Search results for: small modular reactors

Authors: H. Kazemi Esfeh, V. Akbari, M. Ehdaei, T. N. G. Borhani, A. Shamiri, M. Najafi

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In an industrial fluidized bed polymerization reactor, particle size distribution (PSD) plays a significant role in the reactor efficiency evaluation. The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models coupled with population balance equation (CFD-PBM) have been extensively employed to investigate the flow behavior in the poly-disperse multiphase fluidized bed reactors (FBRs) utilizing ANSYS Fluent code. In this study, an existing CFD-PBM/ DQMOM coupled modeling framework has been used to highlight its potential to analyze the industrial-scale gas phase polymerization reactor. The predicted results reveal an acceptable agreement with the observed industrial data in terms of pressure drop and bed height. The simulated results also indicate that the higher particle growth rate can be achieved for bigger particles. Hence, the 2D CFD-PBM/DQMOM coupled model can be used as a reliable tool for analyzing and improving the design and operation of the gas phase polymerization FBRs.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, population balance equation, fluidized bed polymerization reactor, direct quadrature method of moments

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Authors: R. Alias, A. Kasa, M. R. Taha

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The effect of particle size on shear strength of granular materials are investigated using direct shear tests. Small direct shear test (60 mm by 60 mm by 24 mm deep) were conducted for particles passing the sieves with opening size of 2.36 mm. Meanwhile, particles passing the standard 20 mm sieves were tested using large direct shear test (300 mm by 300 mm by 200 mm deep). The large direct shear tests and the small direct shear tests carried out using the same shearing rate of 0.09 mm/min and similar normal stresses of 100, 200, and 300 kPa. The results show that the peak and residual shear strength decreases as particle size increases.

Keywords: particle size, shear strength, granular material, direct shear test

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Authors: A. Elbyed

Abstract:

Nowadays, ontologies are used for achieving a common understanding within a user community and for sharing domain knowledge. However, the de-centralized nature of the web makes indeed inevitable that small communities will use their own ontologies to describe their data and to index their own resources. Certainly, accessing to resources from various ontologies created independently is an important challenge for answering end user queries. Ontology mapping is thus required for combining ontologies. However, mapping complete ontologies at run time is a computationally expensive task. This paper proposes a system in which mappings between concepts may be generated dynamically as the concepts are encountered during user queries. In this way, the interaction itself defines the context in which small and relevant portions of ontologies are mapped. We illustrate application of the proposed system in the context of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) where learners need to access to learning resources covering specific concepts.

Keywords: resources query, ontologies, ontology mapping, similarity measures, semantic web, e-learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Chaca Nugraha Zaid, Hikmat Ronaldo, Emerald Falah Brayoga, Azizah Eddy Setiawati, Soviandini Dwiki Kartika Putri, Novita Wijayanti

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In the tofu stick production, the manual cutting process takes a half of working day or 4 hours for 21 kg of tofu. This issue has hampered the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to increase the capacity of production to fulfill the market demand. In order to address the issue, the cutting process should be automized to create fast, efficient, and effective tools. This innovation to tackle this problem is an automatic cutter tool that is able to move continuously to cut the tofu into stick size. The tool uses the 78,5-watt electric motor and automatic sensors to drive the cutting tool automatically, resulting faster process time with more uniform size compared to the manual cutter. The component of this tool, i.e., cutting knife and the driver, electric motor, limit switch sensors, riley, Arduino nano, and power supply. The cutting speed cutting speed of this tool is 101,25 mm/s producing 64 tofu sticks. Benefits that can be obtained from the use of automatic tofu stick cutter, i.e. (1) Faster process (2) More uniform cutting result; (3) The quality of the tofu stick is maintained due to minimal contact with humans so that contamination can be suppressed; (4) The cutting knife can be modified to the desired size of the owner.

Keywords: automatic, cutter, small and medium enterprise, tofu stick

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Authors: Farooq A. Al-Sheikh, Ali Elkamel, William A. Anderson

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A fluidized catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) is one of the effective units in many refineries. Modeling and optimization of FCCU were done by many researchers in past decades, but in this research, comparison between post- and oxy-combustion was studied in the regenerator-FCCU. Therefore, a simplified mathematical model was derived by doing mass/heat balances around both reactor and regenerator. A state space analysis was employed to show effects of the flow rates variables such as air, feed, spent catalyst, regenerated catalyst and flue gas on the output variables. The main aim of studying dynamic responses is to figure out the most influencing variables that affect both reactor/regenerator temperatures; also, finding the upper/lower limits of the influencing variables to ensure that temperatures of the reactors and regenerator work within normal operating conditions. Therefore, those values will be used as side constraints in the optimization technique to find appropriate operating regimes. The objective functions were modeled to be maximizing the energy in the reactor while minimizing the energy consumption in the regenerator. In conclusion, an oxy-combustion process can be used instead of a post-combustion one.

Keywords: FCCU modeling, optimization, oxy-combustion, post-combustion

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Authors: Karina Rashidovna Nabiullina

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In 2016, the ‘Beautiful Country’ innovative project was implemented in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). This project started at the initiative of architecture students majoring in city planning during their summer internship. As a part of the internship, the students had to study the layout and the lifestyle of Tatarstan towns. All the projects were presented to the Ministry of Construction of Tatarstan, which allowed the settlement authorities to receive the government funding for their implementation. This initiative, from the public discussion of the projects to their implementation, was welcomed by the local communities, evoked local patriotism, created new jobs as a part of the projects' implementation, and improved the architectural environment of the settlements. The projects initiated by the students became the ‘Big Projects’ for these small settlements.

Keywords: adapted graphic language, complex territorial development, identity of local resources, overcoming stagnation, participation

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Authors: Sergey N. Sayapin, Anatoly P. Karpenko, Suan H. Dang

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Comparative analysis of robotic vehicles for pipe inspection is presented in this paper. The promising concept of self-propelled intelligent robotic vehicle (SPIRV) based on octahedral dodekapod for inspection and operation in active branched pipelines with variable cross-sections is reasoned. SPIRV is able to move in pipeline, regardless of its spatial orientation. SPIRV can also be used to move along the outside of the pipelines as well as in space between surfaces of annular tubes. Every one of faces of the octahedral dodekapod can clamp/unclamp a thing with a closed loop surface of various forms as well as put pressure on environmental surface of contact. These properties open new possibilities for its applications in SPIRV. We examine design principles of octahedral dodekapod as future intelligent building blocks for various robotic vehicles that can self-move and self-reconfigure.

Keywords: Modular robot, octahedral dodekapod, pipe inspection robot, spatial parallel structure

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Authors: Ayodeji Motunrayo Omoare

Abstract:

Economically fish provides an important source of food and income for both men and women especially many households in the developing world and fishing has an important social and cultural position in river-rine communities. However, fish is highly susceptible to deterioration. Consequently, this study was carried out to correlate income generation of small-scale women fish processors in Abeokuta metropolis, Ogun State, Nigeria. Eighty small-scale women fish processors were randomly selected from five communities as the sample size for this study. Collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the mean age of the respondents was 31.75 years with average household size of 4 people while 47.5% of the respondents had primary education. Most (86.3%) of the respondents were married and had spent more than 11 years in fish processing. The respondents were predominantly Yoruba tribe (91.2%). Majority (71.3%) of the respondents used traditional kiln for processing their fish while 23.7% of the respondents used hot vegetable oil to fry their fish. Also, the result revealed that respondents sourced capital from Personal Savings (48.8%), Cooperatives (27.5%), Friends and Family (17.5%) and Microfinance Banks (6.2%) for fish processing activities. The respondents generated an average income of ₦7,000.00 from roasted fish, ₦3,500.00 from dried fish, and ₦5,200.00 from fried fish daily. However, inadequate processing equipment (95.0%), non-availability of credit facility from microfinance banks (85.0%), poor electricity supply (77.5%), inadequate extension service support (70.0%), and fuel scarcity (68.7%) were major constraints to fish processing in the study area. Results of chi-square analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between personal characteristics (χ2 = 36.83, df = 9), processing methods (χ2 = 15.88, df = 3) and income generated at p < 0.05 level of significance. It can be concluded that significant relationship existed between processing methods and income generated. The study, therefore, recommends that modern processing equipment should be made available to the respondents at a subsidized price by the agro-allied companies.

Keywords: correlates, income, fish processors, women, small-scale

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Authors: Min Zhou, Kaixuan Lin, Yaping Huang

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In this paper, the industrial space of metropolitan area in Wuhan is taken as a sample. First of all, it puts forward that the structure of service economy, circle gradient relocation and high degree of regional collaboration are the rules of industrial spatial development in the modern world cities. Secondly, using the economic statistics and land use vector data (1993, 2004, 2010, and 2013) of Wuhan, it analyzes the present situation of industry development and the characteristics of industrial space layout from three aspects of the industrial economic structure, industrial layout, and industrial regional synergy. Then, based on the industrial development regularity of world cities, it puts forward to construct the industrial spatial level of ‘complex industrial concentration area + modular industry unit’ and the industrial spatial structure of ‘13525’. Finally, it comes up with the optimization tactics of the industrial space’s transformation in the future under the background of new economic era.

Keywords: big city of metropolitan area, industrial space, characteristics, layout, strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Rowland R. Ogunrinde, Yusmadi Y. Jusoh, Noraini Che Pa, Wan Nurhayati W. Rahman, Azizol B. Abdullah

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Enterprise Applications (EAs) aid the organizations achieve operational excellence and competitive advantage. Over time, most Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are known to be the major drivers of most thriving global economies, use the costly on-premise versions of these applications thereby making business difficult to competitively thrive in the same market environment with their large enterprise counterparts. The advent of cloud computing presents the SMEs an affordable offer and great opportunities as such EAs can be cloud-hosted and rented on a pay-per-use basis which does not require huge initial capital. However, as there are numerous Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) offering EAs as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), there is a challenge of choosing a suitable provider with Quality of Service (QoS) that meet the organizations’ customized requirements. The proposed model takes care of that and goes a step further to select the most affordable among a selected few of the CSPs. In the earlier stage, before developing the instrument and conducting the pilot test, the researchers conducted a structured interview with three experts to validate the proposed model. In conclusion, the validity and reliability of the instrument were tested through experts, typical respondents, and analyzed with SPSS 22. Results confirmed the validity of the proposed model and the validity and reliability of the instrument.

Keywords: cloud service provider, enterprise application, quality of service, selection criteria, small and medium enterprise

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Authors: Neeraj Neeraj, Soumen Basu, Banibrata Maity

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Glutathione (GSH) is one of the most important biomolecules having small molecular weight, which helps in various cellular functions like regulation of gene, xenobiotic metabolism, preservation of intracellular redox activities, signal transduction, etc. Therefore, the detection of GSH requires huge attention by using extremely selective and sensitive techniques. Herein, a rapid fluorometric nanosensor is designed by combining carbon dots (Cdots) and MnO₂ nanoparticles of different sizes for the detection of GSH. The bottom-up approach, i.e., microwave method, was used for the preparation of the water soluble and greatly fluorescent Cdots by using ascorbic acid as a precursor. MnO₂ nanospheres of different sizes (large, medium, and small) were prepared by varying the ratio of concentration of methionine and KMnO₄ at room temperature, which was confirmed by HRTEM analysis. The successive addition of MnO₂ nanospheres in Cdots results fluorescence quenching. From the fluorescence intensity data, Stern-Volmer quenching constant values (KS-V) were evaluated. From the fluorescence intensity and lifetime analysis, it was found that the degree of fluorescence quenching of Cdots followed the order: large > medium > small. Moreover, fluorescence recovery studies were also performed in the presence of GSH. Fluorescence restoration studies also show the order of turn on follows the same order, i.e., large > medium > small, which was also confirmed by quantum yield and lifetime studies. The limits of detection (LOD) of GSH in presence of Cdots@different sized MnO₂ nanospheres were also evaluated. It was observed thatLOD values were in μM region and lowest in case of large MnO₂ nanospheres. The separation distance (d) between Cdots and the surface of different MnO₂ nanospheres was determined. The d values increase with increase in the size of the MnO₂ nanospheres. In summary, the synthesized Cdots@MnO₂ nanocomposites acted as a rapid, simple, economical as well as environmental-friendly nanosensor for the detection of GSH.

Keywords: carbon dots, fluorescence, glutathione, MnO₂ nanospheres, turn off-on

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Authors: Tamekloe Michael Kossivi, Kenichi Matsui

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Irrigation access is one of the essential rural development investment options that can significantly improve smallholder farmers’ agriculture productivity. Investment in irrigation infrastructural development to supply adequate water could improve food security, growth in income for farmers, poverty alleviation, and improve business and livelihood. This paper assesses smallholder farmers’ constraints and the needs to adopt small-scale irrigation for crops production in the South Tongu District of Ghana. The data collection involved database search, questionnaire survey, interview, and field work. The structured questionnaire survey was administered from September to November 2020 among 120 respondents in six purposively sampled irrigation communities in the District. The questions focused on small-scale irrigation development constraints and needs. As a result, we found that the respondents relied mainly on rainfall for agriculture production. They did not have adequate irrigation access. Even though the District is blessed with open arable lands and rich water sources for rice and vegetable production on a massive scale, water sources like the Lower Volta River, Tordzi River, and Avu Lagoon were not close enough to the respondents. The respondents faced inadequate credit support (100%), unreliable rainfall (76%), insufficient water supply (54%), and unreliable water delivery challenges on their farms (53%). Physical constraints for the respondents to adopt irrigation included flood (77%), drought (93%), inadequate irrigation technology (59%), and insufficient technical know-how (65%). Farmers were interested in investing in irrigation infrastructural development to enhance productivity on their farms only if they own the farmlands. External support from donors on irrigation systems did not allow smallholder farmers to control irrigation facilities.

Keywords: constraints, food security, needs, smallholder farmers, small-scale irrigation

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Authors: Pac Ordu

Abstract:

The paper was conceived on the premise that employment of tertiary education graduates has become an endemic problem in Nigeria. Recognizing the objective of current education as schooling for paid employment, the paper identified that the basic objective of present-day education should be schooling to become self-employed. While schooling to become a successful employee was identified as the focus for the older generation, schooling to become self-employed was defined as the focus for 21st-century teaching and learning. Hence, the paper condemned the inability of curriculum implementers to teach creative trends to enable students to acquire practical skills and small business operation-oriented competencies. A review of some disciplines was made to show the new trend of education that would empower Nigerian students with small business enterprise operation skills for self-employment on graduation. This was further made to draw the attention of institutions and curriculum designers to the need for our curriculum to be functional in line with demands of the innovative economic environment. The paper also noted that at periods of recession with its attendant effects, was the best period for students of entrepreneurship to dream and create their small business enterprises. It highlighted the role of Federal College of Education (Technical) Omoku, Rivers State, Nigeria and the national recognition it has received for developing an innovative, practical model of teaching entrepreneurship education in Nigeria Colleges of Education system. In order to equip students for economic survival on graduation, the introduction of innovative teaching can only be successful if lecturers shift their focus away from the conventional emphasis on theory to students’ energy quotients. While the paper obviously recommended that lecturers should be creative and teach outside the curriculum box, it further recommended that students should use this period of their studentship to dream, create and operate their own small business enterprises.

Keywords: 21st century students, curriculum, entrepreneurship, hands-on-training, innovative

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Authors: Qian You, Ibrahim Hassan, Lyes Kadem

Abstract:

An experiment is conducted to fundamentally investigate flow oscillation characteristics in different sizes of single microtubes in vertical upward flow direction. Three microtubes have 0.889 mm, 0.533 mm, and 0.305 mm hydraulic diameters with 100 mm identical heated length. The mass flux of the working fluid FC-72 varies from 700 kg/m2•s to 1400 kg/m2•s, and the heat flux is uniformly applied on the tube surface up to 9.4 W/cm2. The subcooled inlet temperature is maintained around 24°C during the experiment. The effect of hydraulic diameter and mass flux are studied. The results showed that they have interactions on the flow oscillations occurrence and behaviors. The onset of flow instability (OFI), which is a threshold of unstable flow, usually appears in large microtube with diversified and sustained flow oscillations, while the transient point, which is the point when the flow turns from one stable state to another suddenly, is more observed in small microtube without characterized flow oscillations due to the bubble confinement. The OFI/transient point occurs early as hydraulic diameter reduces at a given mass flux. The increased mass flux can delay the OFI/transient point occurrence in large hydraulic diameter, but no significant effect in small size. Although the only transient point is observed in the smallest tube, it appears at small heat flux and is not sensitive to mass flux; hence, the smallest microtube is not recommended since increasing heat flux may cause local dryout.

Keywords: flow boiling instability, hydraulic diameter effect, a single microtube, vertical upward flow

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Authors: T. Ahilan, V. Aswin Adityan, S. Kailash

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UAV’s are small remote operated or automated aerial surveillance systems without a human pilot aboard. UAV’s generally finds its use in military and special operation application, a recent growing trend in UAV’s finds its application in several civil and non military works such as inspection of power or pipelines. The objective of this paper is the augmentation of a UAV in order to replace the existing expensive sonar (sound navigation and ranging) based equipment amongst small scale fisherman, for whom access to sonar equipment are restricted due to limited economic resources. The surveillance equipment’s present in the UAV will relay data and GPS location onto a receiver on the fishing boat using RF signals, using which the location of the schools of fishes can be found. In addition to this, an emergency beacon system is present for rescue operations and drone recovery.

Keywords: UAV, Surveillance, RF signals, fishing, sonar, GPS, video stream, school of fish

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Authors: M. Nazim, S. Ameen, H. K. Seo, H. S. Shin

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Energy is the basis of life and strong attention has been growing for the cost-effective energy production. Recently, solution-processed small molecule organic solar cells (SMOSCs) have grown much attention due to the wages such as well-defined molecular structures, definite molecular weight, easy synthesis and easy purification techniques. In particular, the size of donor (D) and acceptor (A) unit is a crucial factor for the exciton-diffusion towards D-A interface and then charge-separation for the effective charge-transport to the electrodes. Furan-bridged materials are more electron-rich, high fluorescence, with better molecular-packing, and greater rigidity and greater solubility than their thiophene-counterparts In this work, a furan-bridged thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole based organic small molecule (RFTzR) was formulated and applied for BHJ organic solar cells (OSCs). The introduction of furan spacer with two terminal alkyl units improved its absorption and solubility in the common organic solvents, significantly. RFTzR exhibited a HOMO and LUMO energy levels of -5.36 eV and -3.14 eV, respectively. The fabricated solar cell devices of RFTzR (donor) with PC60BM (acceptor) as photoactive materials showed high performance of 2.72% (RFTzR:PC60BM, 2:1, w/w) ratio with open-circuit voltage of 0.756 V and high photocurrent density of 10.13 mA/cm².

Keywords: chromophore, organic solar cells, photoactive materials, small molecule

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Authors: Amin Mojiri, Hamidi Abdul Aziz

Abstract:

Leachate is created while water penetrates through the waste in a landfill, carrying some forms of pollutants. In literature, for treatment of wastewater and leachate, different ways of biological treatment were used. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is a kind of biological treatment. This study investigated the co-treatment of landfill leachate and domestic waste water by SBR and powdered activated carbon augmented (PAC) SBR process. The response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD) were employed. The independent variables were aeration rate (L/min), contact time (h), and the ratio of leachate to wastewater mixture (%; v/v)). To perform an adequate analysis of the aerobic process, three dependent parameters, i.e. COD, color, and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N or NH4-N) were measured as responses. The findings of the study indicated that the PAC-SBR showed a higher performance in elimination of certain pollutants, in comparison with SBR. With the optimal conditions of aeration rate (0.6 L/min), leachate to waste water ratio (20%), and contact time (10.8 h) for the PAC-SBR, the removal efficiencies for color, NH3-N, and COD were 72.8%, 98.5%, and 65.2%, respectively.

Keywords: co-treatment, landfill Leachate, wastewater, sequencing batch reactor, activate carbon

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Authors: Dilek Ozlem Esen, Mesut Kaya

Abstract:

The focus of this study is to analyse the results of heat recovery from exhaust gas which is produced by an internal combustion engine (ICE). To obtain a small amount of energy, an exhaust system which is suitable for recovery waste heat has been constructed. Totally 27 TEGs have been used to convert from the heat to electric energy. By producing a small amount of this energy by the help of thermoelectric generators can reduce engine loads thus decreasing pollutant emissions, fuel consumption, and CO2. This case study is conducted in an effort to better understand and improve the performance of thermoelectric heat recovery systems for automotive use. As a result of this study, 0,45 A averaged current rate, 13,02 V averaged voltage rate and 5,8 W averaged electrical energy have been produced in a five hours operation time.

Keywords: thermoelectric, peltier, thermoelectric generator (TEG), exhaust, cogeneration

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Authors: Zeinab Syed Abdel Rehim

Abstract:

Water shortage is considered as one of the huge problems the world encounter now. Water desalination is considered as one of the more suitable methods governments can use to substitute the increased need for potable water. The humidification-dehumidification process for water desalination is viewed as a promising technique for small capacity production plants. The process has several attraction features which include the use of sustainable energy sources, low technology, and low-temperature dehumidification. A pilot experimental set-up plant was constructed with the conventional HVAC components such as air blower that supplies air to an air duct inside which air preheater, steam injector and cooling coil of a small refrigeration unit are placed. The present work evaluates the characteristics of humidification-dehumidification process for water desalination as a function of air flow rate, total power input and air inlet temperature in order to study the optimum conditions required to produce distilled water.

Keywords: condensation, dehumidification, evaporation, humidification, water desalination

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Authors: Lukasz Szydlowski, Jiri Ehlich, Igor Goryanin

Abstract:

We demonstrate a single chamber, 96-well-plated based Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) with printed, electronic components. This invention is aimed at robust selection of electrogenic microbial community under specific conditions, e.g., electrode potential, pH, nutrient concentration, salt concentration that can be altered within the 96 well plate array. This invention enables robust selection of electrogenic microbial community under the homogeneous reactor, with multiple conditions that can be altered to allow comparative analysis. It can be used as a standalone technique or in conjunction with other selective processes, e.g., flow cytometry, microfluidic-based dielectrophoretic trapping. Mobile conductive elements, like carbon paper, carbon sponge, activated charcoal granules, metal mesh, can be inserted inside to increase the anode surface area in order to collect electrogenic microorganisms and to transfer them into new reactors or for other analytical works. An array of 96-well plate allows this device to be operated by automated pipetting stations.

Keywords: bioengineering, electrochemistry, electromicrobiology, microbial fuel cell

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Authors: Jacob Dangerfield, Jacob Pollard, Jennifer DeCou

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Introduction: Burnout, anxiety, and depression are three conditions that are prevalent in medical providers. This is especially the case in the field of anesthesia, which has a high number of providers suffering from burnout and burnout syndrome. A major contributor to this issue is isolation in the workplace, with a perceived lack of peer support as a major risk factor for burnout. Two organizational interventions that can be done to help improve this issue are small group sessions and providing affordable mental health services. Per American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Guidelines, these affordable mental health services are a requirement of all residency programs, but for a variety of reasons, many residents do not access them. As physicians, we are often not good at asking for help. With this in mind, we hypothesized that carrying out small group resiliency sessions facilitated by Graduate Medical Education (GME) Wellness Counselors would improve both resident peer support as well as the likelihood that a resident will reach out to GME Wellness in a time of need. Methods: We held small group resiliency sessions with the GME Wellness Mental Health Professionals during protected didactic time. These sessions were small groups, including the members of one’s class (i.e., first-year residents on their own), and were facilitated by 1-2 mental health professionals. After these sessions, we surveyed residents who attended using a short Google Forms survey and using a 5-point Likert Scale, asked residents about some outcomes from the session. A “strongly agree” or “agree” was considered a positive response. Results: Results from our survey showed that the resident sessions had multiple positive outcomes. This survey was sent to 29 residents, and we had a 62% response rate. We found out through this survey that these small group sessions had a perceived positive impact on resident personal well-being, increased perceived peer support from classmates, and made residents more likely to reach out to GME Wellness in the future. Perceived positive impact on well-being was found in 83% of resident respondents, improved perceived peer support in 83% of respondents, and 78% of resident respondents stated that this session increased their likelihood of reaching out to mental health professionals. Conclusions: Through this study, we can conclude that our hypothesis was correct in that Small Group Resiliency Sessions that are facilitated by GME Wellness Counselors improve both resident peer support as well as the likelihood a resident reaches out to these mental health professionals in time of need. We believe these findings are very important as they address two important factors that can aid in decreasing a provider’s risk of experiencing burnout. Through this simple means, we believe other residency programs can help the well-being of their residents, and together, we can decrease the number of cases of burnout in anesthesia.

Keywords: anesthesiology, burnout, wellness, depression, residents, trainees, mental health

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Authors: Yousuf Al Suleimani, Ahmed Al Mahruqi

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A typical cannabinoid O-1602 induces vasorelaxation and activates the orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR55 in human endothelial cells. The aim of this study is to characterize the mechanisms of endothelium-independent relaxation of O-1602 in the rat small mesenteric artery using wire myograph. In endothelium-denuded vessels, O-1602 partially produced concentration-dependent vasorelaxation. In vessels depleted of intracellular Ca2+ (by EGTA and methoxamine), CaCl2 produced concentration-dependent contraction. Preincubation with O-1602 (at 10 µM and 30 µM) abolished the contractile responses (P<0.01). The putative antagonist at novel “endothelial anandamide receptor” O-1918 (10 µM) significantly reversed the inhibitory effect of O-1602 on CaCl2-induced vasoconstriction. It is likely that the mechanism of endothelium-independent vasorelaxation to O-1602 is mediated by interfering with Ca2+ entry via an O-1918-sensitive pathway.

Keywords: O-1602, endothelium, vasorelaxation, calcium

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Authors: Tokuei Sako, Paul-Antoine Hervieux

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The energy-level structure of a pair of electron and positron confined in a quasi-one-dimensional nano-scale potential well has been investigated focusing on its trend in the small limit of confinement strength ω, namely, the Wigner molecular regime. An anisotropic Gaussian-type basis functions supplemented by high angular momentum functions as large as l = 19 has been used to obtain reliable full configuration interaction (FCI) wave functions. The resultant energy spectrum shows a band structure characterized by ω for the large ω regime whereas for the small ω regime it shows an energy-level pattern dominated by excitation into the in-phase motion of the two particles. The observed trend has been rationalized on the basis of the nodal patterns of the FCI wave functions.

Keywords: confined systems, positron, wave function, Wigner molecule, quantum dots

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Authors: Yury S. Shpanskiy, Boris V. Kuteev

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Development of a fusion-fission hybrid facility based on superconducting conventional tokamak DEMO-FNS runs in Russia since 2013. The main design goal is to reach the technical feasibility and outline prospects of industrial hybrid technologies providing the production of neutrons, fuel nuclides, tritium, high-temperature heat, electricity and subcritical transmutation in Fusion-Fission Hybrid Systems. The facility should operate in a steady-state mode at the fusion power of 40 MW and fission reactions of 400 MW. Major tokamak parameters are the following: major radius R=3.2 m, minor radius a=1.0 m, elongation 2.1, triangularity 0.5. The design provides the neutron wall loading of ~0.2 MW/m², the lifetime neutron fluence of ~2 MWa/m², with the surface area of the active cores and tritium breeding blanket ~100 m². Core plasma modelling showed that the neutron yield ~10¹⁹ n/s is maximal if the tritium/deuterium density ratio is 1.5-2.3. The design of the electromagnetic system (EMS) defined its basic parameters, accounting for the coils strength and stability, and identified the most problematic nodes in the toroidal field coils and the central solenoid. The EMS generates toroidal, poloidal and correcting magnetic fields necessary for the plasma shaping and confinement inside the vacuum vessel. EMC consists of eighteen superconducting toroidal field coils, eight poloidal field coils, five sections of a central solenoid, correction coils, in-vessel coils for vertical plasma control. Supporting structures, the thermal shield, and the cryostat maintain its operation. EMS operates with the pulse duration of up to 5000 hours at the plasma current up to 5 MA. The vacuum vessel (VV) is an all-welded two-layer toroidal shell placed inside the EMS. The free space between the vessel shells is filled with water and boron steel plates, which form the neutron protection of the EMS. The VV-volume is 265 m³, its mass with manifolds is 1800 tons. The nuclear blanket of DEMO-FNS facility was designed to provide functions of minor actinides transmutation, tritium production and enrichment of spent nuclear fuel. The vertical overloading of the subcritical active cores with MA was chosen as prospective. Analysis of the device neutronics and the hybrid blanket thermal-hydraulic characteristics has been performed for the system with functions covering transmutation of minor actinides, production of tritium and enrichment of spent nuclear fuel. A study of FNS facilities role in the Russian closed nuclear fuel cycle was performed. It showed that during ~100 years of operation three FNS facilities with fission power of 3 GW controlled by fusion neutron source with power of 40 MW can burn 98 tons of minor actinides and 198 tons of Pu-239 can be produced for startup loading of 20 fast reactors. Instead of Pu-239, up to 25 kg of tritium per year may be produced for startup of fusion reactors using blocks with lithium orthosilicate instead of fissile breeder blankets.

Keywords: fusion-fission hybrid system, conventional tokamak, superconducting electromagnetic system, two-layer vacuum vessel, subcritical active cores, nuclear fuel cycle

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Authors: Abdelaziz Hussien

Abstract:

This article reports investigations of a study into the effectiveness of a traits cooperative learning (TCL) on teacher candidates’ writing achievement, composition, and attitudes towards traits of writing approach and small group learning. Mixed methodologies were used with the participants in a repeated measures quasi-experimental design. Forty-two class teacher candidates, enrolled in the Bahrain Teachers College, completed the pre and post author-developed measures. The results suggest that TCL has a positive effect on the participants’ writing achievement, composition, and attitudes towards traits of writing approach, but not on the attitudes towards small group learning. Further implications to teacher education are presented.

Keywords: trait-based language education, cooperative learning, writing achievement, writing composition, traits of writing, teacher education

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Authors: Muhammad Yusuf Abduh, Robert Manurung, Hero Jan Heeres

Abstract:

Biodiesel can be produced in small scale mobile units which are designed with local input and demand. Unlike the typical biodiesel production plants, mobile biodiesel unit consiss of a biodiesel production facility placed inside a standard cargo container and mounted on a truck so that it can be transported to a region near the location of raw materials. In this paper, we review the existing concept and unit for the development of community-scale and mobile production of biodiesel. This includes the main reactor technology to produce biodiesel as well as the pre-treatment prior to the reaction unit. The pre-treatment includes the oil-expeller unit to obtain oil from the oilseeds as well as the quality control of the oil before it enters the reaction unit. This paper also discusses the post-treatment after the production of biodiesel. It includes the refining and purification of biodiesel to meet the product specification set by the biodiesel industry.

Keywords: biodiesel, community scale, mobile biodiesel unit, reactor technology

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Authors: Frederick Otite Ighovojah

Abstract:

Corrosion in the oil and gas industries is one of the most common causes of failure. Such failure includes leaks in above-ground storage tanks (AGST). The involvement of microorganisms in the corrosion process in AGST systems is often ignored, and this outlines the need to investigate the effect of microbial corrosion in oil and gas facilities. This study's methodology comprised gathering generated water samples from a nearby AGST oil facility that was operating, which were then equally divided into two batch reactors, 1 and 2. Each batch reactor was filled with five prepared X60 coupons using sterilized forceps. To provide nutrients for the microorganisms in batch reactor 1 during the test period, 2g of NPK 15- 15-15 fertilizer was added on a weekly basis. To kill the microorganisms and significantly lower their concentration in the generated water, 5ml of dissolved ozone (a biocide) with a 0.5ppm concentration was added to batch reactor 2. The weight loss measurement (WLM) was used to evaluate for corrosion. Coupons were removed from each batch reactor, and weight loss was measured at every interval of 336 hrs for 2016 hrs. The overall results obtained indicated that coupons from the batch 1 reactor showed a higher corrosion rate and higher mass loss, and this was due to the metabolic production of an aggressive compound in the medium.

Keywords: AGST, microbial corrosion, reactor, X60 steel

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: H. M. Ross-McAlpine

Abstract:

Much of what is written on diplomacy, globalization and the global economy addresses the changing nature of relationships between major powers. While the most dramatic and influential changes have resulted from these developing relationships the world is not, on deeper inspection, governed neatly by major powers. Due to advances in technology, the shifting balance of power and a changing geopolitical order, small states have the ability to exercise a greater influence than ever before. Increasingly interdependent and ever complex, our world is too delicate to be handled by a mighty few. The pressure of global change requires small states to adapt their diplomatic practices and diversify their strategic alliances and relationships. The nature and practice of diplomacy must be re-evaluated in light of the pressures resulting from globalization. This research examines: how small states can best secure their foreign policy objectives? Small state theory is used as a foundation for exploring the case study of New Zealand. The research draws on secondary sources to evaluate the existing theory in relation to modern practices of diplomacy. As New Zealand lacks the required economic and military power to play an active, influential role in international affairs what strategies are used to exert influence? Furthermore, New Zealand lies in a remote corner of the Pacific and is geographically isolated from its nearest neighbors how does this affect security and trade priorities? The findings note a significant shift since the 1970’s in New Zealand’s diplomatic relations. This shift is arguably a direct result of globalization, regionalism and a growing independence from the traditional bi-lateral relationships. The need to source predictable trade, investment and technology are an essential driving force for New Zealand’s diplomatic relations. A lack of hard power aligns New Zealand’s prosperity with a secure, rules-based international system that increases the likelihood of a stable and secure global order. New Zealand’s diplomacy and prosperity has been intrinsically reliant on its reputation. A vital component of New Zealand’s diplomacy is preserving a reputation for integrity and global responsibility. It is the use of this soft power that facilitates the influence that New Zealand enjoys on the world stage. To weave a comprehensive network of successful diplomatic relationships, New Zealand must maintain a reputation of international credibility. Globalization has substantially influenced the practice of diplomacy for New Zealand. The current world order places economic and military might in the hands of a few, subsequently requiring smaller states to use other means for securing their interests. There are clear strategies evident in New Zealand’s diplomacy practice that draw attention to how other smaller states might best secure their foreign policy objectives. While these findings are limited, as with all case study research, there is value in applying the findings to other small states struggling to secure their interests in the wake of rapid globalization.

Keywords: diplomacy, foreign policy, globalisation, small state

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: Raed H. Allawi

Abstract:

Formation pressure is the most critical parameter in hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. Specifically, predicting abnormal pressures (high formation pressures) and subnormal pressure zones can provide valuable information to minimize uncertainty for anticipated drilling challenges and risks. This study aims to interpret and delineate the pore and fracture pressure of the Mishrif reservoir in the southern Iraq Oilfield. The data required to implement this study included acoustic compression wave, gamma-ray, bulk density, and drilling events. Furthermore, supporting these models needs the pore pressure measurement from the Modular Formation Dynamics Tester (MDT). Many measured values of pore pressure were used to validate the accurate model. Using sonic velocity approaches, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was about 4%. The fracture pressure results were consistent with the measurement data, actual drilling report, and events. The model's results will be a guide for successful drilling in future wells in the same oilfield.

Keywords: pore pressure, fracture pressure, overburden pressure, effective stress, drilling events

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: C. Garcia, C. Andreasen

Abstract:

Sugarcane is an important resource for bioenergy. Fields are usually established by using 15-20 cm pieces of sugarcane stalks as propagation material. An alternative method is to use small chips with nodes from sugarcane stalks. Plants from nodes are often established in plastic pots, but plastic pots could be replaced with biodegradable paper pots. This would be a more sustainable solution, reducing labor costs and avoiding pollution with plastic. We compared the establishment of plants from nodes taken from three different part of the sugarcane plant. The nodes were planted in plastic and paper pots. There was no significant difference between plants established in the two pot types. Nodes from different part of the stalk had different sprouting capacity. Nodes from the top parts sprouted significantly better than nodes taken from the middle or nodes taken closed to the ground in two experiments. Nodes with a length of 3 cm performed better than nodes with a length of 2 cm.

Keywords: nodes, paper pots, propagation material, sugarcane

Procedia PDF Downloads 191