simeon, Chinenye E. Azuka, Harami Solomon, Chukwuemeka J. Ohagwu

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The drying kinetics, specific energy consumed (SEC), effective moisture diffusivity (EMD), flavonoid, phenolic, and vitamin C contents of onion slices dried under convective oven drying (COD) were compared with microwave drying (MD). Drying was performed with onion slice thicknesses of 2, 4, 6, and 8 mm; air drying temperatures of 60, 80, and 100°C for COD, and microwave power of 450 W for MD. A decrease in slice thickness and an increase in drying air temperature led to a drop in the drying time. As thickness increased from 2 – 8 mm, EMD rose from 1.1-4.35 x 10⁻⁸ at 60°C, 1.1-5.6 x 10⁻⁸ at 80°C, and 1.25-6.12 x 10⁻⁸ at 100°C with MD treatments yielding the highest mean value (6.65 x 10⁻⁸ m² s⁻¹) at 8 mm. Maximum SEC for onion slices in COD was 238.27 kWh/kg H₂O (2 mm thickness), and the minimum was 39.4 kWh/kg H₂O (8 mm thickness) whereas maximum during MD was 25.33 kWh/kg H₂O (8 mm thickness) and minimum, 18.7 kWh/kg H₂O (2 mm thickness). MD treatment gave a significant (p 0.05) increase in the flavonoid (39.42 – 64.4%), phenolic (38.0 – 46.84%), and vitamin C (3.7 – 4.23 mg 100 g⁻¹) contents, while COD treatment at 60°C and 100°C had positive effects on only vitamin C and phenolic contents, respectively. In comparison, the Weibull model gave the overall best fit (highest R²=0.999; lowest SSE=0.0002, RSME=0.0123, and χ²= 0.0004) when drying 2 mm onion slices at 100°C.

Keywords: allium cepa, drying kinetics, specific energy consumption, flavonoid, vitamin C, microwave oven drying

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Authors: Shu Tao, Rong Wang, Huizhong Shen, Ye Huang

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High-resolution mapping of fuel combustion is essential for reducing uncertainties in assessments of greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions. Such inventories provide valuable information for inferring carbon sinks, modeling pollutant transport, and developing control strategies. Previous inventories included only a few fuel types and were derived using national population proxies which may distort the geographical variation within countries. In this study, a global 0.1 degree by 0.1 degree geo-referenced inventory of fuel combustion (PKU-FUEL-2007) was developed for 64 fuel sub-types along with uncertainty analysis for the year 2007. Sub-national fuel consumption of large countries and major power-station locations were used. The disaggregation error can be reduced significantly by using the sub-nationally energy data, because the uneven distribution of per-capita fuel consumption within countries is taken into consideration. The PKU-FUEL was used to generate global emission inventories of CO2 (PKU-CO2-2007), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PKU-PAHs-2007), and black carbons (PKU-BC-2007). Atmospheric transport modeling and expsoure assessment were conducted for BC and PAHs based on the inventory.

Keywords: fuel, emission, BC, PAHs, atmospheric transport, exposure

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Authors: Omolola Ojetayo, Emmanuel Garuba, Obinna Ajunwa, Abiodun A. Onilude

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Introduction: Biofilm is a functional community of microorganisms that are associated with a surface or an interface. These adherent cells become embedded within an extracellular matrix composed of polymeric substances, i.e., biofilms refer to biological deposits consisting of both microbes and their extracellular products on biotic and abiotic surfaces. Despite their detrimental effects in medicine, biofilms as natural cell immobilization have found several applications in biotechnology, such as in the treatment of wastewater, bioremediation and biodegradation, desulfurization of gas, and conversion of agro-derived materials into alcohols and organic acids. The means of enhancing immobilized cells have been chemical-inductive, and this affects the medium composition and final product. Physical factors including electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic flux have shown potential for enhancing biofilms depending on the bacterial species, nature, and intensity of emitted signals, the duration of exposure, and substratum used. However, the concept of cell immobilisation by electrical and magnetic induction is still underexplored. Methods: To assess the effects of physical factors on biofilm formation, six American typed culture collection (Acetobacter aceti ATCC15973, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC9027, Serratia marcescens ATCC14756, Gluconobacter oxydans ATCC19357, Rhodobacter sphaeroides ATCC17023, and Bacillus subtilis ATCC6633) were used. Standard culture techniques for bacterial cells were adopted. Natural autoimmobilisation potentials of test bacteria were carried out by simple biofilms ring formation on tubes, while crystal violet binding assay techniques were adopted in the characterisation of biofilm quantity. Electroinduction of bacterial cells by direct current (DC) application in cell broth, static magnetic field exposure, and electromagnetic flux were carried out, and autoimmobilisation of cells in a biofilm pattern was determined on various substrata tested, including wood, glass, steel, polyvinylchloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate. Biot Savart law was used in quantifying magnetic field intensity, and statistical analyses of data obtained were carried out using the analyses of variance (ANOVA) as well as other statistical tools. Results: Biofilm formation by the selected test bacteria was enhanced by the physical factors applied. Electromagnetic induction had the greatest effect on biofilm formation, with magnetic induction producing the least effect across all substrata used. Microbial cell-cell communication could be a possible means via which physical signals affected the cells in a polarisable manner. Conclusion: The enhancement of biofilm formation by bacteria using physical factors has shown that their inherent capability as a cell immobilization method can be further optimised for industrial applications. A possible relationship between the presence of voltage-dependent channels, mechanosensitive channels, and bacterial biofilms could shed more light on this phenomenon.

Keywords: bacteria, biofilm, cell immobilization, electromagnetic induction, substrata

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Authors: Miron Wolnicki

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In the past 75 years the world was either influenced by, competing with or learning from U.S. corporations. This is no longer true. As the economic power shifts from the West to the East, U.S. corporations are lagging behind Asian competitors. Moreover, U.S. statecraft fails to address this decline. In a world dominated by interventionist and neo-mercantilist states, having an ineffective non-activist government becomes a costly neoclassic delusion which weakens the world’s largest economy. American conservative economists continue talking about the superiority of the free market system in generating new technologies. The reality is different. The U.S. is sliding further into an overregulated, over-taxed, anti-business state. This paper argues that in order to maintain its economic strength and technological leadership, the U.S. must reform federal institutions to increase support for artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. The author outlines a number of institutional reforms, under one umbrella, which he calls the American Entrepreneurial State (AES). The AES will improve productivity and bring about coherent business strategies for the next 10-15 years. The design and inspiration for the AES come from the experience of successful statecraft examples in Asia and also other parts the global economy.

Keywords: post-neoliberal system, entrepreneurial state, government and economy, American entrepreneurial state

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Authors: Eman Tadros

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Solution Focused Therapy sheds a positive light on a client’s problem(s) by instilling hope, focusing on the connection with the client, and describing the problem in a way to display change being possible. Solution focused therapists highlight clients’ positive strengths, reframe what clients say, do, or believe in a positive statement, action, or belief. Narrative Therapy focuses on the stories individuals tell about their past in which shape their current and future lives. Changing the language used aids clients in reevaluating their values and views of themselves, this then constructs a more positive way of thinking about their story. Both therapies are based on treating each client as an individual with a problem rather than that the individual is a problem and being able to give power back to the client. The purpose of these ideologies is to open a client to alternative understandings. This paper displays how clinicians can empower and identify their clients’ positive strengths and resiliency factors. Narrative and Solution-Focused Techniques will be integrated to instill positivity and empowerment in clients. Techniques such as deconstruction, collaboration, complimenting, miracle/exception/scaling questioning will be analyzed and modeled. Furthermore, bridging Solution Focused Therapy and Narrative Therapy gives a voice to unheard client(s).

Keywords: solution focused therapy, narrative therapy, empowerment, resilience

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Authors: Parisa Javid

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In architecture, daylight contributes to humans' mental and physical well-being and reduces the consumption of fossil fuels. Accordingly, Iran's rich architecture has valuable achievements and experiences that should be recognized and introduced to the Iranian and international architecture communities. There are many ways to reduce energy consumption in buildings, but electricity accounts for a large part of that consumption. Lighting up spaces with natural light is a significant factor in reducing energy consumption and preventing electricity dissipation. Aside from being expensive, electric lighting systems cause excessive heat and physical injury (eyes). This study is based on library records and documents. Modern lighting systems are used to reduce energy consumption in the interior of a building to allow for optimal transmission of natural light. It discusses how to use natural light in architecture and the benefits of natural light in buildings. Solar energy can be used more efficiently, and electrical power can be saved in residential, administrative, commercial, and educational buildings by using new methods such as light tubes and mirror directors. Modern lighting systems, natural light, and reduced energy consumption are keywords for these systems, which quickly return their investment.

Keywords: modern lighting systems, natural light, reduced energy consumption

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Authors: Strahinja Kovačević, Jelena Vladić, Senka Vidović, Zoran Zeković, Lidija Jevrić, Sanja Podunavac Kuzmanović

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Supercritical extracts of highly valuated medicinal plant Satureja montana were prepared by application of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction in the carbon dioxide pressure range from 125 to 350 bar and temperature range from 40 to 60°C. Using GC/MS method of analysis chemical profiles (aromatic constituents) of S. montana extracts were obtained. Self-training artificial neural networks were applied to predict the retention time of the analyzed terpenes in GC/MS system. The best ANN model obtained was multilayer perceptron (MLP 11-11-1). Hidden activation was tanh and output activation was identity with Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno training algorithm. Correlation measures of the obtained network were the following: R(training) = 0.9975, R(test) = 0.9971 and R(validation) = 0.9999. The comparison of the experimental and predicted retention times of the analyzed compounds showed very high correlation (R = 0.9913) and significant predictive power of the established neural network.

Keywords: ANN regression, GC/MS, Satureja montana, terpenes

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Authors: Marcin Zieliński, Marcin Dębowski, Mirosław Krzemieniewski

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The anaerobic degradation of substrates is limited especially by the rate and effectiveness of the first (hydrolytic) stage of fermentation. This stage may be intensified through pre-treatment of substrate aimed at disintegration of the solid phase and destruction of substrate tissues and cells. The most frequently applied criterion of disintegration outcomes evaluation is the increase in biogas recovery owing to the possibility of its use for energetic purposes and, simultaneously, recovery of input energy consumed for the pre-treatment of substrate before fermentation. Hydrodynamic cavitation is one of the methods for organic substrate disintegration that has a high implementation potential. Cavitation is explained as the phenomenon of the formation of discontinuity cavities filled with vapor or gas in a liquid induced by pressure drop to the critical value. It is induced by a varying field of pressures. A void needs to occur in the flow in which the pressure first drops to the value close to the pressure of saturated vapor and then increases. The process of cavitation conducted under controlled conditions was found to significantly improve the effectiveness of anaerobic conversion of organic substrates having various characteristics. This phenomenon allows effective damage and disintegration of cellular and tissue structures. Disintegration of structures and release of organic compounds to the dissolved phase has a direct effect on the intensification of biogas production in the process of anaerobic fermentation, on reduced dry matter content in the post-fermentation sludge as well as a high degree of its hygienization and its increased susceptibility to dehydration. A device the efficiency of which was confirmed both in laboratory conditions and in systems operating in the technical scale is a hydrodynamic generator of cavitation. Cavitators, agitators and emulsifiers constructed and tested worldwide so far have been characterized by low efficiency and high energy demand. Many of them proved effective under laboratory conditions but failed under industrial ones. The only task successfully realized by these appliances and utilized on a wider scale is the heating of liquids. For this reason, their usability was limited to the function of heating installations. Design of the presented cavitation generator allows achieving satisfactory energy efficiency and enables its use under industrial conditions in depolymerization processes of biomass with various characteristics. Investigations conducted on the laboratory and industrial scale confirmed the effectiveness of applying cavitation in the process of biomass destruction. The use of the cavitation generator in laboratory studies for disintegration of sewage sludge allowed increasing biogas production by ca. 30% and shortening the treatment process by ca. 20 - 25%. The shortening of the technological process and increase of wastewater treatment plant effectiveness may delay investments aimed at increasing system output. The use of a mechanical cavitator and application of repeated cavitation process (4-6 times) enables significant acceleration of the biogassing process. In addition, mechanical cavitation accelerates increases in COD and VFA levels.

Keywords: hydrodynamic cavitation, pretreatment, biomass, methane fermentation, Virginia fanpetals

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Authors: Adetoun Adedotun Amubode

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Nigeria's Textile Industry was the second largest in Africa after Egypt, with above 250 vibrant factories and over 50 percent capacity utilization contributing to foreign exchange earnings and employment generation. Currently, multifaceted challenges such as epileptic power supply, inconsistent government policies, growing digitalization, smuggling of foreign textiles, insecurity and the inability of the local industries to compete with foreign products, especially Chinese textile, has created a hostile environment for the sector. This led to the closure of most of the textile industries. China's textile industry has experienced institutional change and industrial restructuring, having 30% of the world's market share. This paper examined the strategies adopted by China in transforming her textile and clothing industries and designed a model for the integration of these strategies to improve the competitive strength and growth of the Nigerian textile and clothing industries in a dynamic and changing market. The paper concludes that institutional support, regional production, export-oriented policy, value-added and branding cultivation, technological upgrading and enterprise resource planning be integrated into the Nigerian clothing and textile industries.

Keywords: clothing, industry, integration, Nigerian, textile, transformation.

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Authors: Stefanie Kasparek

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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is probably the most recognized international security organization. It is also profoundly misunderstood and undervalued in its effort to promote peace and security. With the rising involvement of non-state actors and the way states fight wars, international governance has become increasingly complex. However, the formal UNSC agenda has long remained static, reflecting states' unwillingness to entertain more conflicts. Nevertheless, resolutions remain the scholarly measure of states' interests and policies, neglecting the significant share of issues the Council entertains informally. This project builds on a rational institutionalism framework. It provides a systematic analysis of how and under what conditions states use informal governance instead of, or in combination with, formal rules at the agenda-setting stage of the policy process. Data for this project comes from elite interviews and a newly created dataset on governance choices. The results show that counter existing arguments, weaker states successfully circumvent formal institutional roadblocks and use informal governance mechanisms to pursue vital interests, thereby countering institutional restrictions and power asymmetries present informal governance settings.

Keywords: agenda-setting, decision-making, international governance, UNSC

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Authors: I. Mukherjee, J. Ghose, T. Chakraborty, S. Chaudhury, R. Majumder

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India is the second most populated nation in the world. With the Indian population hitting the 1.26 billion mark in the year 2014, there has been an unprecedented rise in power and energy requirements throughout the nation. This mammoth demand for energy, both at the industrial as well as at the domestic household level, as well as the increase in the usage of automobiles has led to a corresponding increase in the total tonnage of fuels being burnt every year. This, in turn, has led to an increase in the concentration of atmospheric pollutants over the years with enhanced particulate concentrations being reported for different parts of the country. Considering the adverseness of the particulates, the paper analyses the role of the particulates on the air quality of four major congested cities of the country namely, Kolkata (22034’ N, 88024’ E), Delhi (28038’N , 77012’ E), Bangalore (12058’ N , 77038’E) and Mumbai (18.9750° N, 72.8258° E) over a period of four years from 2006-2009. The fractional contribution of the finer fractions to the coarser one has been considered in the study in addition to the relative occurrences of the particulate fractions with respect to the other gaseous pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX).

Keywords: air quality, particulates, yearly variation, relative occurrence, SO2, NOX

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Authors: Prathibha Ganesan

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This paper discusses discontents of inhabitants in the landfills and its culmination into resistance against centralised waste disposal during the last three decades in Kerala. The study is based on a sample survey of 175 households located in the landfill sites and city limits of two Municipal Corporations viz. Thrissur and Cochin. The study found that waste is dumped in the periphery of the urban area where economically and socially vulnerable people are densely populated. Moreover, landfill sites are unscientifically managed to cause severe socio-economic and health issues to the local people, finally leading to their mobilisation and persistent struggle. The struggles often culminate in the closure of landfills or forced relocation or abandonment of the region by the community. The study concluded that persistent people’s struggles compel the local state to either find alternatives to centralised solid waste management system or use political power to subsume the local resistance. The persistence of the struggles determined the type waste governance adopted by the local governments.

Keywords: solid waste management, municipal corporation, resistance movements, urban, Kerala

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Authors: M. Asghar, K. Mahmood, F. Malik, Lu Na, Y-H Xie, Yasin A. Raja, I. Ferguson

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In this paper, we have reported an enhancement in Seebeck coefficient of un-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on silicon (001) substrate by annealing treatment. The grown ZnO thin films were annealed in oxygen environment at 500°C – 800°C, keeping a step of 100°C for one hour. Room temperature Seebeck measurements showed that Seebeck coefficient and power factor increased from 222 to 510 µV/K and 8.8×10^-6 to 2.6×10^-4 Wm^-1K^-2 as annealing temperature increased from 500°C to 800°C respectively. This is the highest value of Seebeck coefficient ever reported for un-doped MBE grown ZnO according to best of our knowledge. This observation was related with the improvement of crystal structure of grown films with annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results demonstrated that full width half maximum (FWHM) of ZnO (002) plane decreased and crystalline size increased as the annealing temperature increased. Photoluminescence study revealed that the intensity of band edge emission increased and defect emission decreased as annealing temperature increased because the density of oxygen vacancy related donor defects decreased with annealing temperature. This argument was further justified by the Hall measurements which showed a decreasing trend of carrier concentration with annealing temperature.

Keywords: ZnO, MBE, thermoelectric properties, annealing temperature, crystal structure

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Authors: Dmitry V. Fomichev, Vladimir I. Solonin

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In this paper, experimental and numerical study of hydrodynamic characteristics of the air coolant flow in the test wire-wrapped assembly is presented. The test assembly has 37 rods, which are similar to the real fuel pins of the BREST-OD-300 fuel assemblies geometrically. Air open loop test facility installed at the “Nuclear Power Plants and Installations” department of BMSTU was used to obtain the experimental data. The obtaining altitudinal distribution of static pressure in the near-wall test assembly as well as velocity and temperature distribution of coolant flow in the test sections can give us some new knowledge about the mechanism of formation of the turbulence flow structure in the wire wrapped fuel assemblies. Numerical simulations of the turbulence flow has been accomplished using ANSYS Fluent 14.5. Different non-local turbulence models have been considered, such as standard and RNG k-e models and k-w SST model. Results of numerical simulations of the flow based on the considered turbulence models give the best agreement with the experimental data and help us to carry out strong analysis of flow characteristics.

Keywords: wire-spaces fuel assembly, turbulent flow structure, computation fluid dynamics

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Authors: Houria Djebar, Amina Saib, Malika Berredjem, Khaoula Bechlem, Mohammed-Reda Djebar

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have a high potential to damage almost all types of cellular components of the body, which explains their involvement in the induction and/or amplification of several pathologies. Supplementation of the body by exogenous antioxidants is very useful against these harmful species. In this context, we attempted to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities of three newly synthesized amidophosphonates (AP1, AP2, and AP3). The results relating to the in vitro tests for DPPH radical scavenging activity shows that these amidophosphonates have a modest antiradical power (ARP) less effectively pronounced compared with an analogue marketed in Algeria: (Dursban) Clorpiryphos ethyl. However, in vivo effects were evaluated on some antioxidant systems (LP intensity, CAT activity and GSH content), or in combination with 2, 2-diphenyl-picrylhydrazyle (DPPH) radical in paramecium tetraurelia used as a complementary system to rapidly elucidate the cytotoxicity. On the basis of the results obtained it can be concluded that amidophosphonates studied exhibited a mild protective effect. The mechanism for how they influenced the antioxidant activities was discussed.

Keywords: Paramecium tetraurelia, amidophosphonates, antioxidant activity, DPPH free radical, in vitro experiments, biochemical parameters

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Authors: Nekzad R Doctor, Shubham Bhonde, Shashwat Gawande

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The homologation, also known as “type approval,” describes primarily the granting of approval by an official authority. For the use and the import of Keys & ID transmitters as well as Body Control Modules with radio transmission around the globe, homologation is necessary. Depending on country requirements or technical properties (e.g., frequency or transmission power), different approaches need to be fulfilled. The requirements could vary in the form of certifications requirement or exemptions, any technologies forbidden, additional legal requirements and type approval for manufacturing locations. This research will give an overview of all different types of approval and technical requirement for worldwide countries.Information is not available for a lot of countries which is challenging for an entrant in the field of homologation. Also, even if the information is available, there could be a language barrier as different countries sometimes upload their regulations in a local language. Also, there is a lot of unclarity in many countries regarding type approval requirements (Safety, EMC certification,2nd factory certification). To have a clear overview and understanding of type approval requirements, in this document, the Worldwide country will be divided into 4 groups based on technology. After which, a region country-specific type approval requirement will be checked in detail. This document will facilitate in providing global Homologation requirements.

Keywords: homologation, type approval, EMC, body control modules

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Authors: Christos Spandonidis, Stefanos Tsantilas, Elias Sedikos, Nektarios Galiatsatos, Fotios Giannopoulos, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Demagos, Dimitrios Reppas, Christos Giordamlis

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In the present paper, a low cost, compact and modular Internet of Things (IoT) platform for air quality monitoring in urban areas is presented. This platform comprises of dedicated low cost, low power hardware and the associated embedded software that enable measurement of particles (PM2.5 and PM10), NO, CO, CO₂ and O₃ concentration in the air, along with relative temperature and humidity. This integrated platform acts as part of a greater air pollution data collecting wireless network that is able to monitor the air quality in various regions and neighborhoods of an urban area, by providing sensor measurements at a high rate that reaches up to one sample per second. It is therefore suitable for Big Data analysis applications such as air quality forecasts, weather forecasts and traffic prediction. The first real world test for the developed platform took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, where 16 devices were installed in various buildings in the city. In the near future, many more of these devices are going to be installed in the greater Thessaloniki area, giving a detailed air quality map of the city.

Keywords: distributed sensor system, environmental monitoring, Internet of Things, smart cities

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Authors: Muthana A. M. Jameel Al-Jaboori

Abstract:

In this paper, we will present a mathematical model to design a system able to generate electricity from ocean-sea waves. We will use the basic principles of the transfer of the energy potential of waves in a chamber to force the air inside a vertical or inclined cylindrical column, which is topped by a wind turbine to rotate the electric generator. The present mathematical model included a high number of variables such as the wave, height, width, length, velocity, and frequency, as well as others for the energy cylindrical column, like varying diameters and heights, and the wave chamber shape diameter and height. While for the wells wind turbine the variables included the number of blades, length, width, and clearance, as well as the rotor and tip radius. Additionally, the turbine rotor and blades must be made from the light and strong material for a smooth blade surface. The variables were too vast and high in number. Then the program was run successfully within the MATLAB and presented very good modeling results.

Keywords: water wave, models, Wells turbine, MATLAB program

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Authors: Jonathan Heng, Yoong Cheah Huei

Abstract:

A strategic model that does not trigger any false alarms to detect anomalies in Secure Water Treatment (SWaT) test bed is presented. This model uses machine learning invariants formulated from streamlining the general form of Auto-Regressive models with eXogenous input. A creative generalized CUSUM algorithm to integrate the invariants and the detection strategy technique is successfully developed and tested in the SWaT Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). Three steps to fine-tune parameters, b and τ in the generalized algorithm are stated and an example used to demonstrate the tuning process is discussed. This approach can swiftly and effectively detect various scopes of cyber-attacks such as multiple points single stage and multiple points multiple stages in SWaT. This technique can be applied in water treatment plants and other cyber physical systems like power and gas plants too.

Keywords: machine learning invariants, generalized CUSUM algorithm with invariants and detection strategy, scope of cyber attacks, strategic model, tuning parameters

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Authors: T. O. Babarinde, B. O. Bolaji, S. O. Ismaila

Abstract:

Interest in natural refrigerants, such as hydrocarbons has been renewed in recent years because of the environmental problems associated with synthetic chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydro-chlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants. Due to the depletion of ozone-layer and global warming effects, synthetic refrigerants are being gradually phased out in accordance with the international protocols that aim to protect the environment. In this work, a refrigerator designed to work with R134a was used for this experiment, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) which consists of commercial propane and butane in a single evaporator domestic refrigerator with a total volume of 62 litres. In this experiment, type K thermocouples with their probes were used to measure the temperatures of four major components (evaporator, compressor, condenser and expansion device) of the refrigeration system. Also the system was instrumented with two pressure gauges at the inlet and outlet of the compressor for measuring the suction and discharged pressures. The experiments were carried out using 40, 60, 80,100g charges and the charges were measured with a digital charging scale. Thermodynamic properties of the LPG refrigerant were determined. The results obtained showed that using LPG charge of 60g. The system COP increased with 14.6% and the power consumption reduced with 9.8% when compared with R134a. Therefore, LPG can replace R134a in domestic refrigerator.

Keywords: domestic refrigerator, experimental, LPG, R134a

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Authors: Mohammad Y. Badiee, Saeed Golestani, Mir Saman Pishvaee

Abstract:

In recent years consumers and governments have been pushing companies to design their activities in such a way as to reduce negative environmental impacts by producing renewable product or threat free disposal policy more and more. It is therefore important to focus more accurate to the optimization of various aspect of total supply chain. Modeling a supply chain can be a challenging process due to the fact that there are a large number of factors that need to be considered in the model. The use of multi-objective optimization can lead to overcome those problems since more information is used when designing the model. Uncertainty is inevitable in real world. Considering uncertainty on parameters in addition to use multi-objectives are ways to give more flexibility to the decision making process since the process can take into account much more constraints and requirements. In this paper we demonstrate a stochastic scenario based robust model to cope with uncertainty in a closed-loop multi-objective supply chain. By applying the proposed model in a real world case, the power of proposed model in handling data uncertainty is shown.

Keywords: supply chain management, closed-loop supply chain, multi-objective optimization, goal programming, uncertainty, robust optimization

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Authors: Ravi Chaithanya Mysa, Abouzar Kaboudian, Boo Cheong Khoo, Rajeev Kumar Jaiman

Abstract:

The phenomenon of vortex-induced vibration has applications in off-shore industry, power transmission, energy extraction, etc. Two cylinders in crossflow whose centers are displaced in transverse direction are considered in the present work. The effects of the gap distance between the cylinders on the vortex shedding are presented. The inline distance between the cylinder centers is kept at zero. Two setups are considered for the study: first, we assume the two cylinders vibrate as a single rigid body mounted on a spring, and in the other case, each cylinder is mounted on a separate spring with no rigid connection to the other cylinder. The study focuses on the effect of transverse gap on the fluid-structure coupled response of two setups mentioned and corresponding flow contours. Incompressible flow is assumed in the Eulerian framework. The cylinder movement is modeled by a single degree of freedom rigid body motion (translational motion) in the Lagrangian framework. The governing equations were numerically solved by standard Petrov-Galerkin second order finite element schemes.

Keywords: cross-flow, vortex-induced vibrations, cylinder, close proximity

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Authors: Muzaffar Hussain

Abstract:

Requests strategies are considered as a part of the speech acts, which are frequently used in everyday communication. Each language provides speech acts to the speakers; therefore, the selection of appropriate form seems more culture-specific rather than language. The present paper investigates the gender-based difference in the use of request strategies by native speakers of Urdu/Punjabi male and female who are learning English as a second language. The data for the present study were collected from 68 graduate students, who are learning English as an L2 in Pakistan. They were given an online close-ended questionnaire, based on Discourse Completion Test (DCT). After analyzing the data, it was found that the L1 male Urdu/Punjabi speakers were inclined to use more direct request strategies while the female Urdu/Punjabi speakers used indirect request strategies. This paper also found that in some situations female participants used more direct strategies than male participants. The present study concludes that the use of request strategies is influenced by culture, social status, and power distribution in a society.

Keywords: gender variation, request strategies, face-threatening, second language pragmatics, language competence

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Authors: Manal Rauf

Abstract:

Trained medical practitioners are produced from medical colleges serving in public and private sectors. Prime responsibility of teaching faculty is to inculcate required work ethic among the students by serving as role models for them. It is an observed fact that classroom incivility behaviours are providing a friction in achieving these targets. Present study aimed at identification of classroom incivility behaviours observed by teachers and students of public and private medical colleges as per Glasser’s Choice Theory, making a comparison and investigating the strategies being adopted by teachers of both sectors to control undesired class room behaviours. Findings revealed that a significant difference occurs between teacher and student incivility behaviours. Public sector teacher focussed on survival as a strong factor behind in civil behaviours whereas private sector teachers considered power as the precedent for incivility. Teachers of both sectors are required to use verbal as well as non-verbal immediacy to reach a healthy leaning environment.

Keywords: classroom incivility behaviour, glasser choice theory, Mehrabian immediacy theory

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Authors: Elham A. Alsadoon, Hamadah B. Alsadoon

Abstract:

Educators try to design learning environments that are preferred by their students. With the wide-spread adoption of cell phones surpassing any other technology, educators should not fail to invest in the power of such technology. This study aimed to explore the current use of cell phones in education among Saudi students in Saudi universities and how students perceive such use. Data was collected from 237 students at King Saud University. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. A T-test for independent groups was used to examine whether there was a significant difference between males and females in their perception of using cell phones in education. Findings suggested that students have a positive attitude toward the use of cell phones in education. The most accepted use was for sending notification to students, which has already been experienced through the Twasel system provided by King Saud University. This electronic system allows instructors to easily send any SMS or email to their students. The use of cell phone applications came in the second rank of using cell phones in education. Students have already experienced the benefits of having these applications handy wherever they go. On the other hand, they did not perceive using cell phones for assessment as practical educational usage. No gender difference was detected in terms of students’ perceptions toward using cell phones in education.

Keywords: cell phone, mobile learning, educational sciences, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 405