Search results for: precision technologies

Authors: Vera Marcantonio, Marcello De Falco, Mauro Capocelli, Álvaro Amado-Fierro, Teresa A. Centeno, Enrico Bocci

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Concerns about energy security, energy prices, and climate change led scientific research towards sustainable solutions to fossil fuel as renewable energy sources coupled with hydrogen as an energy vector and carbon capture and conversion technologies. Among the technologies investigated in the last decades, biomass gasification acquired great interest owing to the possibility of obtaining low-cost and CO₂ negative emission hydrogen production from a large variety of everywhere available organic wastes. Upstream and downstream treatment were then studied in order to maximize hydrogen yield, reduce the content of organic and inorganic contaminants under the admissible levels for the technologies which are coupled with, capture, and convert carbon dioxide. However, studies which analyse a whole process made of all those technologies are still missing. In order to fill this lack, the present paper investigated the coexistence of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), sorption enhance gasification (SEG), hot gas cleaning (HGC), and CO₂ conversion by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor for H₂ production from biomass waste by means of Aspen Plus software. The proposed model aimed to identify and optimise the performance of the plant by varying operating parameters (such as temperature, CaO/biomass ratio, separation efficiency, etc.). The carbon footprint of the global plant is 2.3 kg CO₂/kg H₂, lower than the latest limit value imposed by the European Commission to consider hydrogen as “clean”, that was set to 3 kg CO₂/kg H₂. The hydrogen yield referred to the whole plant is 250 gH₂/kgBIOMASS.

Keywords: biomass gasification, hydrogen, aspen plus, sorption enhance gasification

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Authors: Penn P. Wu, Jeannie Jo

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Blockchain technology has rapidly gained popularity in industry. This paper attempts to assist academia to answer four questions. First, should community colleges begin offering education to nurture blockchain-literate students for the job market? Second, what are the appropriate topical areas to cover? Third, should it be an individual course? And forth, should it be a technical or management course? This paper starts with identifying the knowledge domains of blockchain technology and the topical areas each domain has, and continues with placing them in appropriate academic territories (Computer Sciences vs. Business) and subjects (programming, management, marketing, and laws), and then develops an evaluation model to determine the appropriate topical area for community colleges to teach. The evaluation is based on seven factors: maturity of technology, impacts on management, real-world applications, subject classification, knowledge prerequisites, textbook readiness, and recommended pedagogies. The evaluation results point to an interesting direction that offering an introductory course is an ideal option to guide students through the learning journey of what blockchain is and how it applies to business. Such an introductory course does not need to engage students in the discussions of mathematics and sciences that make blockchain technologies possible. While it is inevitable to brief technical topics to help students build a solid knowledge foundation of blockchain technologies, community colleges should avoid offering students a course centered on the discussion of developing blockchain applications.

Keywords: blockchain, pedagogies, blockchain technologies, blockchain course, blockchain pedagogies

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Authors: Glemarie C. Hermosa, Sheng-Jie You, Chien Chih Hu

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Efficient separation technologies are required for the removal of carbon dioxide from natural gas streams. Membrane-based natural gas separation has emerged as one of the fastest growing technologies, due to the compactness, higher energy efficiency and economic advantages which can be reaped. The removal of Carbon dioxide from gas streams using membrane technology will also give the advantage like environmental friendly process compared to the other technologies used in gas separation. In this study, Polyimide membranes, which are mostly used in the separation of gases, are blended with a new kind of solvent: Deep Eutectic Solvents or simply DES. The three types of DES are used are choline chloride based mixed with three different hydrogen bond donors: Lactic acid, N-methylurea and Urea. The blending of the DESs to Polyimide gave out high permeability performance. The Gas Separation performance for all the membranes involving CO2/CH4 showed low performance while for CO2/N2 surpassed the performance of some studies. Among the three types of DES used the solvent Choline Chloride/Lactic acid exhibited the highest performance for both Gas Separation applications. The values are 10.5 for CO2/CH4 selectivity and 60.5 for CO2/N2. The separation results for CO2/CH4 may be due to the viscosity of the DESs affecting the morphology of the fabricated membrane thus also impacts the performance. DES/blended Polyimide membranes fabricated are novel and have the potential of a low-cost and environmental friendly application for gas separation.

Keywords: deep eutectic solvents, gas separation, polyimide blends, polyimide membranes

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Authors: Eliza. E. Camaso, Guiller. B. Damian, Miguelito. F. Isip, Ronaldo T. Alberto

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Land-cover maps were important for many scientific, ecological and land management purposes and during the last decades, rapid decrease of soil fertility was observed to be due to land use practices such as rice cultivation. High-precision land-cover maps are not yet available in the area which is important in an economy management. To assure   accurate mapping of land cover to provide information, remote sensing is a very suitable tool to carry out this task and automatic land use and cover detection. The study did not only provide high precision land cover maps but it also provides estimates of rice production area that had undergone chemical degradation due to fertility decline. Land-cover were delineated and classified into pre-defined classes to achieve proper detection features. After generation of Land-cover map, of high intensity of rice cultivation, soil fertility degradation assessment in rice production area due to fertility decline was created to assess the impact of soils used in agricultural production. Using Simple spatial analysis functions and ArcGIS, the Land-cover map of Municipality of Quezon in Nueva Ecija, Philippines was overlaid to the fertility decline maps from Land Degradation Assessment Philippines- Bureau of Soils and Water Management (LADA-Philippines-BSWM) to determine the area of rice crops that were most likely where nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc and sulfur deficiencies were induced by high dosage of urea and imbalance N:P fertilization. The result found out that 80.00 % of fallow and 99.81% of rice production area has high soil fertility decline.

Keywords: aerial image, landcover, LiDAR, soil fertility degradation

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Authors: Zeynep Tanriverdi̇

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Sustainable architecture is a design approach that provides healthy, comfortable, safe, clean space production as well as utilizes minimum resources for efficient and economical use of natural resources and energy. Traditional houses located in rural areas are sustainable structures built at the design and implementation stage in accordance with the climatic environmental data of the region and also effectively using natural energy resources. The fact that these structures are located in an earthquake geography like Türkiye brings their earthquake resistance to the agenda. Since the construction of these structures, which contain the architectural and technological cultural knowledge of the past, is shaped according to the characteristics of the regions where they are located, their resistance to earthquakes also differs. Analyses in rural areas after the earthquake show that there are light-damaged structures that can survive, severely damaged structures, and completely destroyed structures. In this regard, experts can implement repair, consolidation, and reconstruction applications, respectively. While simple repair interventions are carried out in accordance with the original data in traditional houses that have shown great resistance to earthquakes, reinforcement work blended with new technologies can be applied in damaged structures. In reconstruction work, a wide variety of applications can be seen with the possibilities of modern technologies. In rural areas experiencing earthquakes around the world, there are experimental new housing applications that are renewable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable with modern construction techniques in the light of scientific data. With these new residences, it is aimed to create earthquake-resistant, economical, healthy, and pain-relieving therapy spaces for people whose daily lives have been interrupted by disasters. In this study, the preservation of high earthquake-prone rural areas will be discussed through the knowledge transfer of traditional architecture and also permanent housing practices using new sustainable technologies to improve the area. In this way, it will be possible to keep losses to a minimum with sustainable, reliable applications prepared for the worst aspects of the disaster situation and to establish a link between the knowledge of the past and the new technologies of the future.

Keywords: sustainability, conservation, traditional construction systems and materials, new technologies, earthquake resistance

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Authors: Nazatul Aini Abd Majid, Faridah Yunus, Haslina Arshad, Mohammad Farhan Mohammad Johari

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Mobile technology, augmented reality, and game-based learning are some of the key learning technologies that can be fully optimized to promote pre-literacy skills. The problem is how to design an effective pre-literacy kit that utilizes some of the learning technologies. This paper presents a framework based on mobile augmented reality for the development of pre-literacy kit. This pre-literacy kit incorporates three main components which are contents, design, and tools. A prototype of a mobile app based on the three main components was developed for promoting pre-literacy. The results show that the children and teachers gave positive feedbacks after using the mobile app for the pre-literacy.

Keywords: framework, mobile technology, augmented reality, pre-literacy skills

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Authors: Ayoola Idowu Olasebikan

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The global community has become increasingly dependent on various kinds of technologies out of which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) appear to be the most prominent. ICTs have become multipurpose tools which have had a revolutionary impact on how we see the world and how we live in it. Yoruba is the most widely spoken African language outside Africa but it remains one of the badly spoken language in the world as a result of its outdated teaching method in the African schools which prevented its standard version from being spoken and written. This paper conducts a critical review of the traditional methods of teaching Yoruba language. It then examines the possibility of leveraging on ICTs for improved methods of teaching Yoruba language to achieve global standard and spread. It identified key ICT platforms that can be deployed for the teaching of Yoruba language and the constraints facing each of them. The paper concludes that Information and Communication Technologies appear to provide veritable opportunity for paradigm shift in the methods of teaching Yoruba Language. It also opines that Yoruba language has the potential to transform economic fortune of Africa for sustainable development provided its teaching is taken beyond the brick and mortar classroom to the virtual classroom/global information super highway called internet or any other ICTs medium. It recommends that students and teachers of Yoruba language should be encouraged to acquire basic skills in computer and internet technology in order to enhance their ability to develop and retrieve electronic Yoruba language teaching materials.

Keywords: Africa, ICT, teaching method, Yoruba language

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Authors: José L. Jiménez

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The use of technology in the classroom is an issue that is constantly evolving. Digital age students learn differently than their teachers did, so now the teacher should be constantly evolving their methods and teaching techniques to be more in touch with the student. In this paper a case study presents how were used some of these technologies by accompanying a classroom course, this in order to provide students with a different and innovative experience as their teacher usually presented the activities to develop. As students worked in the various activities, they increased their digital skills by employing unknown tools that helped them in their professional training. The twenty-first century teacher should consider the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom thinking in skills that students of the digital age should possess. It also takes a brief look at the history of distance education and it is also highlighted the importance of integrating technology as part of the student's training.

Keywords: digital tools, on-line learning, social networks, technology

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Authors: Abdelrhman Elagez, Rolla Monib

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This empirical study investigates the observed risks associated with adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in the construction industry and proposes potential mitigation strategies. While AI has transformed several industries, the construction industry is slowly adopting advanced technologies like AI, introducing new risks that lack critical analysis in the current literature. A comprehensive literature review identified a research gap, highlighting the lack of critical analysis of risks and the need for a framework to measure and mitigate the risks of AI implementation in the construction industry. Consequently, an online survey was conducted with 24 project managers and construction professionals, possessing experience ranging from 1 to 30 years (with an average of 6.38 years), to gather industry perspectives and concerns relating to AI integration. The survey results yielded several significant findings. Firstly, respondents exhibited a moderate level of familiarity (66.67%) with AI technologies, while the industry's readiness for AI deployment and current usage rates remained low at 2.72 out of 5. Secondly, the top-ranked barriers to AI adoption were identified as lack of awareness, insufficient knowledge and skills, data quality concerns, high implementation costs, absence of prior case studies, and the uncertainty of outcomes. Thirdly, the most significant risks associated with AI use in construction were perceived to be a lack of human control (decision-making), accountability, algorithm bias, data security/privacy, and lack of legislation and regulations. Additionally, the participants acknowledged the value of factors such as education, training, organizational support, and communication in facilitating AI integration within the industry. These findings emphasize the necessity for tailored risk assessment frameworks, guidelines, and governance principles to address the identified risks and promote the responsible adoption of AI technologies in the construction sector.

Keywords: risk management, construction, artificial intelligence, technology

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Authors: Abhinav Sirvaiya, Karan Gupta, Pankaj Garg

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The demand of energy is increasing at every part of the world. Thus, use of fossil fuel is efficient which results in large liberation of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Tons of this CO2 raises the risk of dangerous climate changes. To minimize the risk carbon capture and storage (CCS) has to be used so that the emitted carbon dioxide do not reach the atmosphere. CCS is being considered as one of the options that could have a major role to play in India.With the growing awareness towards the global warming, carbon capture and sequestration has a great importance. New technologies and theories are in use to capture CO2. This paper contains the methodology and technologies that is in use to capture carbon dioxide in India. The present scenario of CCS is also being discussed. CCS is playing a major role in enhancing recovery of oil (ERO). Both the purpose 1) minimizing percentage of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and 2) enhancing recovery of oil are fulfilled from the CCS. The CO2 is usually captured from coal based power plant and from some industrial sources and then stored in the geological formations like oil and gas reservoir and deep aquifers or in oceans. India has large reservoirs of coal which are being used for storing CO2, as coal is a good absorbent of CO2. New technologies and studies are going on for injection purposes. Government has initiated new plans for CCS as CCS is technically feasible and economically attractive. A discussion is done on new schemes that should bring up CCS plans and approaches. Stakeholders are welcomed for suitability of CCS. There is still a need to potentially capture the CO2 and avail its storage in developing country like India.

Keywords: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), carbon dioxide (CO2), enhance oil recovery, geological formations, stakeholders

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Authors: S. J. Yune, S. Y. Lee, S. J. Im, B. S. Kam, S. Y. Baek

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This study aimed to determine the reliability of clinical performance assessments, having been emphasized by ability-based education, and professors overall assessment methods. We addressed the following problems: First, we try to find out whether there is a difference in what we consider to be the main variables affecting the clinical performance test according to the evaluator’s working period and the number of evaluation experience. Second, we examined the relationship among the global rating score (G), analytic global rating score (Gc), and the sum of the analytical checklists (C). What are the main factors affecting clinical performance assessments in relation to the numbers of times the evaluator had administered evaluations and the length of their working period service? What is the relationship between overall assessment score and analytic checklist score? How does analytic global rating with 6 components in OSCE and 4 components in sub-domains (Gc) CPX: aseptic practice, precision, systemic approach, proficiency, successfulness, and attitude overall assessment score and task-specific analytic checklist score sum (C) affect the professor’s overall global rating assessment score (G)? We studied 75 professors who attended a 2016 Bugyeoung Consortium clinical skills performances test evaluating third and fourth year medical students at the Pusan National University Medical school in South Korea (39 prof. in OSCE, 36 prof. in CPX; all consented to participate in our study). Each evaluator used 3 forms; a task-specific analytic checklist, subsequent analytic global rating scale with sub-6 domains, and overall global scale. After the evaluation, the professors responded to the questionnaire on the important factors of clinical performance assessment. The data were analyzed by frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS 21.0. Their understanding of overall assessment was analyzed by dividing the subjects into groups based on experiences. As a result, they considered ‘precision’ most important in overall OSCE assessment, and ‘precise accuracy physical examination’, ‘systemic approaches to taking patient history’, and ‘diagnostic skill capability’ in overall CPX assessment. For OSCE, there was no clear difference of opinion about the main factors, but there was for CPX. Analytic global rating scale score, overall rating scale score, and analytic checklist score had meaningful mutual correlations. According to the regression analysis results, task-specific checklist score sum had the greatest effect on overall global rating. professors regarded task-specific analytic checklist total score sum as best reflecting overall OSCE test score, followed by aseptic practice, precision, systemic approach, proficiency, successfulness, and attitude on a subsequent analytic global rating scale. For CPX, subsequent analytic global rating scale score, overall global rating scale score, and task-specific checklist score had meaningful mutual correlations. These findings support explanations for validity of professors’ global rating in clinical performance assessment.

Keywords: global rating, clinical performance assessment, medical education, analytic checklist

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Authors: Saeidreza Radpour, Md. Ahiduzzaman, Amit Kumar

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Alberta’s mining sector consumed 871.3 PJ in 2012, which is 67.1% of the energy consumed in the industry sector and about 40% of all the energy consumed in the province of Alberta. Natural gas, petroleum products, and electricity supplied 55.9%, 20.8%, and 7.7%, respectively, of the total energy use in this sector. Oil sands mining and upgrading to crude oil make up most of the mining energy sector activities in Alberta. Crude oil is produced from the oil sands either by in situ methods or by the mining and extraction of bitumen from oil sands ore. In this research, the factors affecting oil sands production have been assessed and a framework has been developed for market penetration of new efficient technologies in this sector. Oil sands production amount is a complex function of many different factors, broadly categorized into technical, economic, political, and global clusters. The results of developed and implemented statistical analysis in this research show that the importance of key factors affecting on oil sands production in Alberta is ranked as: Global energy consumption (94% consistency), Global crude oil price (86% consistency), and Crude oil export (80% consistency). A framework for modeling oil sands energy technologies’ market penetration (OSETMP) has been developed to cover related technical, economic and environmental factors in this sector. It has been assumed that the impact of political and social constraints is reflected in the model by changes of global oil price or crude oil price in Canada. The market share of novel in situ mining technologies with low energy and water use are assessed and calculated in the market penetration framework include: 1) Partial upgrading, 2) Liquid addition to steam to enhance recovery (LASER), 3) Solvent-assisted process (SAP), also called solvent-cyclic steam-assisted gravity drainage (SC-SAGD), 4) Cyclic solvent, 5) Heated solvent, 6) Wedge well, 7) Enhanced modified steam and Gas push (emsagp), 8) Electro-thermal dynamic stripping process (ET-DSP), 9) Harris electro-magnetic heating applications (EMHA), 10) Paraffin froth separation. The results of the study will show the penetration profile of these technologies over a long term planning horizon.

Keywords: appliances efficiency improvement, diffusion models, market penetration, residential sector

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Authors: Danilo F. Rodrigues, Hérida Regina N. Salgado

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Introduction: The emergence of resistant microorganisms to a large number of clinically approved antimicrobials has been increasing, which restrict the options for the treatment of bacterial infections. As a strategy, drugs with high antimicrobial activities are in evidence. Stands out a class of antimicrobial, the cephalosporins, having as fourth generation cefepime (CEF) a semi-synthetic product which has activity against various Gram-positive bacteria (e.g. oxacillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa) aerobic. There are few studies in the literature regarding the development of microbiological methodologies for the analysis of this antimicrobial, so researches in this area are highly relevant to optimize the analysis of this drug in the industry and ensure the quality of the marketed product. The development of microbiological methods for the analysis of antimicrobials has gained strength in recent years and has been highlighted in relation to physicochemical methods, especially because they make possible to determine the bioactivity of the drug against a microorganism. In this context, the aim of this work was the development and validation of a microbiological method for quantitative analysis of CEF in powder lyophilized for injectable solution by turbidimetric assay. Method: For performing the method, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 IAL 2082 was used as the test microorganism and the culture medium chosen was the Casoy broth. The test was performed using temperature control (35.0 °C ± 2.0 °C) and incubated for 4 hours in shaker. The readings of the results were made at a wavelength of 530 nm through a spectrophotometer. The turbidimetric microbiological method was validated by determining the following parameters: linearity, precision (repeatability and intermediate precision), accuracy and robustness, according to ICH guidelines. Results and discussion: Among the parameters evaluated for method validation, the linearity showed results suitable for both statistical analyses as the correlation coefficients (r) that went 0.9990 for CEF reference standard and 0.9997 for CEF sample. The precision presented the following values 1.86% (intraday), 0.84% (interday) and 0.71% (between analyst). The accuracy of the method has been proven through the recovery test where the mean value obtained was 99.92%. The robustness was verified by the parameters changing volume of culture medium, brand of culture medium, incubation time in shaker and wavelength. The potency of CEF present in the samples of lyophilized powder for injectable solution was 102.46%. Conclusion: The turbidimetric microbiological method proposed for quantification of CEF in lyophilized powder for solution for injectable showed being fast, linear, precise, accurate and robust, being in accordance with all the requirements, which can be used in routine analysis of quality control in the pharmaceutical industry as an option for microbiological analysis.

Keywords: cefepime hydrochloride, quality control, turbidimetric assay, validation

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Authors: Alisa Kazarina, Guntis Gerhards, Elina Petersone-Gordina, Ilva Pole, Viktorija Igumnova, Janis Kimsis, Valentina Capligina, Renate Ranka

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Human body is inhabited by a vast number of microorganisms, collectively known as the human microbiome, and there is a tremendous interest in evolutionary changes in human microbial ecology, diversity and function. The field of paleomicrobiology, study of ancient human microbiome, is powered by modern techniques of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), which allows extracting microbial genomic data directly from archaeological sample of interest. One of the major techniques is 16S rRNA gene sequencing, by which certain 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions are being amplified and sequenced. However, some limitations of this method exist including the taxonomic precision and efficacy of different regions used. The aim of this study was to evaluate the phylogenetic sensitivity of different 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions for microbiome studies in the archaeological samples. Towards this aim, archaeological bone samples and corresponding soil samples from each burial environment were collected in Medieval cemeteries in Latvia. The Ion 16S™ Metagenomics Kit targeting different 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions was used for library construction (Ion Torrent technologies). Sequenced data were analysed by using appropriate bioinformatic techniques; alignment and taxonomic representation was done using Mothur program. Sequences of most abundant genus were further aligned to E. coli 16S rRNA gene reference sequence using MEGA7 in order to identify the hypervariable region of the segment of interest. Our results showed that different hypervariable regions had different discriminatory power depending on the groups of microbes, as well as the nature of samples. On the basis of our results, we suggest that wider range of primers used can provide more accurate recapitulation of microbial communities in archaeological samples. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the ERAF grant Nr. 1.1.1.1/16/A/101.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene, ancient human microbiome, archaeology, bioinformatics, genomics, microbiome, molecular biology, next-generation sequencing

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Authors: Jodie Bradnam, Mark Edwards, Bruce Watt

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Mobile technologies have emerged as tools to create and sustain social and romantic relationships. The integration of technologies in close relationships has been of particular research interest with findings supporting the positive role of mobile phones in nurturing feelings of closeness and connection. More recently, the use of text messaging to manage conflict has become a focus of research attention. Four hundred and eleven adults in committed romantic relationships completed a series of questionnaires measuring attachment orientation, relationship quality, texting frequencies, attitudes, and response expectations. Attachment orientation, relationship length, texting for connection and disconnection were significant predictors of relationship quality, specifically relationship intimacy. Text frequency varied as a function of attachment orientation, with high attachment anxiety associated with high texting frequencies and with low relationship quality. Sending text messages of love and support was related to higher intimacy and relationship satisfaction scores, while sending critical or impersonal texts was associated with significantly lower intimacy and relationship satisfaction scores. The use of texting to manage relational conflict was a stronger negative predictor of relationship satisfaction than was the use of texting to express love and affection. Consistent with research on face-to-face communication in couples, the expression of negative sentiments via text were related to lower relationship quality, and these negative sentiments had a stronger and more enduring impact on relationship quality than did the expression of positive sentiments. Attachment orientation, relationship length and relationship status emerged as variables of interest in understanding the use of mobile technologies in romantic relationships.

Keywords: attachment, destructive conflict, intimacy, mobile communication, relationship quality, relationship satisfaction, texting

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Authors: Denis A. Sokolov, Andrey V. Mazurkevich

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In the modern world, there is an increasing demand for highly precise measurements in various fields, such as aircraft, shipbuilding, and rocket engineering. This has resulted in the development of appropriate measuring instruments that are capable of measuring the coordinates of objects within a range of up to 100 meters, with an accuracy of up to one micron. The calibration process for such optoelectronic measuring devices (trackers and total stations) involves comparing the measurement results from these devices to a reference measurement based on a linear or spatial basis. The reference used in such measurements could be a reference base or a reference range finder with the capability to measure angle increments (EDM). The base would serve as a set of reference points for this purpose. The concept of the EDM for replicating the unit of measurement has been implemented on a mobile platform, which allows for angular changes in the direction of laser radiation in two planes. To determine the distance to an object, a high-precision interferometer with its own design is employed. The laser radiation travels to the corner reflectors, which form a spatial reference with precisely known positions. When the femtosecond pulses from the reference arm and the measuring arm coincide, an interference signal is created, repeating at the frequency of the laser pulses. The distance between reference points determined by interference signals is calculated in accordance with recommendations from the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for the indirect measurement of time of light passage according to the definition of a meter. This distance is D/2 = c/2nF, approximately 2.5 meters, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, n is the refractive index of a medium, and F is the frequency of femtosecond pulse repetition. The achieved uncertainty of type A measurement of the distance to reflectors 64 m (N•D/2, where N is an integer) away and spaced apart relative to each other at a distance of 1 m does not exceed 5 microns. The angular uncertainty is calculated theoretically since standard high-precision ring encoders will be used and are not a focus of research in this study. The Type B uncertainty components are not taken into account either, as the components that contribute most do not depend on the selected coordinate measuring method. This technology is being explored in the context of laboratory applications under controlled environmental conditions, where it is possible to achieve an advantage in terms of accuracy. In general, the EDM tests showed high accuracy, and theoretical calculations and experimental studies on an EDM prototype have shown that the uncertainty type A of distance measurements to reflectors can be less than 1 micrometer. The results of this research will be utilized to develop a highly accurate mobile absolute range finder designed for the calibration of high-precision laser trackers and laser rangefinders, as well as other equipment, using a 64 meter laboratory comparator as a reference.

Keywords: femtosecond laser, pulse correlation, interferometer, laser absolute range finder, coordinate measurement

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Authors: Peter Winzer, Erik Massarczyk

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Experts, enterprises and operators expect that the bandwidth request will increase up to rates of 100 to 1,000 Mbps within several years. Therefore the most important question is, which technology shall satisfy the future consumer broadband demands. Currently the consensus is, that the fiber technology has the best technical characteristics to achieve such the high bandwidth rates. But fiber technology is so far very cost-intensive and resource consuming. To avoid these investments, operators are concentrating to upgrade the existing copper and hybrid fiber coax infrastructures. This work presents a comparison of the copper and fiber technologies including an overview about the current German broadband market. Both technologies are reviewed in the terms of demand, willingness to pay and economic efficiency in connection with the technical characteristics.

Keywords: broadband customer demand, fiber development, g.fast, vectoring, willingness to pay for broadband services

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Authors: Anastasia Stamatiou, Markus Odermatt, Dominic Leemann, Ludger J. Fischer, Joerg Worlitschek

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The successful integration of thermal energy storage in industrial processes is expected to play an important role in the energy turnaround. Latent heat storage technologies can offer more compact thermal storage at a constant temperature level, in comparison to conventional, sensible thermal storage technologies. The focus of this study is the development of latent heat storage solutions based on the Phase Change Slurry (PCS) concept. Such systems promise higher energy densities both as refrigerants and as storage media while presenting better heat transfer characteristics than conventional latent heat storage technologies. This technology is expected to deliver high thermal power and high-temperature stability which makes it ideal for storage of process heat. An evaluation of important batch processes in industrial applications set the focus on materials with a melting point in the range of 55 - 90 °C. Aluminium ammonium sulfate dodecahydrate (NH₄Al(SO₄)₂·12H₂O) was chosen as the first interesting PCM for the next steps of this study. The ability of this material to produce slurries at the relevant temperatures was demonstrated in a continuous mode in a laboratory test-rig. Critical operational and design parameters were identified.

Keywords: esters, latent heat storage, phase change materials, thermal properties

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Authors: Laura Rodriguez Amaya

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Advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are viewed as important to countries’ national economies and their capacities to be competitive in the global economy. However, many countries experience low numbers of students entering these disciplines. To strengthen the professional STEM pipelines, it is important that students are retained in these disciplines at universities. Scholars agree that to retain students in universities’ STEM degrees, it is necessary that STEM course content shows the relevance of these academic fields to their daily lives. By increasing students’ understanding on the importance of these degrees and careers, students’ motivation to remain in these academic programs can also increase. An effective way to make STEM content relevant to students’ lives is the use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization in the classroom. The Geospatial Revolution, and the science and technology associated with it, has provided scientists and engineers with an incredible amount of data about Earth and Earth systems. This data can be used in the classroom to support instruction and make content relevant to all students. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence use of geospatial technologies and geovisualization as teaching practices in a USA university. The Teaching Practices Inventory survey, which is a modified version of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative Teaching Practices Inventory, was selected for the study. Faculty in the STEM disciplines that participated in a summer learning institute at a 4-year university in the USA constituted the population selected for the study. One of the summer learning institute’s main purpose was to have an impact on the teaching of STEM courses, particularly the teaching of gateway courses taken by many STEM majors. The sample population for the study is 97.5 of the total number of summer learning institute participants. Basic descriptive statistics through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were performed to find out: 1) The percentage of faculty using geospatial technologies and geovisualization; 2) Did the faculty associated department impact their use of geospatial tools?; and 3) Did the number of years in a teaching capacity impact their use of geospatial tools? Findings indicate that only 10 percent of respondents had used geospatial technologies, and 18 percent had used geospatial visualization. In addition, the use of geovisualization among faculty of different disciplines was broader than the use of geospatial technologies. The use of geospatial technologies concentrated in the engineering departments. Data seems to indicate the lack of incorporation of geospatial tools in STEM education. The use of geospatial tools is an effective way to engage students in deep STEM learning. Future research should look at the effect on student learning and retention in science and engineering programs when geospatial tools are used.

Keywords: engineering education, geospatial technology, geovisualization, STEM

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Authors: Michelle Marquard

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The evidence for collaboration technologies (CTs) as a source of business productivity has never been stronger, and grows each day. At the same time, paradoxically, there is an increasingly greater concern about the challenge CTs present to the unity and well-being of the virtual workforce than ever before, but nowhere in the literature has an empirical understanding of these linkages been set out. This study attempted to address by using virtual distance as a measure of the efficacy of CTs to reduce the psychological distance among people. Data from 350 managers and 101 individual contributors across twelve functions in six major industries showed that business value is related to collaboration (r=.84, p < .01), which, in turn, is associated with full spectrum participation (r=.60, p < .01), a summative function of inclusion, integration, and we-intention. Further, virtual distance is negatively related to both collaboration (r=-.54, p < .01) and full spectrum participation (r=-.26, p < .01). Additionally, CIO-CDO relationship is a factor in the degree to which virtual distance is managed in the organization (r=-.26, p < .01). Overall, the results support the positive relationship between business value and collaboration. They also suggest that the extent to which collaboration can be fostered may depend on the degree of full spectrum participation or the level of inclusion, integration, and we-intention among members. Finally, the results indicate that CTs, when managed wisely to lower virtual distance, are a compelling concomitant to collaboration and full spectrum participation. A strategic outcome of this study is an instrumental blueprint of CTs and virtual distance in relation to full spectrum participation that should serve as a shared dashboard for CIOs, CHROs, and CDOs.

Keywords: business value, collaboration, inclusion, integration, we-intention, full spectrum participation, collaboration technologies, virtual distance

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Authors: Laxmi R. Kasaraneni

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The Internet connects all the networks, including the nation’s critical infrastructure that are used extensively by not only a nation’s government and military to protect sensitive information and execute missions, but also the primary infrastructure that provides services that enable modern conveniences such as education, potable water, electricity, natural gas, and financial transactions. It has become the central nervous system for the government, the citizens, and the industries. When it is attacked, the effects can ripple far and wide impacts not only to citizens’ well-being but nation’s economy, civil infrastructure, and national security. As such, these critical services may be targeted by malicious hackers during cyber warfare, it is imperative to not only protect them and mitigate any immediate or potential threats, but to also understand the current or potential impacts beyond the IT networks or the organization. The Nation’s IT infrastructure which is now vital for communication, commerce, and control of our physical infrastructure, is highly vulnerable to attack. While existing technologies can address some vulnerabilities, fundamentally new architectures and technologies are needed to address the larger structural insecurities of an infrastructure developed in a more trusting time when mass cyber attacks were not foreseen. This research is intended to improve the core functions of the Internet and critical-sector information systems by providing a clear path to create a safe, secure, and resilient cyber environment that help stakeholders at all levels of government, and the private sector work together to develop the cybersecurity capabilities that are key to our economy, national security, and public health and safety. This research paper also emphasizes the present and future cyber security threats, the capabilities and goals of cyber attackers, a strategic concept and steps to implement cybersecurity for maximum effectiveness, enabling technologies, some strategic assumptions and critical challenges, and the future of cyberspace.

Keywords: critical challenges, critical infrastructure, cyber security, enabling technologies, national security

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Authors: Elvira S. Castillo, Surupa Shaw

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This paper delves into the uncharted territories of innovative applications of applied fluid mechanics in sustainable energy. By exploring the intersection of fluid mechanics principles with renewable energy technologies, the study uncovers untapped potential and novel solutions. Through theoretical analyses, the research investigates how fluid dynamics can be strategically leveraged to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of renewable energy systems. The findings contribute to expanding the discourse on sustainable energy by presenting innovative perspectives and practical insights. This paper serves as a guide for future research endeavors and offers valuable insights for implementing advanced methodologies and technologies to address global energy challenges.

Keywords: fluid mechanics, sustainable energy, sustainble practices, renewable energy

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Authors: Huawei Ma, Wencai Du, Shengbin Liang

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Smart Home Healthcare technologies for the elderly represent a transformative paradigm that leverages emerging technologies to provide the elderly’ health indicators and daily life monitoring, emergency calls, environmental monitoring, behavior perception, and other services to ensure the health and safety of the elderly who are aging in their own home. However, the excessive complexity in the main adopted framework has affected the acceptance and adoption of the elderly. Therefore, this paper proposes a lightweight synergy architecture of IoT data and service for elderly home smart health environment. It includes the modeling of IoT applications and their workflows, data interoperability, interaction, and storage paradigms to meet the growing needs of older people so that they can lead an active, fulfilling, and quality life.

Keywords: smart home healthcare, IoT, independent living, lightweight framework

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Authors: Ross Lee, Pritpal Singh, Andrew Jester

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As the world transitions to a more sustainable energy economy, the deployment of energy storage technologies is expected to increase to develop a more resilient grid system. However, current technologies are associated with various environmental and safety issues throughout their entire lifecycle; therefore, new battery technology is necessary for grid applications to curtail these risks. Biological cells, such as human neurons and electrolytes in the electric eel, can serve as a more sustainable design template for a new bio-inspired (i.e., biomimetic) battery. Within biological cells, an electrochemical gradient across the cell membrane forms the membrane potential, which serves as the driving force for ion transport into/out of the cell, akin to the charging/discharging of a battery cell. This work serves as the first step to developing such a biomimetic battery cell, starting with the fabrication and characterization of ion-selective membranes to facilitate ion transport through the cell. Performance characteristics (e.g., cell voltage, power density, specific energy, roundtrip efficiency) for the cell under investigation are compared to incumbent battery technologies and biological cells to assess the readiness level for this emerging technology. Using a Na⁺-Form Nafion-117 membrane, the cell in this work successfully demonstrated behavior similar to human neurons; these findings will inform how cell components can be re-engineered to enhance device performance.

Keywords: battery, biomimetic, electrolytes, human neurons, ion-selective membranes, membrane potential

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Authors: Lamzira Ebralidze, Aleksandre Tsertsvadze, Dali Berashvili, Aliosha Bakuridze

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Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for biologically active substances from vegetable, animal, and mineral resources. In terms of the use of natural compounds, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and nutrition industry has big interest. The biggest drawback of conventional extraction methods is the need to use a large volume of organic extragents. The removal of the organic solvent is a multi-stage process. And their absolute removal cannot be achieved, and they still appear in the final product as impurities. A large amount of waste containing organic solvent damages not only human health but also has the harmful effects of the environment. Accordingly, researchers are focused on improving the extraction methods, which aims to minimize the use of organic solvents and energy sources, using alternate solvents and renewable raw materials. In this context, green extraction principles were formed. Green Extraction is a need of today’s environment. Green Extraction is the concept, and it totally corresponds to the challenges of the 21st century. The extraction of biologically active compounds based on green extraction principles is vital from the view of preservation and maintaining biodiversity. Novel technologies of green extraction are known, such as "cold methods" because during the extraction process, the temperature is relatively lower, and it doesn’t have a negative impact on the stability of plant compounds. Novel technologies provide great opportunities to reduce or replace the use of organic toxic solvents, the efficiency of the process, enhance excretion yield, and improve the quality of the final product. The objective of the research is the development of green technologies of flavonoids containing preparations. Methodology: At the first stage of the research, flavonoids containing preparations (Tincture Herba Leonuri, flamine, rutine) were prepared based on conventional extraction methods: maceration, bismaceration, percolation, repercolation. At the same time, the same preparations were prepared based on green technologies, microwave-assisted, UV extraction methods. Product quality characteristics were evaluated by pharmacopeia methods. At the next stage of the research technological - economic characteristics and cost efficiency of products prepared based on conventional and novel technologies were determined. For the extraction of flavonoids, water is used as extragent. Surface-active substances are used as co-solvent in order to reduce surface tension, which significantly increases the solubility of polyphenols in water. Different concentrations of water-glycerol mixture, cyclodextrin, ionic solvent were used for the extraction process. In vitro antioxidant activity will be studied by the spectrophotometric method, using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl) as an antioxidant assay. The advantage of green extraction methods is also the possibility of obtaining higher yield in case of low temperature, limitation extraction process of undesirable compounds. That is especially important for the extraction of thermosensitive compounds and maintaining their stability.

Keywords: extraction, green technologies, natural resources, flavonoids

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Authors: Geetu Gahlawat, Manisha Singh

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In the recent years, the concept of media literacy is being extended from its traditional focus on print and audio-visual media to encompass the internet and other new media within academic and policy discourses. This article throws revolves around three significant queries which are to be dealt by the academia, general public and the policy-makers: What is media literacy? How is it changing? And what is the significance of media literacy? At the beginning of the article, the definition 'media literacy' is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create messages across a variety of contexts are given and then this is further being tested in connection with the internet and other information and communication technologies.Having advocated this skills-based approach to media literacy in relation to the internet, the article identifies some outstanding issues for new media literacy crucial to any policy of promoting media literacy among the population. The outcome is better understanding of media literacy and also the impact of ICT on media literacy by the public as well as media literate people.

Keywords: media literacy, ICT, internet, education

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Authors: Rajendra Kumar Isaac, Monisha Isaac

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India, having a vast cultivable area and regional climatic variability, encounters water Resource Management Problems at various levels. The agricultural production of India needs to be increased to meet out projected population growth. Sustainable water resource is the only option to ensure food security, especially in northern Indian states, where the ground and surface water resources are fast depleting. Various tools and technologies available for management of scarce water resources have been discussed. It was concluded that multiple use of water, adopting latest water management options, identification of climate adoptable cropping and farming systems, can enhance water productivity and would encounter the fast growing water management and water shortage problems in Indian agriculture.

Keywords: water resource management, sustainable, water management technologies, water productivity, agriculture

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Authors: Nadia Allouache

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Solar radiation is by far the largest and the most world’s abundant, clean and permanent energy source. The amount of solar radiation intercepted by the Earth is much higher than annual global energy use. The energy available from the sun is greater than about 5200 times the global world’s need in 2006. In recent years, many promising technologies have been developed to harness the sun's energy. These technologies help in environmental protection, economizing energy, and sustainable development, which are the major issues of the world in the 21st century. One of these important technologies is the solar cooling systems that make use of either absorption or adsorption technologies. The solar adsorption cooling systems are good alternative since they operate with environmentally benign refrigerants that are natural, free from CFCs, and therefore they have a zero ozone depleting potential (ODP). A numerical analysis of thermal and solar performances of an adsorption solar refrigerating system using different adsorbent/adsorbate pairs such as activated carbon AC35 and activated carbon BPL/Ammoniac; is undertaken in this study. The modeling of the adsorption cooling machine requires the resolution of the equation describing the energy and mass transfer in the tubular adsorber that is the most important component of the machine. The Wilson and Dubinin- Astakhov models of the solid-adsorbat equilibrium are used to calculate the adsorbed quantity. The porous medium is contained in the annular space and the adsorber is heated by solar energy. Effect of key parameters on the adsorbed quantity and on the thermal and solar performances are analysed and discussed. The performances of the system that depends on the incident global irradiance during a whole day depends on the weather conditions: the condenser temperature and the evaporator temperature. The AC35/methanol pair is the best pair comparing to the BPL/Ammoniac in terms of system performances.

Keywords: activated carbon-methanol pair, activated carbon-ammoniac pair, adsorption, performance coefficients, numerical analysis, solar cooling system

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Authors: Gulnaz Erkomaishvili

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Introduction: There are some of the biggest technological shifts happening in the modern world. The introduction of digital technologies, information, and communication services has given rise to unprecedented global socio-political and economic changes. The role of digital technologies in increasing productivity and national competitiveness is increasing. Today, it is used in almost every area of the economy. E-commerce, organizational process in computerized management, and digital infrastructure's pace of growth is remarkably high and is a key instrument of economic development. Methodology: Different research methods are applied in the presented paper; statistical, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison ones. Works by local and foreign scientists, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, as well as various organizations' studies and reports were used as a theoretical basis for research and variety of laws, government decrees and orders, and the publications of the National Statistics Office of Georgia were used as an informational basis. Conclusions: The paper deals with the processes and challenges in Georgia in the digital economy. Access to current resources in Georgia and current processes are described. Digital technology for the development of the required environmental conditions is described, how the Internet and communications are available for the population in the regions of Georgia. The pros and cons of the digital economy development and its impact on the country's economy are analyzed. The main difficulties of implementation of the digital economy in Georgia, government involvement, and future action plans are presented.

Keywords: digital economy, digital technologies, internet, communications, economic policy

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Authors: Adegbite Bashiru Adeniyi, Olaniyi Akeem Olawale, Ayobamidele Sinatu Juliet

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The study was carried out in the 6 South Western states of Nigeria to analyze socio-economic characteristic of garri processors and their anthropometric qualities with respect to modern technologies used in garri processing. About 20 respondents were randomly selected from each of the 6 workstations purposively considered for the study due to their daily processing activities already attracted high patronage of customers. These include Oguntolu village (Ogun State), Igoba-Akure (Ondo State), Imo-Ilesa (Osun State), Odo Oba-Ileri (Oyo State), Irasa village (Ekiti State) and Epe in Lagos state. Interview schedule was conducted for 120 respondents to elicit information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. It was observed from the findings that respondents were in their most productive age range (36-45 years) except Ogun state where majority (45%) were relatively older than 45 years. A fewer processors were much younger than 26 years old. It furthers revealed that not less than 55% have body weight greater than 50.0 kilogram, also not less than 70% were taller than 1.5 meter. So also, the hand length and hand thickness of the majority were long and bulky which are considered suitable for operating some modern and improved technologies in garri-frying process. This information could be used by various technological developers to enhance production of modern equipment and tools for a greater efficiency.

Keywords: agro-business, anthromorphic, modernization, proficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 492