Search results for: linear trend flow

Authors: Abdullah Ali H. Ahmadini, Firoz Ahmad, Intekhab Alam

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Geometric programming problem (GPP) is a well-known non-linear optimization problem having a wide range of applications in many engineering problems. The structure of GPP is quite dynamic and easily fit to the various decision-making processes. The aim of this paper is to highlight the bounded solution method for GPP with special reference to variation among right-hand side parameters. Thus this paper is taken the advantage of two-level mathematical programming problems and determines the solution of the objective function in a specified interval called lower and upper bounds. The beauty of the proposed bounded solution method is that it does not require sensitivity analyses of the obtained optimal solution. The value of the objective function is directly calculated under varying parameters. To show the validity and applicability of the proposed method, a numerical example is presented. The system reliability optimization problem is also illustrated and found that the value of the objective function lies between the range of lower and upper bounds, respectively. At last, conclusions and future research are depicted based on the discussed work.

Keywords: varying parameters, geometric programming problem, bounded solution method, system reliability optimization

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Authors: Kiavash Heidarzadeh

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The seismic behavior of portal frames is mainly based on the shape of their joints. In these structures, vertical and inclined connections are the two general forms of connections. The shapes of connections can make differences in seismic responses of portal frames. Hence, in this paper, for the first step, the non-linear performance of portal frames with vertical and inclined connections has been investigated by monotonic analysis. Also, the effect of section sizes is considered in this analysis. For comparison, hysteresis curves have been evaluated for two model frames with different forms of connections. Each model has three various sizes of the column and beam. Other geometrical parameters have been considered constant. In the second step, for every model, an appropriate size of sections has been selected from the previous step. Next, the seismic behavior of each model has been analyzed by the time history method under three near-fault earthquake records. Finite element ABAQUS software is used for simulation and analysis of samples. Outputs show that connections form can impact on reaction forces of portal frames under earthquake loads. Also, it is understood that the load capacity in frames with vertical connections is more than the frames with inclined connections.

Keywords: inclined connections, monotonic, portal frames, seismic behavior, time history, vertical connections

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Authors: Chen Xi, Liu Xuebing, Lao Xueru, Kuan Sinman, Jiang Yike, Wang Hanwei, Yang Xiaolang, Zhou Junjie, Xie Jinpeng

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To further promote the development of smart cities, the microscopic "nerve endings" of the City Intelligent Model (CIM) are extended to be more sensitive. In this paper, we develop a pedestrian trajectory twin terminal based on the CIM and CNN technology. It also uses 5G networks, architectural and geoinformatics technologies, convolutional neural networks, combined with deep learning networks for human behavior recognition models, to provide empirical data such as 'pedestrian flow data and human behavioral characteristics data', and ultimately form spatial performance evaluation criteria and spatial performance warning systems, to make the empirical data accurate and intelligent for prediction and decision making.

Keywords: urban planning, urban governance, CIM, artificial intelligence, sustainable development

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Authors: E. G. Zaki, M. A. Migahed, A. M. Al-Sabagh, E. A. Khamis

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Inhibition effect of four novel nonionic surfactants based on sulphonamide, of linear alkyl benzene sulphonic acid (LABS), was reacted with 1 mole triethylenetetramine, tetraethylenepentamine then Ethoxylation of amide X 65 type carbon steel in oil wells formation water under H2S environment was investigated by electrochemical measurements. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) were used to characterize the steel surface. The results showed that these surfactants act as a corrosion inhibitor in and their inhibition efficiencies depend on the ethylene oxide content in the system. The obtained results showed that the percentage inhibition efficiency (η%) was increased by increasing the inhibitor concentration until the critical micelle concentration (CMC) reached The quantum chemistry calculations were carried out to study the molecular geometry and electronic structure of obtained derivatives. The energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital has been calculated using the theoretical computations to reflect the chemical reactivity and kinetic stability of compounds.

Keywords: corrosion, surfactants, steel surface, quantum

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Authors: K. Ilicic, D. Smoljan

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The purpose of the paper is to present and verify a methodology of decreasing water losses by introducing and managing District Metered Areas (DMA) and Pressure Management Areas (PMA) by analyzing the results of the application of the methodology to the water supply system of the city of Zagreb. Since it is a relatively large system that has been expanding rapidly, approach to addressing water losses was possible only by splitting the system to smaller flow and pressure zones. Besides, the geographical and technical limitations had imposed the necessity of high pressure in the system that needed to be reduced to the technically optimal level. Results of activities were monitored on a general and local level by establishing, monitoring, and controlling indicators that had been established by the International Water Association (IWA), among which the most recognizable were non-revenue water, water losses and real losses as presented in the paper.

Keywords: district metered area, pressure metered area, active leakage control, water losses

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Authors: Kate Crinion, Martin Haran, Stanley McGreal, David McIlhatton

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Past research has demonstrated that disasters are continuing to escalate in frequency and magnitude worldwide, representing a key concern for the global community. Understanding and responding to the increasing risk posed by disaster events has become a key concern for disaster managers. An emerging trend within literature, acknowledges the need to move beyond a state of coping and reinstatement of the status quo, towards incremental adaptive change and transformational actions for long-term sustainable development. As such, a growing interest in research concerns the understanding of the change required to address ever increasing and unpredictable disaster events. Capturing transformational capacity and resilience, however is not without its difficulties and explains the dearth in attempts to capture this capacity. Adopting a case study approach, this research seeks to enhance an awareness of transformational resilience by identifying key components and indicators that determine the resilience of flood-affected communities within Cumbria. Grounding and testing a theoretical resilience framework within the case studies, permits the identification of how perceptions of risk influence community resilience actions. Further, it assesses how levels of social capital and connectedness impacts upon the extent of interplay between resources and capacities that drive transformational resilience. Thus, this research seeks to expand the existing body of knowledge by enhancing the awareness of resilience in post-disaster affected communities, by investigating indicators of community capacity building and resilience actions that facilitate transformational resilience during the recovery and reconstruction phase of a flood disaster.

Keywords: capacity building, community, flooding, transformational resilience

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Authors: Sherehan Hamdalla

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Egypt has experienced a series of terrifying love crimes in the last few months. This ‘trend’ of love crimes started with a young man caught on video slaughtering his ex-girlfriend in the street in the city of El Mansoura. The crime shocked all Egyptian citizens at all levels; unfortunately, not less than three similar crimes took place in other different Egyptian cities with the same killing trigger. The characteristics and easy access and reach of social media consider the reason why it is one of the most crucial online communication channels; users utilize social media platforms for sharing and exchanging ideas, news, and many other activities; they can freely share posts that reflect their mindset or personal views regarding any issues, these posts are going viral in all social media account by reposting or numbers of shares for these posts to support the content included, or even to attack. The repetition of sharing certain posts could mobilize other supporters with the same point of view, especially when that crowd’s online participation is confronting a public opinion case’s consequences. The death of that young woman was followed by similar crimes in other cities, such as El Sharkia and Port Said. These love crimes provoked a massive wave of contention among all social classes in Egypt. Strangely, some were supporting the criminal and defending his side for several reasons, which the study will uncover. Facebook, the most popular social media platform for Egyptians, reflects the debate between supporters of the victim and supporters of the criminal. Facebook pages were created specifically to disseminate certain viewpoints online, for example, asking for the maximum penalty to be given to criminals. These pages aimed to mobilize the maximum number of supporters and to affect the outcome of the trials.

Keywords: love crimes, victim, criminal, social media

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Authors: M. Sarai Atab, A. Smallbone, A. P. Roskilly

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A thermodynamic study is performed on the Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination process for brackish water. The detailed RO model of thermodynamics properties with and without an energy recovery device was built in Simulink/MATLAB and validated against reported measurement data. The efficiency of desalination plants can be estimated by both the first and second laws of thermodynamics. While the first law focuses on the quantity of energy, the second law analysis (i.e. exergy analysis) introduces quality. This paper used the Main Outfall Drain in Iraq as a case study to conduct energy and exergy analysis of RO process. The result shows that it is feasible to use energy recovery method for reverse osmosis with salinity less than 15000 ppm as the exergy efficiency increases twice. Moreover, this analysis shows that the highest exergy destruction occurs in the rejected water and lowest occurs in the permeate flow rate accounting 37% for 4.3% respectively.

Keywords: brackish water, exergy, irrigation, reverse osmosis (RO)

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Authors: Alessandro Marzucchini, Yie Sue Chua, Andrew Lian, Richard Shonn Mills

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A unique, fast and easy installed inter-module connection named Candle-Loc was developed and applied in several high-rise steel and reinforced concrete modular buildings in Singapore and Hong Kong, China. However, its effect on the global behaviour of modular buildings in high seismic zones was not studied. Therefore, the design concept and the structural performance of each component in this connection was investigated through analytical approach. Response spectrum, linear time-history, and nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of the different joint models of the Candle-Loc in the global analysis of high-rise buildings under high seismic loads. It is found that it is important to assess the level of plasticity developed in the inter-module connection under high seismic loads. The ductility of the lateral force resisting system influences the amount of load taken by the inter-module connections.

Keywords: high-rise, inter-module connection, nonlinear, seismic, time-history analysis

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

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The vortex structures observed in the wake of a flexible cylinder can be significantly different from those of a traditional vibrating, spring mounted, rigid cylinder. These differences can significantly affect the VIV characteristics of the flow and subsequently the VIV response of the cylindrical structures. In this work, we present how the aspect ratio of a flexible cylinder can change the vortex structures in its wake. We will discuss different vortex dynamics which can be observed in the wake of the vibrating flexible cylinder, and how they can affect the vibrational response of the cylinder. Moreover, we will study the transition of these structures versus the aspect ratio of the flexible cylinder. We will discuss how these transitions affect the in-line and transverse forces on the structure. In the end, we will provide general guidelines on the minimum acceptable aspect ratio for the offshore riser studies which may have grave implications for future numerical and experimental works.

Keywords: aspect ratio, flexible cylinder, vortex-shedding, VIV

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Authors: Mohamed Mousa

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Sacristies in the supply of freshwater, strict regulations on discharging wastewater and the support to encourage sustainable development by water minimization techniques leads to raise the interest of water reusing, regeneration, and recycling. Water is considered a vital element in chemical industries. In this study, an optimization model will be developed to determine the optimal design of refinery’s water network system via source interceptor sink that involves several network alternatives, then a Mixed-Integer Non-Linear programming (MINLP) was used to obtain the optimal network superstructure based on flowrates, the concentration of contaminants, etc. The main objective of the model is to reduce the fixed cost of piping installation interconnections, reducing the operating cots of all streams within the refiner’s water network, and minimize the concentration of pollutants to comply with the environmental regulations. A real case study for one of the Egyptian refineries was studied by GAMS / BARON global optimization platform, and the water network had been retrofitted and optimized, leading to saving around 195 m³/ hr. of freshwater with a total reduction reaches to 26 %.

Keywords: freshwater minimization, modelling, GAMS, BARON, water network design, wastewater reudction

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Authors: Helena M. Wilhelm, Paulo O. Fernandes, Laís P. Dill, Kethlyn G. Moscon

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The use of vegetable oil (or natural ester) as an insulating fluid in electrical transformers is a trend that aims to contribute to environmental preservation since it is biodegradable and non-toxic. Besides, vegetable oil has high flash and combustion points, being considered a fire safety fluid. However, vegetable oil is usually less stable towards oxidation than mineral oil. Both insulating fluids, mineral and vegetable oils, need to be tested periodically according to specific standards. Oxidation stability can be determined by the induction period measured by conductivity method (Rancimat) by monitoring the effectivity of oil’s antioxidant additives, a methodology already developed for food application and biodiesel but still not standardized for insulating fluids. Besides adequate oxidation stability, fluids must be compatible with transformer's construction materials under normal operating conditions to ensure that damage to the oil and parts of the transformer does not occur. ASTM standard and Brazilian normative differ in parameters evaluated, which reveals the need to regulate tests for each oil type. The aim of this study was to assess oxidation stability and compatibility of vegetable oils to suggest the best way to assure a viable performance of vegetable oil as transformer insulating fluid. The determination of the induction period for several vegetable insulating oils from the local market by using Rancimat was carried out according to BS EN 14112 standard, at different temperatures (110, 120, and 130 °C). Also, the compatibility of vegetable oil was assessed according to ASTM and ABNT NBR standards. The main results showed that the best temperature for use in the Rancimat test is 130 °C, which allows a better observation of conductivity change. The compatibility test results presented differences between vegetable and mineral oil standards that should be taken into account in oil testing since materials compatibility and oxidation stability are essential for equipment reliability.

Keywords: compatibility, Rancimat, natural ester, vegetable oil

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Authors: Alvite Singh Ningthoujam

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The most recent terror phenomenon, which is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State (IS), has its influence felt in South Asia. This dreaded Sunni militant group, today, has become a concern in India as well. Already affected by various terror activities in the country, the influence of the IS on the radicalised Muslim youths in India has been watched closely by the security agencies. There had already been a few IS-related incidents in India due to which this issue has emerged as a threat or challenge to India’s internal security. The rapid radicalisation of youths in a few states where there are sizeable Muslim populations has gone, to some extent, in favour of the IS, particularly in the terror outfit’s recruitment process. What has added to the worry of the Indian security agencies is the announcement of the Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahari, of the creation of the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. In fact, this is a worrisome factor as both the militant groups, that is, al-Qaeda and ISIS, have a similar objective to target India and to turn this South Asian country as one of the recruiting grounds for extremists. There is also a possibility that an Indian Mujahedeen (IM) man was believed to be instrumental in recruiting for the ISIS poor Muslims in a few Indian states. If this nexus between ISIS and India’s home-grown terror groups manages to establish a robust link, then the headache of combating such amalgamated force will be a hard task for Indian security agencies. In the wake of the above developments, this paper would seek to analyse the developing trend in India in regard to IS. It would also bring out the reasons as to why further penetration of the IS influence on India would be a grave concern in the internal security of the country. The last section of the paper would highlight the steps that have been taken by the Indian government to tackle this menace effectively.

Keywords: India, Islamic State, Muslim, Security

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Authors: Ahmed Bellakhdhar

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This paper aims to test the impact of various variables-namely, investment in physical capital, investment in human capital, openness to trade and foreign direct investments, and distance from the technology frontier-on economic growth in the Tunisian context during the period 1976-2010. Empirical results identify that the impact of human capital is significantly positive. This finding confirms the hypothesis that human capital is a main driver of economic performance through its role of improving the internal productive capacity and the absorption of foreign technology especially via foreign direct investments. The effect of FDI is significantly positive in all alternative regressions and the coefficient associated to physical capital variable is positive, but not significant overall. Concerning the import of technologically advanced equipments, our estimates show the absence of a significant direct impact on economic growth in Tunisia. Our empirical results also support the assumption of a non linear relationship between tax and growth and demonstrate the existence of an inverted-U curve between the two variables, in the spirit of the “Laffer curve”.

Keywords: Endogenous growth, Human capital, Technology transfer, Absorptive capacity

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Authors: Asmamaw Yehun, Tsegaye Kassa, Addisu Hunegnaw, Martin Vermeer

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There are various models to estimate the neutral atmospheric parameter values, such as in-suite and reanalysis datasets from numerical models. Accurate estimated values of the atmospheric parameters are useful for weather forecasting and, climate modeling and monitoring of climate change. Recently, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements have been applied for atmospheric sounding due to its robust data quality and wide horizontal and vertical coverage. The Global Positioning System (GPS) solutions that includes tropospheric parameters constitute a reliable set of data to be assimilated into climate models. The objective of this paper is, to estimate the neutral atmospheric parameters such as Wet Zenith Delay (WZD), Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV) and Total Zenith Delay (TZD) using six selected GPS stations in the equatorial regions, more precisely, the Ethiopian GPS stations from 2012 to 2015 observational data. Based on historic estimated GPS-derived values of PWV, we forecasted the PWV from 2015 to 2030. During data processing and analysis, we applied GAMIT-GLOBK software packages to estimate the atmospheric parameters. In the result, we found that the annual averaged minimum values of PWV are 9.72 mm for IISC and maximum 50.37 mm for BJCO stations. The annual averaged minimum values of WZD are 6 cm for IISC and maximum 31 cm for BDMT stations. In the long series of observations (from 2012 to 2015), we also found that there is a trend and cyclic patterns of WZD, PWV and TZD for all stations.

Keywords: atmosphere, GNSS, neutral atmosphere, precipitable water vapour

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Authors: Saimatun Nisa

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Walnut is an important export product from the Union Territory of Jammy and Kashmir. After extraction of the kernel, the walnut shell forms a solid waste that needs to be managed. Pyrolysis is one interesting option for the utilization of this walnut waste. In this study microwave pyrolysis reactor is used to convert the walnut shell biomass into its value-added products. Catalytic and non-catalytic conversion of walnut shell waste to oil, gas and char was evaluated using a Co-based catalyst. The catalyst was characterized using XPS and SEM analysis. Pyrolysis temperature, reaction time, particle size and sweeping gas (N₂) flow rate were set in the ranges of 400–600 °C, 40 min, <0.6mm to < 4.75mm and 300 ml min−1, respectively. The heating rate was fixed at 40 °C min−1. Maximum gas yield was obtained at 600 °C, 40 min, particle size range 1.18-2.36, 0.5 molar catalytic as 45.2%. The liquid product catalytic and non-catalytic was characterized by GC–MS analyses. In addition, the solid product was analyzed by means of FTIR & SEM.

Keywords: walnut shell, biooil, biochar, microwave pyrolysis

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Authors: Nurudeen O. Lasisi, Sirajo Abdulrahman, Abdulkareem A. Ibrahim

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Newcastle disease is an infection of domestic poultry and other bird species with the virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV). In this paper, we study the dynamics of the modeling of the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) using a novel quarantine-adjusted incidence. The comparison of Vaccination, linear incident rate and novel quarantine-adjusted incident rate in the models are discussed. The dynamics of the models yield disease-free and endemic equilibrium states.The effective reproduction numbers of the models are computed in order to measure the relative impact of an individual bird or combined intervention for effective disease control. We showed the local and global stability of endemic equilibrium states of the models and we found that the stability of endemic equilibrium states of models are globally asymptotically stable if the effective reproduction numbers of the models equations are greater than a unit.

Keywords: effective reproduction number, Endemic state, Mathematical model, Newcastle disease virus, novel quarantine-adjusted incidence, stability analysis

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Authors: Mohammed Abed, Rita Nemes

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Cellular concrete powder (CCP) is not used widely as supplementary cementitious material, but in the literature, its efficiency is proved when it used as a replacement of cement in concrete mixtures. In this study, different amounts of raw CCP (CCP as a waste material without any industrial modification) will be used to investigate the characteristics of cement pastes and the effects of CCP on the properties of the cement pastes. It is an attempt to produce green binder paste, which is useful for sustainable construction applications. The fresh and hardened properties of a number of CCP blended cement paste will be tested in different life periods, and the optimized CCP volume will be reported with more significant investigations on durability properties. Different replacing of mass percentage (low and high) of the cement mass will be conducted (0%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90%). The consistency, flexural strength, and compressive strength will be the base indicator for the further properties' investigations. The CCP replacement until 50% have been tested until 7 days, and the initial results showed a linear relationship between strength and the percentage of the replacement; that is an optimistic indicator for further replacement percentages of waste CCP.

Keywords: cellular concrete powder, supplementary cementitious material, sustainable construction, green concrete

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Authors: A. Elbatran, Y. Ahmed, A. Radwan, M. Ishak

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The use of WIG craft is representing an ambitious technology that will support in reducing time, effort, and money of the conventional marine transportation in the future. This paper investigates the aerodynamic characteristic of compound wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft model. Drag coefficient, lift coefficient and Lift and drag ratio were studied numerically with respect to the ground clearance and the wing angle of attack. The modifications of the wing has been done in order to investigate the most suitable wing configuration that can increase the wing lift-to-drag ratio at low ground clearance. A numerical investigation was carried out in this research work using finite volume Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANSE) code ANSYS CFX, Validation was carried out by using experiments. The experimental and the numerical results concluded that the lift to drag ratio decreased with the increasing of the ground clearance.

Keywords: drag Coefficient, ground clearance, navier-stokes, WIG

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Authors: Ahmad Rabby

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The demographic trend analyses of Bombay-duck from time series catch data using CMSY and BSM for the first time in Bangladesh. During 2000-2018, CMSY indicates average lowest production in 2000 and highest in 2018. This has been used in the estimation of prior biomass by the default rules. Possible 31030 viable trajectories for 3422 r-k pairs were found by the CMSY analysis and the final estimates for intrinsic rate of population increase (r) was 1.19 year-1 with 95% CL= 0.957-1.48 year-1. The carrying capacity(k) of Bombay-duck was 283×103 tons with 95% CL=173×103 - 464×103 tons and MSY was 84.3×103tons year-1, 95% CL=49.1×103-145×103 tons year-1. Results from Bayesian state-space implementation of the Schaefer production model (BSM) using catch & CPUE data, found catchabilitiy coefficient(q) was 1.63 ×10-6 from lcl=1.27×10-6 to ucl=2.10×10-6 and r= 1.06 year-1 with 95% CL= 0.727 - 1.55 year-1, k was 226×103 tons with 95% CL=170×103-301×103 tons and MSY was 60×103 tons year-1 with 95% CL=49.9 ×103- 72.2 ×103 tons year-1. Results for Bombay-duck fishery management based on BSM assessment from time series catch data illustrated that, Fmsy=0.531 with 95% CL =0.364 - 0.775 (if B > 1/2 Bmsy then Fmsy =0.5r); Fmsy=0.531 with 95% CL =0.364-0.775 (r and Fmsy are linearly reduced if B < 1/2Bmsy). Biomass in 2018 was 110×103 tons with 2.5th to 97.5th percentile=82.3-155×103 tons. Relative biomass (B/Bmsy) in last year was 0.972 from 2.5th percentile to 97.5th percentile=0.728 -1.37. Fishing mortality in last year was 0.738 with 2.5th-97.5th percentile=0.525-1.37. Exploitation F/Fmsy was 1.39, from 2.5th to 97.5th percentile it was 0.988 -1.86. The biological reference points of B/BMSY was smaller than 1.0, while F/FMSY was higher than 1.0 revealed an over-exploitation of the fishery, indicating that more conservative management strategies are required for Bombay-duck fishery.

Keywords: biological reference points, catchability coefficient, carrying capacity, intrinsic rate of population increase

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Authors: H. Masaeli, R. Ziaei, F. Khoshnoudian

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Shock response analysis of the soil–structure systems induced by near–fault pulses is investigated. Vibration transmissibility of the soil–structure systems is evaluated by Shock Response Spectra (SRS). Medium–to–high rise buildings with different aspect ratios located on different soil types as well as different foundations with respect to vertical load bearing safety factors are studied. Two types of mathematical near–fault pulses, i.e. forward directivity and fling step, with different pulse periods as well as pulse amplitudes are selected as incident ground shock. Linear versus nonlinear Soil–Structure Interaction (SSI) condition are considered alternatively and the corresponding results are compared. The results show that nonlinear SSI is likely to amplify the acceleration responses when subjected to long–period incident pulses with normalized period exceeding a threshold. It is also shown that this threshold correlates with soil type, so that increased shear–wave velocity of the underlying soil makes the threshold period decrease.

Keywords: nonlinear soil–structure interaction, shock response spectrum, near–fault ground shock, rocking isolation

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Authors: Kiran Bala Das

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This paper examines the Ukraine wheat export condition after Russian-Ukrainian military confrontation. The political conflict in Ukraine and the recent military intervention of Russia in Crimea is raising concern full effect of the events there is still uncertain, but some hints can be seen in the wheat market by analyzing the trend and pattern of Ukraine wheat export. Crimea is extremely important as it is where most of Ukraine grain exported by ship from its ports of the black sea. Ukraine is again seeking to establish itself a significant exporter of agricultural product with its rich black soil, it is chornozem the top soil layer that makes the country soil so fertile and become one of the major exporter of wheat in the world, its generous supplier of wheat make Ukraine 'Bread basket of Europe'. Ukraine possesses 30% of the world’s richest black soil; its agricultural industry has huge potential especially in grains. European Union (EU) is a significant trading partner of Ukraine but geopolitical tension adversely affects the wheat trade from black sea, which threatens Europe breadbasket. This study also highlights an index of export intensity to analyze the intensity of existing trade for the period 2011-2014 between Ukraine and EU countries. The result show export has intensified over the years, but this year low trade intensity. The overall consequence is hard to determine but if the situation deteriorates and Ukraine cutoff export, international wheat price will hike and grain prices (wheat) also come under the current circumstances and the recent development indicates how the grain market get affected and Agri future now in danger in Ukraine, and its forecast that Ukraine harvest low wheat crop this year and projected decline in export of wheat.

Keywords: breadbasket of Europe, export intensity index, growth rate, wheat export

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Authors: Faezeh Aghazadeh

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The catalytic activity of Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ and Pt-Fe/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts was investigated to bring about the complete oxidation of 2-Propanol. Among them, Pt-Fe/γ-Al₂O₃ was found to be the most promising catalyst based on activity. The catalysts were characterized by (XRD), (SEM), (TEM) and ICP-AES techniques. Iron loadings on Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ had a great effect on catalytic activity, and Pt-Fe/γ-Al₂O₃ (1.75 wt% Fe) catalyst at calcination temperature 300°C was observed to be the most active, which might be contributed to the favorable synergetic effects between Pt and Fe, high activity and the well-dispersed bimetallic phase. The combustion of 2-Propanol in the vapor phase was carried out in a conventional flow U-shape glass reactor used in the differential mode at atmospheric pressure. 2-Propanol was analyzed by a gas chromatograph VARIAN 3800 CX equipped with an FID. As observed, better performance and activity were observed for Pt-Fe/Al₂O₃ bimetallic catalyst. These results indicate that the high dispersion on support gives a positive effect on catalytic activity.

Keywords: volatile organic compounds, bimetallic catalyst, catalytic activity, low temperature

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Authors: Qi Wang

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In the classroom, teachers have been trained to complete the target task within the limited lecture time, meanwhile learners need to receive a lot of new knowledge, however, most of the time the learners come without the proper pre-class preparation to efficiently take in the contents taught in class. Under this circumstance, teachers do have no time to check whether the learners fully understand the content or not, how the learners communicate in the different contexts, until teachers see the results when the learners are tested. In the past decade, the teaching of Chinese has taken a trend. Teaching focuses less on the use of proper grammatical terms/punctuation and is now placing a heavier focus on the materials from real life contexts. As a result, it has become a greater challenge to teachers, as this requires teachers to fully understand/prepare what they teach and explain the content with simple and understandable words to learners. On the other hand, the same challenge also applies to the learners, who come from different countries. As they have to use what they learnt, based on their personal understanding of the material to effectively communicate with others in the classroom, even in the contexts of a day to day communication. To reach this win-win stage, Feynman’s Technique plays a very important role. This practical report presents you how the Feynman’s Technique is applied into Chinese courses, both writing & oral, to motivate the learners to practice more on writing, reading and speaking in the past few years. Part 1, analysis of different teaching styles and different types of learners, to find the most efficient way to both teachers and learners. Part 2, based on the theory of Feynman’s Technique, how to let learners build the knowledge from knowing the name of something to knowing something, via different designed target tasks. Part 3. The outcomes show that Feynman’s Technique is the interaction of learning style and teaching style, the double-edged sword of Teaching & Learning Chinese as a Second Language.

Keywords: Chinese, Feynman’s technique, learners, teachers

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Salimpour, Amir Dehshiri

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In the present article, we investigate experimental laminar forced convective heat transfer specifications of TiO2/water nanofluids through conduits with different cross sections. We check the effects of different parameters such as cross sectional shape, Reynolds number and concentration of nanoparticles in stable suspension on increasing convective heat transfer by designing and assembling of an experimental apparatus. The results demonstrate adding a little amount of nanoparticles to the base fluid improves heat transfer behavior in conduits. Moreover, conduit with circular cross-section has better performance compared to the square and triangular cross sections. However, conduits with square and triangular cross sections have more relative heat transfer enhancement than conduit with circular cross section.

Keywords: nanofluid, cross-sectional shape, TiO2, convection

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Authors: Ana C. V. Freitas, Luciana B. M. Pires, Joao P. Martins

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In recent years, fire dynamics in deforestation areas of tropical forests have received considerable attention because of their relationship to climate change. Climate models project great increases in the frequency and area of drought in the Amazon region, which may increase the occurrence of fires. This study analyzes the historical record number of fire outbreaks in 2017 using satellite-derived data sets of active fire detections, burned area, precipitation, and data of the Fire Program from the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies (CPTEC/INPE). A downward trend in the number of fire outbreaks occurred in the first half of 2017, in relation to the previous year. This decrease can be related to the fact that 2017 was not an El Niño year and, therefore, the observed rainfall and temperature in the Amazon region was close to normal conditions. Meanwhile, the worst period in history for fire outbreaks began with the subsequent arrival of the dry season. September of 2017 exceeded all monthly records for number of fire outbreaks per month in the entire series. This increase was mainly concentrated in Bolivia and in the states of Amazonas, northeastern Pará, northern Rondônia and Acre, regions with high densities of rural settlements, which strongly suggests that human action is the predominant factor, aggravated by the lack of precipitation during the dry season allowing the fires to spread and reach larger areas. Thus, deforestation in the Amazon is primarily a human-driven process: climate trends may be providing additional influences.

Keywords: Amazon forest, climate change, deforestation, human-driven process, fire outbreaks

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Authors: M. Mana, M. S. Ouali, L. C. de Menorval

Abstract:

A spent bleaching earth from an edible oil refinery has been treated by impregnation with a normal sodium hydroxide solution followed by mild thermal treatment (100°C). The obtained material (TSBE) was washed, dried and characterized by X-ray diffraction, FTIR, SEM, BET, and thermal analysis. The clay structure was not apparently affected by the treatment and the impregnated organic matter was quantitatively removed. We have investigated the comparative sorption of safranine and methylene blue on this material, the spent bleaching earth (SBE) and the virgin bleaching earth (VBE). The kinetic results fit the pseudo second order kinetic model and the Weber & Morris, intra-particle diffusion model. The pH had no effect on the sorption efficiency. The sorption isotherms followed the Langmuir model for various sorbent concentrations with good values of determination coefficient. A linear relationship was found between the calculated maximum removal capacity and the solid/solution ratio. A comparison between the results obtained with this material and those of the literature highlighted the low cost and the good removal capacity of the treated spent bleaching earth.

Keywords: basic dyes, isotherms, sorption, spent bleaching earth

Procedia PDF Downloads 234

Authors: Shian-Ling Keng, Onn Siong Yim, Poh San Lai, Soo Chong Chew, Anne Chong, Richard Ebstein

Abstract:

Research has demonstrated a positive association between mindfulness meditation and physical health. Little work, however, has examined the association between trait mindfulness and leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an emerging marker of cellular aging. The present study aimed to examine whether facets of trait mindfulness are correlated with longer LTL in a Singaporean Han Chinese sample and whether these facets may mediate the association between psychological symptoms and LTL. 158 adults (mean age = 27.24 years) completed measures assessing trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms (i.e., depression and stress) and provided blood samples for analyses of LTL using qPCR. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between facets of trait mindfulness and LTL. Bootstrapping-based mediational analyses were run to examine the role of trait mindfulness as a mediator of the association between psychological symptoms and LTL. Of five facets of trait mindfulness (describe, act with awareness, observe, nonreactivity, and nonjudging), nonreactivity was significantly associated with LTL, after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and education, β = .21, p = .006. Further, there was a trend for overall trait mindfulness, β = .15, p = .06, and nonjudging, β = .13, p = .095, to each predict longer LTL. Nonreactivity significantly mediated the association between depression and LTL, BCa 95% CI [-.004, -.0004], p=.03, as well as the association between stress and LTL, BCa 95% CI [-.004, -.0004], p=.04. The results provide preliminary evidence for a positive association between selected facets of trait mindfulness and slower cellular aging, indexed by LTL. The findings suggest that individuals who are high on equanimity may experience slower aging at the cellular level, presumably through engaging in more effective coping mechanisms and modulation of stress. The findings also highlight the role of nonreactivity as a potential mechanism that underlies the association between LTL and psychological symptoms.

Keywords: depression, mindfulness, stress, telomere length

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Miguel Cañon, Darwin Mena, Ivan Cabeza

Abstract:

In this work was compared and evaluated the applicability of statistical methods for the estimation of missing precipitations data in the basin of the river Lenguazaque located in the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, Colombia. The methods used were the method of simple linear regression, distance rate, local averages, mean rates, correlation with nearly stations and multiple regression method. The analysis used to determine the effectiveness of the methods is performed by using three statistical tools, the correlation coefficient (r2), standard error of estimation and the test of agreement of Bland and Altmant. The analysis was performed using real rainfall values removed randomly in each of the seasons and then estimated using the methodologies mentioned to complete the missing data values. So it was determined that the methods with the highest performance and accuracy in the estimation of data according to conditions that were counted are the method of multiple regressions with three nearby stations and a random application scheme supported in the precipitation behavior of related data sets.

Keywords: statistical comparison, precipitation data, river subbasin, Bland and Altmant

Procedia PDF Downloads 455

Authors: Fouad Inel, Lakhdar Khochemane

Abstract:

This article presents a comparative response specification performance between two controllers of three and four cable based robots for various applications. The main objective of this work is: the first is to use the direct and inverse geometric model to study and simulate the end effector position of the robot with three and four cables. A graphical user interface has been implemented in order to visualizing the position of the robot. Secondly, we present the determination of static and dynamic tensions and lengths of cables required to flow different trajectories. At the end, we study the response of our systems in closed loop with a Proportional-IntegratedDerivative (PID) and Proportional-Integrated (PD) controllers then this last are compared the results of the same examples using MATLAB/Simulink; we found that the PID method gives the better performance, such as rapidly speed response, settling time, compared to PD controller.

Keywords: dynamic modeling, geometric modeling, graphical user interface, open loop, parallel cable-based robots, PID/PD controllers

Procedia PDF Downloads 409