Search results for: Active Contour Model (ACM)

Authors: Georges Jabbour

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Background and aims: This two-year follow-up study explores the long-term sustainability of physical activity (PA) levels in young people with type 1 diabetes, focusing on the relationship between PA, hypoglycemia, and behavioral scores. The literature highlights the importance of PA and its health benefits, as well as the barriers to engaging in PA practices. Studies have shown that individuals with high levels of vigorous physical activity have higher fear of hypoglycemia (FOH) scores and more hypoglycemia episodes. Considering that hypoglycemia episodes are a major barrier to physical activity, and many studies reported a negative association between PA and high FOH scores, it cannot be guaranteed that those experiencing hypoglycemia over a long period will remain active. Building on that, the present work assesses whether high PA levels, despite elevated hypoglycemia risk, can be maintained over time. The study tracks PA levels at one and two years, correlating them with hypoglycemia instances and Fear of Hypoglycemia (FOH) scores. Materials and methods: A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 61 youth with T1D, and their PA was assessed. Hypoglycemia episodes, fear of hypoglycemia scores and HbA1C levels were collected. All assessments were realized at baseline (visit 0: V0), one year (V1) and two years later (V2). For the purpose of the present work, we explore the relationships between PA levels, hypoglycemia episodes, and FOH scores at each time point. We used multiple linear regression to model the mean outcomes for each exposure of interest. Results: Findings indicate no changes in total moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) and VPA levels among visits, and HbA1c (%) was negatively correlated with the total amount of VPA per day in minutes (β= -0.44; p=0.01, β= -0.37; p=0.04, and β= -0.66; p=0.01 for V0, V1, and V2, respectively). Our linear regression model reported a significant negative correlation between VPA and FOH across the visits (β=-0.59, p=0.01; β= -0.44, p=0.01; and β= -0.34, p=0.03 for V0, V1, and V2, respectively), and HbA1c (%) was influenced by both the number of hypoglycemic episodes and FOH score at V2 (β=0.48; p=0.02 and β=0.38; p=0.03, respectively). Conclusion: The sustainability of PA levels and HbA1c (%) in young individuals with type 1 diabetes is influenced by various factors, including fear of hypoglycemia. Understanding these complex interactions is essential for developing effective interventions to promote sustained PA levels in this population. Our results underline the necessity of a multi-strategic approach to promoting active lifestyles among diabetic youths. This approach should synergize PA enhancement with vigilant glucose monitoring and effective FOH management.

Keywords: physical activity, hypoglycemia, fear of hypoglycemia, youth

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

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As of 2017, many online learning professionals, institutions, and journals are still wondering how instructors can keep student engaged in the online learning environment to facilitate active learning effectively. The purpose of this qualitative single-case and narrative research is to explore whether online professors understand their role as mentors and facilitators of students’ academic success by keeping students engaged in active learning based on personalized experience in the field. Data collection tools that were used in the study included an NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software, an interview protocol, a digital audiotape, an observation sheet, and a transcription. Seven online professors in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online teaching techniques from previous research were used as the study framework. Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to achieve saturation. About 85.7% of professors agreed on rubric as the preferred online grading technique. About 57.1% agreed on professors logging in daily, students logging in about 2-5 times weekly, knowing students to increase accountability, email as preferred communication tool, and computer access for adequate online learning. About 42.9% agreed on syllabus for clear class expectations, participation to show what has been learned, and energizing students for creativity.

Keywords: class facilitation, class management, online teaching, online education, pedagogy

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Authors: H. Namazi, H. T. N. Kuan

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It is known that in humans, the adaptation to a given odor occurs within a quite short span of time (typically one minute) after the odor is presented to the brain. Different models of human olfaction have been developed by scientists but none of these models consider the diffusion phenomenon in olfaction. A novel microscopic model of the human olfaction is presented in this paper. We develop this model by incorporating the transient diffusivity. In fact, the mathematical model is written based on diffusion of the odorant within the mucus layer. By the use of the model developed in this paper, it becomes possible to provide quantification of the objective strength of odor.

Keywords: diffusion, microscopic model, mucus layer, olfaction

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Authors: Satya P. Dubey, Hrushikesh A Abhyankar, Veronica Marchante, James L. Brighton, Björn Bergmann

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Aims: To develop a mathematical model that simulates the ROP of PLA taking into account the effect of alternative energy to be implemented in a continuous reactive extrusion production process of PLA. Introduction: The production of large amount of waste is one of the major challenges at the present time, and polymers represent 70% of global waste. PLA has emerged as a promising polymer as it is compostable, biodegradable thermoplastic polymer made from renewable sources. However, the main limitation for the application of PLA is the traces of toxic metal catalyst in the final product. Thus, a safe and efficient production process needs to be developed to avoid the potential hazards and toxicity. It has been found that alternative energy sources (LASER, ultrasounds, microwaves) could be a prominent option to facilitate the ROP of PLA via continuous reactive extrusion. This process may result in complete extraction of the metal catalysts and facilitate less active organic catalysts. Methodology: Initial investigation were performed using the data available in literature for the reaction mechanism of ROP of PLA based on conventional metal catalyst stannous octoate. A mathematical model has been developed by considering significant parameters such as different initial concentration ratio of catalyst, co-catalyst and impurity. Effects of temperature variation and alternative energies have been implemented in the model. Results: The validation of the mathematical model has been made by using data from literature as well as actual experiments. Validation of the model including alternative energies is in progress based on experimental data for partners of the InnoREX project consortium. Conclusion: The model developed reproduces accurately the polymerisation reaction when applying alternative energy. Alternative energies have a great positive effect to increase the conversion and molecular weight of the PLA. This model could be very useful tool to complement Ludovic® software to predict the large scale production process when using reactive extrusion.

Keywords: polymer, poly-lactic acid (PLA), ring opening polymerization (ROP), metal-catalyst, bio-degradable, renewable source, alternative energy (AE)

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Authors: F. Ait Ahsene-Aissat, Y. Kerchiche, Y. Moussaoui, M. Hachemi

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Environmental pollution is at the heart of the debate today, the pollutants released into the atmosphere must be measured and reduced to the norms of international releases. The industries pollution is caused by emissions of SO₂, CO and heavy metals in volatile form that must be quantified and monitored. This study presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis However, the collection of volatile heavy metals were performed by active sampling using an isokinetic. SO₂ gas for the maximum is reached for a value of 343 mg / m³, the SO₂ concentration far exceeds the standard releases SO₂ followed by incineration industries in Algeria. the concentration of Cr exceeds 8 times the standard, the Pb concentration in the excess of 6 times, the concentration of Fe has reached very high values exceeding the standard 30 times, the Zn concentration in the excess of 5 times, and the Ni the excess of 4 times and finally that of Cu is almost double of the standard.

Keywords: SO₂, CO, volatiles metals, active sampling isokinetic

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Authors: Yanshuang Zhang, Byungho Jeong

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There exists some time lag between the consumption of inputs and the production of outputs. This time lag effect should be considered in calculating efficiency of decision making units (DMU). Recently, a couple of DEA models were developed for considering time lag effect in efficiency evaluation of research activities. However, these models can’t discriminate efficient DMUs because of the nature of basic DEA model in which efficiency scores are limited to ‘1’. This problem can be resolved a super-efficiency model. However, a super efficiency model sometimes causes infeasibility problem. This paper suggests an output oriented super-efficiency model for efficiency evaluation under the consideration of time lag effect. A case example using a long term research project is given to compare the suggested model with the MpO model

Keywords: DEA, Super-efficiency, Time Lag, research activities

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Authors: Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Petya Cv. Petrova, Georgi V. Avdeev, Diana D. Nihtianova, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Tatyana T. Tabakova

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Recently, copper and manganese-containing systems are recognized as active and selective catalysts in many oxidation reactions. The main idea of this study is to obtain more information about γ-Al₂O₃ supported Cu-La catalysts and to evaluate their activity to simultaneous oxidation of CO, CH₃OH and dimethyl ether (DME). The catalysts were synthesized by impregnation of support with a mixed aqueous solution of nitrates of copper, manganese and lanthanum under different conditions. XRD, HRTEM/EDS, TPR and thermal analysis were performed to investigate catalysts’ bulk and surface properties. The texture characteristics were determined by Quantachrome Instruments NOVA 1200e specific surface area and pore analyzer. The catalytic measurements of single compounds oxidation were carried out on continuous flow equipment with a four-channel isothermal stainless steel reactor in a wide temperature range. On the basis of XRD analysis and HRTEM/EDS, it was concluded that the active component of the mixed Cu-Mn-La/γ–alumina catalysts strongly depends on the Cu/Mn molar ratio and consisted of at least four compounds – CuO, La₂O₃, MnO₂ and Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄. A homogeneous distribution of the active component on the carrier surface was found. The chemical composition strongly influenced catalytic properties. This influence was quite variable with regards to the different processes.

Keywords: Cu-Mn-La oxide catalysts, carbon oxide, VOCs, deep oxidation

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Authors: Joana Pimenta, Lorena Coelho, José Silva, Vanessa Miranda, Jorge Laranjeira, Rui Soares

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In this paper, the results of R&D on an innovative food package for increased shelf-life are presented. SAP4MA aims at the development of a printed active device that enables smart packaging solutions for food preservation, targeting the extension of the shelf-life of the packed food through the controlled release of active natural antioxidant agents at the onset of the food degradation process. To do so, SAP4MA focuses on the development of active devices such as printed heaters and batteries/supercapacitors in a label format to be integrated on packaging lids during its injection molding process, promoting the passive release of natural antioxidants after the product is packed, during transportation and in the shelves, and actively when the end-user activates the package, just prior to consuming the product at home. When the active device present on the lid is activated, the release of the natural antioxidants embedded in the inner layer of the packaging lid in direct contact with the headspace atmosphere of the food package starts. This approach is based on the use of active functional coatings composed of nano encapsulated active agents (natural antioxidants species) in the prevention of the oxidation of lipid compounds in food by agents such as oxygen. Thus keeping the product quality during the shelf-life, not only when the user opens the packaging, but also during the period from food packaging up until the purchase by the consumer. The active systems that make up the printed smart label, heating circuit, and battery were developed using screen-printing technology. These systems must operate under the working conditions associated with this application. The printed heating circuit was studied using three different substrates and two different conductive inks. Inks were selected, taking into consideration that the printed circuits will be subjected to high pressures and temperatures during the injection molding process. The circuit must reach a homogeneous temperature of 40ºC in the entire area of the lid of the food tub, promoting a gradual and controlled release of the antioxidant agents. In addition, the circuit design involves a high level of study in order to guarantee maximum performance after the injection process and meet the specifications required by the control electronics component. Furthermore, to characterize the different heating circuits, the electrical resistance promoted by the conductive ink and the circuit design, as well as the thermal behavior of printed circuits on different substrates, were evaluated. In the injection molding process, the serpentine-shaped design developed for the heating circuit was able to resolve the issues connected to the injection point; in addition, the materials used in the support and printing had high mechanical resistance against the pressure and temperature inherent to the injection process. Acknowledgment: This research has been carried out within the Project “Smart and Active Packing for Margarine Product” (SAP4MA) running under the EURIPIDES Program being co-financed by COMPETE 2020 – the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization and under Portugal 2020 through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Keywords: smart package, printed heat circuits, printed batteries, flexible and printed electronic

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Authors: Sheng-Ching Wu

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This paper examines the interaction between mutual fund performance and portfolio turnover. Active trading could affect fund performance, but underperforming funds could also be traded actively at the same time to perform well. Therefore, we used two-stage least squares to address with simultaneity. The results indicate that funds with higher portfolio turnovers exhibit inferior performance compared with funds having lower turnovers. Moreover, funds with poor performance exhibit higher portfolio turnover. The findings support the assumptions that active trading erodes performance, and that fund managers with poor performance attempt to trade actively to retain employment.

Keywords: mutual funds, portfolio turnover, simultaneity, two-stage least squares

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Authors: Zainab Magaji Musa, Nordin M. A. Rahman, Julaily Aida Jusoh

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The web services applications for digital reference service (WSDRS) of LIS model is an informal model that claims to reduce the problems of digital reference services in libraries. It uses web services technology to provide efficient way of satisfying users’ needs in the reference section of libraries. The formal WSDRS model consists of the Z specifications of all the informal specifications of the model. This paper discusses the formal validation of the Z specifications of WSDRS model. The authors formally verify and thus validate the properties of the model using Z/EVES theorem prover.

Keywords: validation, verification, formal, theorem prover

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Authors: Hasan Çiçekli, Ahmet Gökçen, Uğur Çam

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In this paper, a comparative performance analysis of mostly used four nonlinearity cancellation techniques used to realize the passive resistor by MOS transistors is presented. The comparison is done by using an integrator circuit which is employing sequentially Op-amp, OTRA and ICCII as active element. All of the circuits are implemented by MOS-C realization and simulated by PSPICE program using 0.35 µm process TSMC MOSIS model parameters. With MOS-C realization, the circuits became electronically tunable and fully integrable which is very important in IC design. The output waveforms, frequency responses, THD analysis results and features of the nonlinearity cancellation techniques are also given.

Keywords: integrator circuits, MOS-C realization, nonlinearity cancellation, tuneable resistors

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Authors: H.-G. Herrmann, M. Schwarz, J. Summa, F. Grossmann

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In this work, different non-destructive testing methods for the characterization of defects and interfaces are presented. It is shown that, by means of active thermography, defects in the interface and in the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) itself can be detected and determined. The bonding of metal and thermoplastic can be characterized very well by ultrasonic testing with electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMAT). Mechanical testing is combined with passive thermography to correlate mechanical values with the defect-size. There is also a comparison between active and passive thermography. Mechanical testing shows the influence of different defects. Furthermore, a correlation of defect-size and loading to rupture was performed.

 

Keywords: defect evaluation, EMAT, mechanical testing, thermography

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Authors: Fu Lin

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We consider the worst-case load-shedding problem in electric power networks where a number of transmission lines are to be taken out of service. The objective is to identify a prespecified number of line outages that lead to the maximum interruption of power generation and load at the transmission level, subject to the active power-flow model, the load and generation capacity of the buses, and the phase-angle limit across the transmission lines. For this nonlinear model with binary constraints, we show that all decision variables are separable except for the nonlinear power-flow equations. We develop an iterative decomposition algorithm, which converts the worst-case load shedding problem into a sequence of small subproblems. We show that the subproblems are either convex problems that can be solved efficiently or nonconvex problems that have closed-form solutions. Consequently, our approach is scalable for large networks. Furthermore, we prove the convergence of our algorithm to a critical point, and the objective value is guaranteed to decrease throughout the iterations. Numerical experiments with IEEE test cases demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed approach.

Keywords: load shedding, power system, proximal alternating linearization method, vulnerability analysis

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Authors: Matthew C. Best

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Linear Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) dynamic models can be identified, with no a priori knowledge of model structure or order, using a new Generalised Identifying Filter (GIF). Based on an Extended Kalman Filter, the new filter identifies the model iteratively, in a continuous modal canonical form, using only input and output time histories. The filter’s self-propagating state error covariance matrix allows easy determination of convergence and conditioning, and by progressively increasing model order, the best fitting reduced-order model can be identified. The method is shown to be resistant to noise and can easily be extended to identification of smoothly nonlinear systems.

Keywords: system identification, Kalman filter, linear model, MIMO, model order reduction

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Authors: Kalinina Anatasiia, Pevnaya Mariya

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The article concerns theoretical basis in the research of student volunteering, identifies references of student volunteering as a social community, classifies human capital indicators of student volunteers. Also there are presented the results of research of 450 student volunteers in Russia concerning the correlation between international volunteering and indicators of human capital of youth. Findings include compared characteristics of human capital of “potential” and “real” international student volunteers. Factor analysis revealed two categories of active students categories of active students.

Keywords: human capital, international volunteering, student volunteering, social community, youth volunteering, youth politics

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Authors: Abbasali Abouei Mehrizi, Hamid Hassanzadeh Afrouzi

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Reducing the drag force increases the efficiency of the aircraft and its better performance. Flow control methods delay the phenomenon of flow separation and consequently reduce the reversed flow phenomenon in the separation region and enhance the performance of the lift force while decreasing the drag force and thus improving the aircraft efficiency. Flow control methods can be divided into active and passive types. The use of synthetic jets actuator (SJA) used in this study for NACA GA (W) -2 airfoil is one of the active flow control methods to prevent stall phenomenon on the airfoil. In this research, the relevant airfoil in different angles of attack with and without jets has been compared by OpenFOAM. Also, after achieving the proper SJA position on the airfoil suction surface, the simultaneous effect of two SJAs has been discussed. It was found to have the best effect at 12% chord (C), close to the airfoil’s leading edge (LE). At 12% chord, SJA decreases the drag significantly with increasing lift, and also, the average lift increase was higher than other situations and was equal to 10.4%. The highest drag reduction was about 5% in SJA=0.25C. Then, due to the positive effects of SJA in the 12% and 25% chord regions, these regions were considered for applying dual jets in two post-stall angles of attack, i.e., 16° and 22°.

Keywords: active and passive flow control methods, computational fluid dynamics, flow separation, synthetic jet

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Authors: Sima Radmanesh, Nahid Radmanesh, Mohsen Yaghmoor

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The presence of large number of active rival gas companies on Persian Gulf border necessitates the adaptation and implementation of effective employee retention strategies as well as implementation of promoting loyalty and belonging strategies of specialized staffs in the South Pars gas company. Hence, this study aims at assessing the amount of organizational loyalty and explaining the effect of institutional justice on organizational justice with regard to the role of mediator variables of spirituality in the work place and organizational trust. Therefore, through reviewing the related literature, the researchers achieve a conceptual model for the effect of these factors on organizational loyalty. To this end, this model was assessed and tested through questionnaires in South Pars gas company. The research method was descriptive and correlation-structural equation modeling. The findings of the study indicated a significant relationship between the concepts addressed in the research and conceptual models were confirmed. Finally, according to the results to improve effectiveness factors affecting organizational loyalty, recommendations are provided.

Keywords: organizational loyalty, organizational trust, organizational justice, organizational spirit, oil and gas company

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Authors: Tejush Badal, Sanaa Alwidian

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Class diagrams are useful tools within the Unified Modelling Language (UML) to model and visualize the relationships between, and properties of objects within a system. As a system evolves over time and space (e.g., products), a series of models with several commonalities and variabilities create what is known as a model family. In circumstances where there are several versions of a model, examining each model individually, becomes expensive in terms of computation resources. To avoid performing redundant operations, this paper proposes an approach for representing a family of class diagrams into Union Models to represent model families using a single generic model. The paper aims to analyze and reason about a family of class diagrams using union models as opposed to individual analysis of each member model in the family. The union algorithm provides a holistic view of the model family, where the latter cannot be otherwise obtained from an individual analysis approach, this in turn, enhances the analysis performed in terms of speeding up the time needed to analyze a family of models together as opposed to analyzing individual models, one model at a time.

Keywords: analysis, class diagram, model family, unified modeling language, union model

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Authors: Essam Gooda, Chadi Abdallah, Hamdi Seif, Safaa Baydoun, Rouya Hdeib, Hilal Obeid

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Floods are common natural disaster occurring in semi-arid regions in Lebanon. This results in damage to human life and deterioration of environment. Despite their destructive nature and their immense impact on the socio-economy of the region, flash floods have not received adequate attention from policy and decision makers. This is mainly because of poor understanding of the processes involved and measures needed to manage the problem. The current understanding of flash floods remains at the level of general concepts; most policy makers have yet to recognize that flash floods are distinctly different from normal riverine floods in term of causes, propagation, intensity, impacts, predictability, and management. Flash floods are generally not investigated as a separate class of event but are rather reported as part of the overall seasonal flood situation. As a result, Lebanon generally lacks policies, strategies, and plans relating specifically to flash floods. Main objective of this research is to improve flash flood prediction by providing new knowledge and better understanding of the hydrological processes governing flash floods in the East Catchments of El Assi River. This includes developing rainstorm time distribution curves that are unique for this type of study region; analyzing, investigating, and developing a relationship between arid watershed characteristics (including urbanization) and nearby villages flow flood frequency in Ras Baalbeck and Fekha. This paper discusses different levels of integration approach¬es between GIS and hydrological models (HEC-HMS & HEC-RAS) and presents a case study, in which all the tasks of creating model input, editing data, running the model, and displaying output results. The study area corresponds to the East Basin (Ras Baalbeck & Fakeha), comprising nearly 350 km2 and situated in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. The case study presented in this paper has a database which is derived from Lebanese Army topographic maps for this region. Using ArcMap to digitizing the contour lines, streams & other features from the topographic maps. The digital elevation model grid (DEM) is derived for the study area. The next steps in this research are to incorporate rainfall time series data from Arseal, Fekha and Deir El Ahmar stations to build a hydrologic data model within a GIS environment and to combine ArcGIS/ArcMap, HEC-HMS & HEC-RAS models, in order to produce a spatial-temporal model for floodplain analysis at a regional scale. In this study, HEC-HMS and SCS methods were chosen to build the hydrologic model of the watershed. The model then calibrated using flood event that occurred between 7th & 9th of May 2014 which considered exceptionally extreme because of the length of time the flows lasted (15 hours) and the fact that it covered both the watershed of Aarsal and Ras Baalbeck. The strongest reported flood in recent times lasted for only 7 hours covering only one watershed. The calibrated hydrologic model is then used to build the hydraulic model & assessing of flood hazards maps for the region. HEC-RAS Model is used in this issue & field trips were done for the catchments in order to calibrated both Hydrologic and Hydraulic models. The presented models are a kind of flexible procedures for an ungaged watershed. For some storm events it delivers good results, while for others, no parameter vectors can be found. In order to have a general methodology based on these ideas, further calibration and compromising of results on the dependence of many flood events parameters and catchment properties is required.

Keywords: flood risk management, flash flood, semi arid region, El Assi River, hazard maps

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Authors: Maryam Amiri, Ali Rajabzade, Gholam Reza Goudarzi, Reza Heidari

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Growth of technology and environmental changes are so fast and therefore, companies and industries have much tendency to do activities of R&D for active participation in the market and achievement to a competitive advantages. Aviation industry and its subdivisions have high level technology and play a special role in economic and social development of countries. So, in the aviation industry for getting new technologies and competing with other countries aviation industry, there is a requirement for capability in R&D. Considering of appropriate R&D strategy is supportive that day technologies of the world can be achieved. Biofuel technology is one of the newest technologies that has allocated discussion of the world in aviation industry to itself. The purpose of this research has been formulation of R&D strategy of biofuel technology in aviation industry of Iran. After reviewing of the theoretical foundations of the methods and R&D strategies, finally we classified R&D strategies in four main categories as follows: internal R&D, collaboration R&D, out sourcing R&D and in-house R&D. After a review of R&D strategies, a model for formulation of R&D strategy with the aim of developing biofuel technology in aviation industry in Iran was offered. With regard to the requirements and aracteristics of industry and technology in the model, we presented an integrated approach to R&D. Based on the techniques of decision making and analyzing of structured expert opinion, 4 R&D strategies for different scenarios and with the aim of developing biofuel technology in aviation industry in Iran were recommended. In this research, based on the common features of the implementation process of R&D, a logical classification of these methods are presented as R&D strategies. Then, R&D strategies and their characteristics was developed according to the experts. In the end, we introduced a model to consider the role of aviation industry and biofuel technology in R&D strategies. And lastly, for conditions and various scenarios of the aviation industry, we have formulated a specific R&D strategy.

Keywords: aviation industry, biofuel technology, R&D, R&D strategy

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Authors: Marwa Ragab, Eman El-Kimary

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Chiral separation and analysis of omeprazole and naproxen enantiomers in tablets were achieved using high-performance liquid chromatographic method with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Kromasil Cellucoat chiral column was used as a stationary phase for separation and the eluting solvent consisted of hexane, isopropanol and trifluoroacetic acid in a ratio of: 90, 9.9 and 0.1, respectively. The chromatographic system was suitable for the enantiomeric separation and analysis of active isomers of the drugs. Resolution values of 2.17 and 3.84 were obtained after optimization of the chromatographic conditions for omeprazole and naproxen isomers, respectively. The determination of S-isomers of each drug in their dosage form was fully validated.

Keywords: chiral analysis, esomeprazole, S-Naproxen, HPLC-DAD

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Authors: Smita Mondal, Dinesh Kumar Pandey, Prakash Biswas

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During past two decades, considerable attention has been given to the value addition of biodiesel derived glycerol (~10wt.%) to make the biodiesel industry economically viable. Among the various glycerol value-addition methods, hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,2-propanediol is one of the attractive and promising routes. In this study, highly active and selective γ-Al₂O₃ supported bimetallic Cu-Ni catalyst was developed for selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,2-propanediol in the liquid phase. The catalytic performance was evaluated in a high-pressure autoclave reactor. The formation of mixed oxide indicated the strong interaction of Cu, Ni with the alumina support. Experimental results demonstrated that bimetallic copper-nickel catalyst was more active and selective to 1,2-PDO as compared to monometallic catalysts due to bifunctional behavior. To verify the effect of calcination temperature on the formation of Cu-Ni mixed oxide phase, the calcination temperature of 20wt.% Cu:Ni(1:1)/Al₂O₃ catalyst was varied from 300°C-550°C. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by various techniques such as specific surface area (BET), X-ray diffraction study (XRD), temperature programmed reduction (TPR), and temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The BET surface area and pore volume of the catalysts were in the range of 71-78 m²g⁻¹, and 0.12-0.15 cm³g⁻¹, respectively. The peaks at the 2θ range of 43.3°-45.5° and 50.4°-52°, was corresponded to the copper-nickel mixed oxidephase [JCPDS: 78-1602]. The formation of mixed oxide indicated the strong interaction of Cu, Ni with the alumina support. The crystallite size decreased with increasing the calcination temperature up to 450°C. Further, the crystallite size was increased due to agglomeration. Smaller crystallite size of 16.5 nm was obtained for the catalyst calcined at 400°C. Total acidic sites of the catalysts were determined by NH₃-TPD, and the maximum total acidic of 0.609 mmol NH₃ gcat⁻¹ was obtained over the catalyst calcined at 400°C. TPR data suggested the maximum of 75% degree of reduction of catalyst calcined at 400°C among all others. Further, 20wt.%Cu:Ni(1:1)/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst calcined at 400°C exhibited highest catalytic activity ( > 70%) and 1,2-PDO selectivity ( > 85%) at mild reaction condition due to highest acidity, highest degree of reduction, smallest crystallite size. Further, the modified Power law kinetic model was developed to understand the true kinetic behaviour of hydrogenolysis of glycerol over 20wt.%Cu:Ni(1:1)/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst. Rate equations obtained from the model was solved by ode23 using MATLAB coupled with Genetic Algorithm. Results demonstrated that the model predicted data were very well fitted with the experimental data. The activation energy of the formation of 1,2-PDO was found to be 45 kJ mol⁻¹.

Keywords: glycerol, 1, 2-PDO, calcination, kinetic

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Authors: Abdel-Monem Sayed Mohamed

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Egypt rapidly growing development is accompanied by increasing levels of standard living particular in its urban areas. However, there is a limited experience in quantifying the sources of risk management in Egypt and in designing efficient strategies to keep away serious impacts of earthquakes. From the historical point of view and recent instrumental records, there are some seismo-active regions in Egypt, where some significant earthquakes had occurred in different places. The special tectonic features in Egypt: Aswan, Greater Cairo, Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula regions are the territories of a high seismic risk, which have to be monitored by up-to date technologies. The investigations of the seismic events and interpretations led to evaluate the seismic hazard for disaster prevention and for the safety of the dense populated regions and the vital national projects as the High Dam. In addition to the monitoring of the recent crustal movements, the most powerful technique of satellite geodesy GPS are used where geodetic networks are covering such seismo-active regions. The results from the data sets are compared and combined in order to determine the main characteristics of the deformation and hazard estimation for specified regions. The final compiled output from the seismological and geodetic analysis threw lights upon the geodynamical regime of these seismo-active regions and put Aswan and Greater Cairo under the lowest class according to horizontal crustal strains classifications. This work will serve a basis for the development of so-called catastrophic models and can be further used for catastrophic risk management. Also, this work is trying to evaluate risk of large catastrophic losses within the important regions including the High Dam, strategic buildings and archeological sites. Studies on possible scenarios of earthquakes and losses are a critical issue for decision making in insurance as a part of mitigation measures.

Keywords: b-value, Gumbel distribution, seismic and GPS data, strain parameters

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Authors: Jing Zhang

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

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

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Authors: Patsorn Worawattananutai, Srisopa Ruangnoo, Arunporn Itharat

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Hibiscus sabdariffa (HS) leaves are vegetables which are extensively used as blood tonic and laxatives in Thai traditional medicine. They are popularly used as healthy sour soup for prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer. Therefore, the cytotoxic activity of different extracts of fresh and dried Hibiscus sabdariffa leaves were investigated via the sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay against three types of women’s cancer cell lines, namely the human cervical adenocarcinoma cell line (HeLa), the human ovarian adenocarcinoma cell line (SKOV-3), and the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7). Extraction methods were squeezing, boiling with water and maceration with 95% or 50% ethanol. The 95% ethanolic extracts of Hibiscus sabdariffa dry leaves (HSDE95) showed the highest cytotoxicity against all types of women’s cancer cell lines with the IC50 values in range 7.51±0.33 to 12.13±1.85 µg/ml. Its IC50 values against SKOV-3, HeLa and MCF-7 were 7.51±0.33, 9.44±1.41 and 12.13±1.85 µg/ml, respectively. In these results, this extract can be classified as “active” according to the NCI guideline which indicated that IC50 values of the active cytotoxic plant extracts have to be beneath 20 µg/ml. Thus, HSDE95 was concluded to be a potent cytotoxic drug for all women’s cancer cells. This extract should be further investigated to isolate active compounds against women’s cancer cells.

Keywords: breast adenocarcinoma, cervical adenocarcinoma, cytotoxic activity, Hibiscus sabdariffa, ovarian adenocarcinoma

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Authors: Rama Munajat

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Discourse information levels may be viewed from either a background-foreground distinction or a multi-level perspective, and cross-linguistic studies on this area suggest that each information level is marked by a specific linguistic device. In this sense, Sundanese, spoken in Indonesia’s West Javanese Province, further differentiates the background and foreground information into ordinary and significant types. This paper will report an ongoing shift from particle-to-active voice marking in the way Sundanese signals foregrounding events. The shift relates to decades of contact with Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia’s official language) and linguistic compatibility between the two surface marking strategies. Representative data analyzed include three groups of short stories in both Sundanese and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) published in three periods: before 1945, 1965-2006, and 2016-2019. In the first group of Sundanese data, forward-moving events dominantly appear in particle KA (Kecap Anteuran, word-accompanying) constructions, where the KA represents different particles that co-occur with a special group of verbs. The second group, however, shows that the foregrounded events are more frequently described in active-voice forms with a subject-predicate (SP) order. Subsequently, the third offers stronger evidence for the use of the SP structure. As for the Indonesian data, the foregrounding events in the first group occur in verb-initial and passive-voice constructions, while in the second and third, the events more frequently appear in active-voice structures (subject-predicate sequence). The marking shift above suggests a structural influence from Indonesian, stemmed from generational differences among authors of the Sundanese short stories, particularly related to their education and language backgrounds. The first group of short stories – published before 1945 or before Indonesia's independence from Dutch – were written by native speakers of Sundanese who spoke Indonesian as a foreign language and went through the Dutch education system. The second group of authors, on the other hand, represents a generation of Sundanese native speakers who spoke Indonesian as a second language. Finally, the third group consists of authors who are bilingual speakers of both Sundanese and Indonesian. The data suggest that the last two groups of authors completed the Indonesian education system. With these, the use of subject-predicate sequences to denote foregrounding events began to appear more frequently in the second group and then became more dominant in those of the third. The coded data also signify that cohesion, coherence, and pragmatic purposes in Particle KA constructions are intact in their respective active-voice structure counterparts. For instance, the foregrounding events in Particle KA constructions occur in Sentence-initial KA and Pre-verbal KA forms, whereas those in the active-voice are described in Subject-Predicate (SP) and Zero-Subject active-voice patterns. Cross-language data further demonstrate that the Sentence-initial KA and the SP active-voice structures each contain an overt noun phrase (NP) co-referential with one of the entities introduced in a preceding context. Similarly, the pre-verbal KA and Zero-Subject active-voice patterns have a deleted noun phrase unambiguously referable to the only one entity previously mentioned. The presence and absence of an NP inform a pragmatic strategy to place prominence on topic/given and comment/new information, respectively.

Keywords: discourse analysis, foregrounding marking, pragmatics, language contact

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Authors: D. Thawinkarn, S. Wongbutlee

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The Social Change Leadership model is strongly aligned with administration’s mission. This research aims to examine the elements of social change leadership, build and develop leadership for social change, and evaluate effectiveness of leadership development model for social change. The research operation has 3 phases: model studies by in-depth interviews and survey research; drafting and creating model which verified by the experts; and trial of model in schools. The results showed that administrators and teachers have the elements of leadership for social change in moderate level. These elements are ranged descending from consciousness of self, common purpose, congruence, collaboration, commitment, citizenship, and controversy with civility. Model of leadership for social change is included the principles, objectives, content, process. Workshop process: Results show that the model of leadership development for social change in administrators and teachers leads to higher score in leadership evaluation prior to administering the operation.

Keywords: leadership, social change model, organization, administrators

Procedia PDF Downloads 418

Authors: M. Habab, C. Benachaiba, B. Mazari, H. Madi, C. Benoudjafer

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The use of Distributed Generation (DG) has been increasing in recent years to fill the gap between energy supply and demand. This paper presents the grid connected wind energy system with UPQC based on fuzzy controller to compensate for voltage and current disturbances. The proposed system can improve power quality at the point of installation on power distribution systems. Simulation results show the capability of the DG-UPQC intelligent system to compensate sags voltage and current harmonics at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC).

Keywords: shunt active filter, series active filter, UPQC, power quality, sags voltage, distributed generation, wind turbine

Procedia PDF Downloads 407

Authors: Ilaria Manca, Ilaria Manca, Francesca Pettinau, Ignazia Mocci, Elisabetta M. Usai, Barbara Pittau

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Lamotrigine is a phenyltriazine used in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder type I. The purpose of this study was to test and compare various solid forms of immediate release (IR) lamotrigine products, at different strenghts, in order to study their disaggregation and dissolution behavior. IR products are designed to release their active substance promptly after administration. Concentration of hydrochloric acid in gastric juice is about 0.1-0.001 M, so FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recommends, for lamotrigine regular tablets, dissolution tests in HCl 0.1 M.Toinvestigate the pH dependency of drug release in the entire gastrointestinal tract, we worked at two additional media with different pH values (4.5 and 6.8), that reflect conditions in it. To afford acceptable dissolution rates, tablets must disintegrate. Disaggregation of constituent particles increases the surface area and substantially increases the dissolution rate. For this reason availability of an active substance from tablets depends on its ability to disintegrate fast in dissolution media. pH of gastrointestinal fluid affects drug absorption by conditioning its solubility and dissolution, but also tablet disintegration may be influenced by it. To obtain information about the quantitative relationship between different mixture components, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used. We also investigate tablet hardness. The investigation carried out confirms pH 1.2 as the ideal environment for the immediate availability of the active substance.

Keywords: dissolution, disaggregation, Lamotrigine, bioequivalence

Procedia PDF Downloads 453

Authors: A. Lakrim, D. Tahri

Abstract:

This paper sets out a behavioral macro-model of a Merged PiN and Schottky (MPS) diode based on silicon carbide (SiC). This model holds good for both static and dynamic electrothermal simulations for industrial applications. Its parameters have been worked out from datasheets curves by drawing on the optimization method: Simulated Annealing (SA) for the SiC MPS diodes made available in the industry. The model also adopts the Analog Behavioral Model (ABM) of PSPICE in which it has been implemented. The thermal behavior of the devices was also taken into consideration by making use of Foster’ canonical network as figured out from electro-thermal measurement provided by the manufacturer of the device.

Keywords: SiC MPS diode, electro-thermal, SPICE model, behavioral macro-model

Procedia PDF Downloads 407