Search results for: industrial scale nano-CaCO3

Authors: Thanakrit Taweesoontorn, Sarucha Yanyong, Poom Konghuayrob

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Robotic arms have gained popularity in various industries due to their accuracy and efficiency. This research proposes a method for bin-picking tasks using the Cobot, combining the YOLOv5 CNNs model for object detection and pose estimation with traditional feature detection (FAST), feature description (BRISK), and matching algorithms. By integrating these algorithms and utilizing a small-scale depth sensor camera for capturing depth and color images, the system achieves real-time object detection and accurate pose estimation, enabling the robotic arm to pick objects correctly in both position and orientation. Furthermore, the proposed method is implemented within the ROS framework to provide a seamless platform for robotic control and integration. This integration of robotics, cameras, and AI technology contributes to the development of industrial robotics, opening up new possibilities for automating challenging tasks and improving overall operational efficiency.

Keywords: robotic vision, image processing, applications of robotics, artificial intelligent

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Authors: Hasna Soli

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The main objective of this work is the extraction of sulfur from gypsum here is industrial waste. Indeed the sulfuric acid production, passing through the following process; melting sulfur, filtration of the liquid sulfur, sulfur combustion to produce SO₂, conversion of SO₂ to SO₃ and SO₃ absorption in water to produce H₂SO₄ product as waste CaSO₄ the anhydrous calcium sulfate. The main objectives of this work are improving the industrial practices and to find other ways to manage these solid wastes. It should also assess the consequences of treatment in terms of training and become byproducts. Firstly there will be a characterization of this type of waste by an X-ray diffraction; to obtain phase solid compositions and chemical analysis; gravimetrically and atomic absorption spectrometry or by ICP. The samples are mineralized in suitable acidic or basic solutions. The elements analyzed are CaO, Sulfide (SO₃), Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, MgO, SiO₂. Then an analysis by EDS energy dispersive spectrometry using an Oxford EDX probe and differential thermal and gravimetric analyzes. Gypsum’s valuation will be performed. Indeed, the CaSO₄ will be reused to produce sulfuric acid, which will be reintroduced into the production line. The second approach explored in this work is the thermal utilization of solid waste to remove sulfur as a dilute sulfuric acid solution.

Keywords: environment, gypsum, sulfur, waste

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Authors: Francesco Pandolfi, Georgios Baltzopoulos, Iunio Iervolino

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The impact of extreme winds on industrial assets and the built environment is gaining increasing attention from stakeholders, including the corporate insurance industry. This has led to a progressively more in-depth study of building vulnerability and fragility to wind. Wind vulnerability models are used in probabilistic risk assessment to relate a loss metric to an intensity measure of the natural event, usually a gust or a mean wind speed. In fact, vulnerability models can be integrated with the wind hazard, which consists of associating a probability to each intensity level in a time interval (e.g., by means of return periods) to provide an assessment of future losses due to extreme wind. This has also given impulse to the world- and regional-scale wind hazard studies.Another approach often adopted for the probabilistic description of building vulnerability to the wind is the use of fragility functions, which provide the conditional probability that selected building components will exceed certain damage states, given wind intensity. In fact, in wind engineering literature, it is more common to find structural system- or component-level fragility functions rather than wind vulnerability models for an entire building. Loss assessment based on component fragilities requires some logical combination rules that define the building’s damage state given the damage state of each component and the availability of a consequence model that provides the losses associated with each damage state. When risk calculations are based on numerical simulation of a structure’s behavior during extreme wind scenarios, the interaction of component fragilities is intertwined with the computational procedure. However, simulation-based approaches are usually computationally demanding and case-specific. In this context, the present work introduces the ExtReMe wind risk assESsment prototype Software, ERMESS, which is being developed at the University of Naples Federico II. ERMESS is a wind risk assessment tool for insurance applications to industrial facilities, collecting a wide assortment of available wind vulnerability models and fragility functions to facilitate their incorporation into risk calculations based on in-built or user-defined wind hazard data. This software implements an alternative method for building-specific risk assessment based on existing component-level fragility functions and on a number of simplifying assumptions for their interactions. The applicability of this alternative procedure is explored by means of an illustrative proof-of-concept example, which considers four main building components, namely: the roof covering, roof structure, envelope wall and envelope openings. The application shows that, despite the simplifying assumptions, the procedure can yield risk evaluations that are comparable to those obtained via more rigorous building-level simulation-based methods, at least in the considered example. The advantage of this approach is shown to lie in the fact that a database of building component fragility curves can be put to use for the development of new wind vulnerability models to cover building typologies not yet adequately covered by existing works and whose rigorous development is usually beyond the budget of portfolio-related industrial applications.

Keywords: component wind fragility, probabilistic risk assessment, vulnerability model, wind-induced losses

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Authors: Ramim Tanver Rahman, Muhammad Mahbub Sobhan, M. A. Alim

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This study reports on processing of biscuits using skinned, treated and dried cassava flour. Five samples of biscuits S2, S3, S4, S5, and S6 containing 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40% cassava flour with wheat flour and a control sample (S1) containing no cassava flour were processed. The weights of all the biscuit samples were higher than that of control biscuit. The biscuit containing cassava flour was lower width than the control biscuit. The spread ratio of biscuits with 16% cassava flour was higher than other combinations of cassava flour. No remarkable changes in moisture content, peroxide value, fatty acid value, texture, and flavor were observed up to 4 months of storage in ambient conditions (27° to 35°C). A decreasing trend in color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability was observed with the increased incorporation of cassava flour. The sample S1 (no cassava flour) secured the highest overall acceptability and sample S6 (40% cassava flour) obtained the lowest overall acceptability. It is recommended that good quality cassava flour fortified biscuits may be processed in industrial-scale substituting the wheat flour by cassava flour up to 24% levels.

Keywords: cassava flour, wheat flour, shelf life, spread ratio, storage, biscuit

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Authors: Serkan Kocapinar, Gülay Altay

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This study investigates the efficiency of two different industrial intumescent coatings which have different types of certifications, in the fire protection performance in steel beams in the case of ISO 834 fire for 2 hours. A better understanding of industrial intumescent coatings, which assure structural integrity and prevent a collapse of steel structures, is needed to minimize the fire risks in steel structures. A comparison and understanding of different fire protective intumescent coatings, which are Product A and Product B, are used as a thermal barrier between the steel components and the fire. Product A is tested according to EN 13381-8 and BS 476-20,22 and is certificated by ISO Standards. Product B is tested according to EN 13381-8 and ASTM UL-94 and is certificated by the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE). Generally, fire tests to evaluate the fire performance of steel components are done numerically with commercial software instead of experiments due to the high cost of an ISO 834 fire test in a furnace. Hence, there is a gap in the literature about the comparisons of different certificated intumescent coatings for fire protection in the case of ISO 834 fire in a furnace experiment for 2 hours. The experiment was carried out by using two 1-meter UPN 200 steel sections. Each one was coated by different industrial intumescent coatings. A furnace was used by the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) for the experiment. The temperature of the protected steels and the inside of the furnace was measured with the help of 24 thermocouples which were applied before the intumescent coatings during the two hours for the performance of intumescent coatings by getting a temperature-time curve of steel components. FIN EC software was used to determine the critical temperatures of protected steels, and Abaqus was used for thermal analysis to get theoretical results to compare with the experimental results.

Keywords: fire safety, structural steel, ABAQUS, thermal analysis, FIN EC, intumescent coatings

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Authors: Usha Barahmand, Maria Stalias, Abdul Haq, Esther Rotlevi, Ying Xiang

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Misophonia is a condition in which specific repetitive oral, nasal, or other sounds and movements made by humans trigger impulsive aversive reactions of irritation or disgust that instantly become anger. A few measures exist for the assessment of misophonia, but each has some limitations, and evidence for a formal diagnosis is still lacking. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of misophonia for use in the general population. Adopting a purely descriptive approach, this study focused on developing a self-report measure using all triggers and reactions identified in previous studies on misophonia. A measure with two subscales, one assessing the aversive quality of various triggers and the other assessing reactions of individuals, was developed. Data were gathered from a large sample of both men and women ranging in age from 18 to 65 years. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three main triggers: oral/nasal sounds, hand and leg movements, and environmental sounds. Two clusters of reactions also emerged: nonangry attempts to avoid the impact of the aversive stimuli and angry attempts to stop the aversive stimuli. The examination of the psychometric properties of the scale revealed its internal consistency and test-retest reliability to be excellent. The scale was also found to have very good concurrent and convergent validity. Significant annoyance and disgust in response to the triggers were reported by 12% of the sample, although for some specific triggers, rates as high as 31% were also reported. These findings have implications for the delineation of the criteria for identifying misophonia as a clinical condition.

Keywords: adults, factor analysis, misophonia, psychometric properties, scale

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Authors: Nishi Bhuvandas, P. V. Timbadiya, P. L. Patel, P. D. Porey

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Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes. Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty related to anthropogenic emissions. According to the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Technical Paper on Climate Change and water, changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although many previous research carried on effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models (RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands. The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other hydrological variables of interest.

Keywords: climate change, downscaling, GCM, RCM

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Authors: C. E. Ogbanje, S. A. N. D. Chidebelu, N. J. Nweze

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The study evaluated off-farm work and cost efficiency in staple food production among small-scale farmers in North Central Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 360 respondents (participants and non-participants in off-farm work). Primary data obtained were analysed using stochastic cost frontier and test of means’ difference. Capital input was lower for participants (N2,596.58) than non-participants (N11,099.14). Gamma (γ) was statistically significant. Farm size significantly (p<0.01) increased cost outlay for participants and non-participants. Average input prices of enterprises one and two significantly (p<0.01) increased cost. Sex, household size, credit obtained, formal education, farming experience, and farm income significantly (p<0.05) reduced cost inefficiency for non-participants. Average cost efficiency was 11%. Farm capital was wasted. Participants’ substitution of capital for labour did not put them at a disadvantage. Extension agents should encourage farmers to obtain financial relief from off-farm work but not to the extent of endangering farm cost efficiency.

Keywords: cost efficiency, mean difference, North Central Nigeria, off-farm work, participants and non-participants, small-scale farmers

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Authors: Yan Li, Qi-Fan Jia, Jie Zhou

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In today’s China, primary and secondary teachers are living a hard life with high pressure but low payment, which results in a sense of unfair and less satisfaction of life. However, teachers’ life satisfaction is a significant factor of their mental health and plays an important role in the development and progress of the society. This study was aimed to explore the effect of teachers’ perception of social justice on life satisfaction. 450 primary and secondary teachers from China were measured with life satisfaction scales, social justice scales, income satisfaction scale, job satisfaction scale, pressure condition scale, and major life event scale. Results showed their pressure is significantly higher than average, while life satisfaction, job satisfaction, income satisfaction and perceived social justice are lower. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that demographic variables, i.e., gender, age, education level and matric status, and factors related to occupation, i.e., professional title, school type and working hours per day cannot predict teachers’ life satisfaction. Teachers who had worked for 11-20 years had a lower life satisfaction compared to those with 1-5 years working experience. However, social status, monthly household income, income satisfaction, as well as job satisfaction were positively related to life satisfaction, whereas pressure condition was negatively related to it. After controlling for demographic factors and individual attitudes, social justice still had a positive effect on life satisfaction, among which distributive justice played a more important role than procedural justice. The suggestions on teachers’ condition in China and the implications for education reform to improve teachers’ mental health are discussed.

Keywords: life satisfaction, mental health, primary and secondary teachers, social justice

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Authors: Arsany Philip Fawzy

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This study is going to address the hurdles of project management in the joinery field. It is widely divided into two sections; the first one will shed light on how to execute large-scale projects with a specific focus on the middle east region. It will also raise major obstacles that may face the joinery team from the site clearance and the coordination between the joinery team and the construction team. The second section is going to technically analyze the commercial side of the joinery and how to control the main cost of the project to avoid financial problems. It will also suggest empirical solutions to monitor the cost impact (e.g., Variation of contract quantity and claims).

Keywords: clearance, quality, cost, variation, claim

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Authors: Thanasuwit Thabhiranrak

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This research aims to study factors that affected the operations of the cassava industrial enterprises in northeast of Thailand. Hypothesis was tested by regress analysis and also the analysis in order to determine the relationship between variables with Pearson correlation and show a class action in cassava process including the owner of business executives and supervisors. The research samples were 400 people in northeast region of Thailand. The research results revealed that success of entrepreneurs related to transformation leadership and knowledge management in a positive way at statistical significance level of 0.01 and respondents also emphasized on the importance of transformational leadership factors. The individual and the use of intelligence affect the success of entrepreneurs in cassava industry at statistical significance level of 0.05. The qualitative data were also collected by interviewing with operational level staff, supervisors, executives, and enterprise owners in the northeast of Thailand. The result was found that knowledge management was important in their business operations. Personnel in the organizations should learn from working experience, develop their skills, and increase knowledge from education.

Keywords: transformational leadership, knowledge management (KM), cassava, northeast of Thailand, industrial

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Authors: Givi Kupatadze

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Backward economies are facing a challenge of achieving sustainable high economic growth rate. Dominant growth models represent a roadmap in framing economic development strategy. This paper examines a relevance of the dominant growth models for backward economies. Cobb-Douglas production function, the Harrod-Domar model of economic growth, the Solow growth model and general formula of gross domestic product are examined to undertake a comprehensive study of the dominant growth models. Deductive research method allows to uncover major weaknesses of the dominant growth models and to come up with practical implications for economic development strategy. The key finding of the paper shows, contrary to what used to be taught by textbooks of economics, that constant returns to scale property of the dominant growth models are a mere coincidence and its generalization over space and time can be regarded as one of the most unfortunate mistakes in the whole field of political economy. The major suggestion of the paper for backward economies is that understanding and considering taxonomy of economic activities based on increasing and diminishing returns to scale represent a cornerstone of successful economic development strategy.

Keywords: backward economies, constant returns to scale, dominant growth models, taxonomy of economic activities

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Authors: Maha Awad M. Almuttairi

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This research aimed to measure the impact of the use of a mobile learning (iTunes U) app for the development of metacognition skills delivered in the enrichment program offered to gifted students at the secondary level in Jeddah. The author targeted a group of students on an experimental scale to evaluate the achievement. The research sample consisted of a group of 38 gifted female students. The scale of evaluation of the metacognition skills used to measure the performance of students in the enrichment program was as follows: Satisfaction scale for the assessment of the technique used and the final product form after completion of the program. Appropriate statistical treatment used includes Paired Samples T-Test Cronbach’s alpha formula and eta squared formula. It was concluded in the results the difference of α≤ 0.05, which means the performance of students in the skills of metacognition in favor of using iTunes U. In light of the conclusion of the experiment, a number of recommendations and suggestions were present; the most important benefit of mobile learning applications is to provide enrichment programs for gifted students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as conducting further research on mobile learning and gifted student teaching.

Keywords: enrichment program, gifted students, metacognition skills, mobile learning

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Authors: Ismail S. Bostanci, Ebru Akkaya

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Microalgae-derived biodiesel, fertilizer or industrial chemicals' production with wastewater has great potential. Especially water from a municipal wastewater treatment plant is a very important nutrient source for biofuel production. Microalgae biomass production in open ponds system is lower cost culture systems. There are many hurdles for commercial algal biomass production in large scale. One of the important technical bottlenecks for microalgae production in open system is culture contamination. The algae culture contaminants can generally be described as invading organisms which could cause pond crash. These invading organisms can be competitors, parasites, and predators. Contamination is unavoidable in open systems. Potential contaminant organisms are already inoculated if wastewater is utilized for algal biomass cultivation. Especially, it is important to control contaminants to retain in acceptable level in order to reach true potential of algal biofuel production. There are several contamination management methods in algae industry, ranging from mechanical, chemical, biological and growth condition change applications. However, none of them are accepted as a suitable contamination control method. This experiment describes an innovative contamination control method, 'Recirculated Sedimentation Method', to manage contamination to avoid pond cash. The method can be used for the production of algal biofuel, fertilizer etc. and algal wastewater treatment. To evaluate the performance of the method on algal culture, an experiment was conducted for 90 days at a lab-scale raceway (60 L) reactor with the use of non-sterilized and non-filtered wastewater (secondary effluent and centrate of anaerobic digestion). The application of the method provided the following; removing contaminants (predators and diatoms) and other debris from reactor without discharging the culture (with microscopic evidence), increasing raceway tank’s suspended solids holding capacity (770 mg L-1), increasing ammonium removal rate (29.83 mg L-1 d-1), decreasing algal and microbial biofilm formation on inner walls of reactor, washing out generated nitrifier from reactor to prevent ammonium consumption.

Keywords: contamination control, microalgae culture contamination, pond crash, predator control

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Authors: David A. Ullisch, Yantree D. Sankar-Thomas, Stefan Wilke, Thomas Selge, Matthias Pump, Thomas Leibold, Kai Schütte, Gilbert Gorr

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Plants have been considered as a source of natural substances for ages. Secondary metabolites from plants are utilized especially in medical applications but are more and more interesting as cosmetical ingredients and in the field of nutraceuticals. However, supply of compounds from natural harvest can be limited by numerous factors i.e. endangered species, low product content, climate impacts and cost intensive extraction. Especially in the pharmaceutical industry the ability to provide sufficient amounts of product and high quality are additional requirements which in some cases are difficult to fulfill by plant harvest. Whereas in many cases the complexity of secondary metabolites precludes chemical synthesis on a reasonable commercial basis, plant cells contain the biosynthetic pathway – a natural chemical factory – for a given compound. A promising approach for the sustainable production of natural products can be plant cell fermentation (PCF®). A thoroughly accomplished development process comprises the identification of a high producing cell line, optimization of growth and production conditions, the development of a robust and reliable production process and its scale-up. In order to address persistent, long lasting production, development of cryopreservation protocols and generation of working cell banks is another important requirement to be considered. So far the most prominent example using a PCF® process is the production of the anticancer compound paclitaxel. To demonstrate the power of plant suspension cultures here we present three case studies: 1) For more than 17 years Phyton produces paclitaxel at industrial scale i.e. up to 75,000 L in scale. With 60 g/kg dw this fully controlled process which is applied according to GMP results in outstanding high yields. 2) Thapsigargin is another anticancer compound which is currently isolated from seeds of Thapsia garganica. Thapsigargin is a powerful cytotoxin – a SERCA inhibitor – and the precursor for the derivative ADT, the key ingredient of the investigational prodrug Mipsagargin (G-202) which is in several clinical trials. Phyton successfully generated plant cell lines capable to express this compound. Here we present data about the screening for high producing cell lines. 3) The third case study covers ingenol-3-mebutate. This compound is found in the milky sap of the intact plants of the Euphorbiacae family at very low concentrations. Ingenol-3-mebutate is used in Picato® which is approved against actinic keratosis. Generation of cell lines expressing significant amounts of ingenol-3-mebutate is another example underlining the strength of plant cell culture. The authors gratefully acknowledge Inspyr Therapeutics for funding.

Keywords: Ingenol-3-mebutate, plant cell culture, sustainability, thapsigargin

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Authors: Myriam Rudaz, Thomas Ledermann, Frank D. Fincham

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We provide initial findings on the development and validation of the Genuine Happiness Scale (GHS). Based on the Buddhist view of happiness, genuine happiness can be described as an unlimited, everlasting inner joy and peace that gives a person the inner resources to deal with whatever comes his or her way in life. The sample consisted of 678 young adults, with 432 adults participating twice, approximately six weeks apart. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a unidimensional factor structure of the GHS. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that caring for bliss, mindfulness, and compassion predicted genuine happiness longitudinally above and beyond genuine happiness at baseline. We discuss the usefulness of the GHS as an outcome measure for evaluating mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention programs.

Keywords: happiness, bliss, well-being, caring for bliss, mindfulness, compassion

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Authors: David Ruiz, Carlos Nava, Roberto Carbajal

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The psychological profile has become one of the most important sources of information when it comes to individual selection and the hiring process in any organization. Psychological instruments are used to collect data about variables that are considered critically important for performance in work. However, because of conceptual chaos in organizational psychology, most of the information provided by psychological testing is not directly useful for Mexican human resources professionals to take hiring decisions. The aims of this paper are 1) to underline the lack of conceptual precision in theoretical testing foundations in Mexico and 2) presenting a reliability and validity analysis of a frustration tolerance instrument created as an alternative to a heuristically conduct individual assessment in organizations. First, a description of assessment conditions in Mexico is made. Second, an instrument and a theoretical framework is presented as an alternative to the assessment practices in the country. A total of 65 Psychology Iztacala Superior Studies Faculty students were assessed. Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was calculated and an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to prove the scale unidimensionality. Reliability analysis revealed good internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.825). Factor analysis produced 4 factors for the scale. However, factor loadings and explained variation give proof to the scale unidimensionality. It is concluded that the instrument has good psychometric properties that will allow human resources professionals to collect useful data. Different possibilities to conduct psychological assessment are suggested for future development.

Keywords: psychological assessment, frustration tolerance, human resources, organizational psychology

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Authors: Omar Qaftan

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Earthquakes can cause tremendous loss of human life and can result in severe damage to a several of civil engineering structures especially the tall buildings. The response of a multistory structure subjected to earthquake loading is a complex task, and it requires to be studied by physical and numerical modelling. For many circumstances, the scale models on shaking table may be a more economical option than the similar full-scale tests. A shaking table apparatus is a powerful tool that offers a possibility of understanding the actual behaviour of structural systems under earthquake loading. It is required to use a set of scaling relations to predict the behaviour of the full-scale structure. Selecting the scale factors is the most important steps in the simulation of the prototype into the scaled model. In this paper, the principles of scaling modelling procedure are explained in details, and the simulation of scaled multi-storey concrete structure for dynamic studies is investigated. A procedure for a complete dynamic simulation analysis is investigated experimentally and numerically with a scale factor of 1/50. The frequency domain accounting and lateral displacement for both numerical and experimental scaled models are determined. The procedure allows accounting for the actual dynamic behave of actual size porotype structure and scaled model. The procedure is adapted to determine the effects of the tall multi-storey structure on a raft foundation. Four generated accelerograms were used as inputs for the time history motions which are in complying with EC8. The output results of experimental works expressed regarding displacements and accelerations are compared with those obtained from a conventional fixed-base numerical model. Four-time history was applied in both experimental and numerical models, and they concluded that the experimental has an acceptable output accuracy in compare with the numerical model output. Therefore this modelling methodology is valid and qualified for different shaking table experiments tests.

Keywords: structure, raft, soil, interaction

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Authors: Aravind Ravichandran, Marc Ramuz, Sylvain Blayac

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With the rapid development of wearable electronics and sensor networks, batteries cannot meet the sustainable energy requirement due to their limited lifetime, size and degradation. Ambient energies such as wind have been considered as an attractive energy source due to its copious, ubiquity, and feasibility in nature. With miniaturization leading to high-power and robustness, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) have been conceived as a promising technology by harvesting mechanical energy for powering small electronics. TENG integration in large-scale applications is still unexplored considering its attractive properties. In this work, a state of the art design TENG based on wind venturi system is demonstrated for use in any complex environment. When wind introduces into the air gap of the homemade TENG venturi system, a thin flexible polymer repeatedly contacts with and separates from electrodes. This device structure makes the TENG suitable for large scale harvesting without massive volume. Multiple stacking not only amplifies the output power but also enables multi-directional wind utilization. The system converts ambient mechanical energy to electricity with 400V peak voltage by charging of a 1000mF super capacitor super rapidly. Its future implementation in an array of applications aids in environment friendly clean energy production in large scale medium and the proposed design performs with an exhaustive material testing. The relation between the interfacial micro-and nano structures and the electrical performance enhancement is comparatively studied. Nanostructures are more beneficial for the effective contact area, but they are not suitable for the anti-adhesion property due to the smaller restoring force. Considering these issues, the nano-patterning is proposed for further enhancement of the effective contact area. By considering these merits of simple fabrication, outstanding performance, robust characteristic and low-cost technology, we believe that TENG can open up great opportunities not only for powering small electronics, but can contribute to large-scale energy harvesting through engineering design being complementary to solar energy in remote areas.

Keywords: triboelectric nanogenerator, wind energy, vortex design, large scale energy

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Authors: S. Toufigh Bararpour, Davood Karami, Nader Mahinpey

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Dependence of global economics on fossil fuels has led to a large growth in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Among the various GHGs, carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse effect due to its huge emission amount. To mitigate the threatening effect of CO₂, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies have been studied widely in recent years. For the combustion processes, three main CO₂ capture techniques have been proposed such as post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. Post-combustion is the most commonly used CO₂ capture process as it can be readily retrofit into the existing power plants. Multiple advantages have been reported for the post-combustion by solid sorbents such as high CO₂ selectivity, high adsorption capacity, and low required regeneration energy. Chemical adsorption of CO₂ over alkali-metal-based solid sorbents such as K₂CO₃ is a promising method for the selective capture of diluted CO₂ from the huge amount of nitrogen existing in the flue gas. To improve the CO₂ capture performance, K₂CO₃ is supported by a stable and porous material. Al₂O₃ has been employed commonly as the support and enhanced the cyclic CO₂ capture efficiency of K₂CO₃. Different phases of alumina can be obtained by setting the calcination temperature of boehmite at 300, 600 (γ-alumina), 950 (δ-alumina) and 1200 °C (α-alumina). By increasing the calcination temperature, the regeneration capacity of alumina increases, while the surface area reduces. However, sorbents with lower surface areas have lower CO₂ capture capacity as well (except for the sorbents prepared by hydrophilic support materials). To resolve this issue, a highly efficient alumina-aerogel support was synthesized with a BET surface area of over 2000 m²/g and then calcined at a high temperature. The synthesized alumina-aerogel was impregnated on K₂CO₃ based on 50 wt% support/K₂CO₃, which resulted in the preparation of a sorbent with remarkable CO₂ capture performance. The effect of synthesis conditions such as types of alcohols, solvent-to-co-solvent ratios, and aging times was investigated on the performance of the support. The best support was synthesized using methanol as the solvent, after five days of aging time, and at a solvent-to-co-solvent (methanol-to-toluene) ratio (v/v) of 1/5. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effect of operating parameters such as carbonation temperature and H₂O-to-CO₂ flowrate ratio on the CO₂ capture capacity. The maximum CO₂ capture capacity, at the optimum amounts of operating parameters, was 7.2 mmol CO₂ per gram K₂CO₃. Cyclic behavior of the sorbent was examined over 20 carbonation and regenerations cycles. The alumina-aerogel-supported K₂CO₃ showed a great performance compared to unsupported K₂CO₃ and γ-alumina-supported K₂CO₃. Fundamental performance analyses and long-term thermal and chemical stability test will be performed on the sorbent in the future. The applicability of the sorbent for a bench-scale process will be evaluated, and a corresponding process model will be established. The fundamental material knowledge and respective process development will be delivered to industrial partners for the design of a pilot-scale testing unit, thereby facilitating the industrial application of alumina-aerogel.

Keywords: alumina-aerogel, CO₂ capture, K₂CO₃, optimization

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Authors: C. C. Chima, C. J. M. Anumaka

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This study evaluates environmental disclosures on the financial performance of quoted industrial goods manufacturing sectors in Nigeria. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design to establish the relationship that exists between the environmental disclosure index and financial performance indices (return on assets - ROA, return on equity - ROE, and earnings per share - EPS). A purposeful sampling technique was employed to select five (5) industrial goods manufacturing sectors quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Secondary data covering 2011 to 2020 financial years were extracted from annual reports of the study sectors using a content analysis method. The data were analyzed using SPSS, Version 23. Panel Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression method was employed in estimating the unknown parameters in the study’s regression model after conducting diagnostic and preliminary tests to ascertain that the data set are reliable and not misleading. Empirical results show that there is an insignificant negative relationship between the environmental disclosure index (EDI) and the performance indices (ROA, ROE, and EPS) of the industrial goods manufacturing sectors in Nigeria. The study recommends that: only relevant information which increases the performance indices should appear on the disclosure checklist; environmental disclosure practices should be country-specific; and company executives in Nigeria should increase and monitor the level of investment (resources, time, and energy) in order to ensure that environmental disclosure has a significant impact on financial performance.

Keywords: earnings per share, environmental disclosures, return on assets, return on equity

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Authors: Ashkan Nazari, Saied Taheri

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Knowledge of tire-pavement interaction plays a crucial role in designing safer and more reliable tires. Characterizing the tire-pavement frictional interaction leads to a better understanding of vehicle performance in braking and acceleration. In this work, we devise a multi-scale simulation approach to incorporate the effect of pavement surface asperities in different length-scales. We construct two- and three-dimensional Finite Element (FE) models to simulate the interaction between a rubber block and a rough pavement surface with asperities in different scales. To achieve this, the road profile is scanned via a laser profilometer and the obtained asperities are implemented in an FE software (ABAQUS) in micro and macro length-scales. The hysteresis friction, which is due to the dissipative nature of rubber, is the main component of the friction force and therefore is the subject of study in this work. Using different scales not only will assist in characterizing the pavement asperities with sufficient details but also, it is highly effective in preventing extreme local deformations and stress gradients which results in divergence in FE simulations. The simulation results will be validated with experimental results as well as the results reported in the literature.

Keywords: friction, finite element, multi-scale modeling, rubber

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Authors: Rong Liu, Kuiying Chen, Ju Chen, Jingrong Zhao, Ming Liang

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This article presents modeling studies of NiAl alloy under solid-particle erosion and liquid-drop erosion. In the solid particle erosion simulation, attention is paid to the oxide scale thickness variation on the alloy in high-temperature erosion environments. The erosion damage is assumed to be deformation wear and cutting wear mechanisms, incorporating the influence of the oxide scale on the eroded surface; thus the instantaneous oxide thickness is the result of synergetic effect of erosion and oxidation. For liquid-drop erosion, special interest is in investigating the effects of drop velocity and drop size on the damage of the target surface. The models of impact stress wave, mean depth of penetration, and maximum depth of erosion rate (Max DER) are employed to develop various maps for NiAl alloy, including target thickness vs. drop size (diameter), rate of mean depth of penetration (MDRP) vs. drop impact velocity, and damage threshold velocity (DTV) vs. drop size.

Keywords: liquid-drop erosion, NiAl alloy, oxide scale thickness, solid-particle erosion

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Authors: Wen-Bao Qiao, Jean-Charles Créput

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To accelerate the solution for large scale traveling salesman problems (TSP), a parallel 2-opt local search algorithm with simple implementation based on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is presented and tested in this paper. The parallel scheme is based on technique of data decomposition by dynamically assigning multiple K processors on the integral tour to treat K edges’ 2-opt local optimization simultaneously on independent sub-tours, where K can be user-defined or have a function relationship with input size N. We implement this algorithm with doubly linked list on GPU. The implementation only requires O(N) memory. We compare this parallel 2-opt local optimization against sequential exhaustive 2-opt search along integral tour on TSP instances from TSPLIB with more than 10000 cities.

Keywords: parallel 2-opt, double links, large scale TSP, GPU

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Authors: Moyosola Jude Akomolafe

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Career commitment among employees is crucial to the success of any organization. However, career commitment has been reported to be very low among teachers in the public secondary schools in Nigeria. This study, therefore, examined the contributions of emotional intelligence and general self-efficacy to career commitment of among secondary school teachers in Nigeria. Descriptive research design of correlational type was adopted for the study. It made use of stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting two hundred and fifty (250) secondary schools teachers for the study. Three standardized instruments namely: The Big Five Inventory (BFI), Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and Career Commitment Scale (CCS) were adopted for the study. Three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analyzed through Multiple Regression Analysis to investigate the predicting capacity of emotional intelligence and general self-efficacy on career commitment of secondary school teachers. The results showed that the variables when taken as a whole significantly predicted career commitment among secondary school teachers. The relative contribution of each variable revealed that emotional intelligence and general self-efficacy significantly predicted career commitment among secondary school teachers in Nigeria. The researcher recommended that secondary school teachers should be exposed to emotional intelligence and self-efficacy training to enhance their career commitment.

Keywords: career commitment, emotional intelligence, general self-efficacy, secondary school teachers

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Authors: Bahare Askarian, Suchithra Rajendran

Abstract:

Maintaining the freshness and quality of perishable goods during distribution is a critical challenge for logistics companies. This study presents a comprehensive framework aimed at optimizing the distribution of perishable goods through a mathematical model of the Transportation Inventory Location Routing Problem (TILRP). The model incorporates the impact of product age on customer demand, addressing the complexities associated with inventory management and routing. To tackle this problem, we develop both simple and hybrid metaheuristic algorithms designed for small- and medium-scale scenarios. The hybrid algorithm combines Biogeographical Based Optimization (BBO) algorithms with local search techniques to enhance performance in small- and medium-scale scenarios, extending our approach to larger-scale challenges. Through extensive numerical simulations and sensitivity analyses across various scenarios, the performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated, assessing their effectiveness in achieving optimal solutions. The results demonstrate that our algorithms significantly enhance distribution efficiency, offering valuable insights for logistics companies striving to improve their perishable goods supply chains.

Keywords: perishable goods, meta-heuristic algorithm, vehicle problem, inventory models

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Authors: Jaeseung Lee, Muhammad Faizan Chinannai, Mohamed Hassan Gundu, Hyunchul Ju

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In this paper, we numerically investigated the effect of metal foams on a real scale 242.57cm2 (19.1 cm × 12.7 cm) polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEFCs) using a three-dimensional two-phase PEFC model to substantiate design approach for PEFCs using metal foam as the flow distributor. The simulations were conducted under the practical low humidity hydrogen, and air gases conditions in order to observe the detailed operation result in the PEFCs using the serpentine flow channel in the anode and metal foam design in the cathode. The three-dimensional contours of flow distribution in the channel, current density distribution in the membrane and hydrogen and oxygen concentration distribution are provided. The simulation results revealed that the use of highly porous and permeable metal foam can be beneficial to achieve a more uniform current density distribution and better hydration in the membrane under low inlet humidity conditions. This study offers basic directions to design channel for optimal water management of PEFCs.

Keywords: polymer electrolyte fuel cells, metal foam, real-scale, numerical model

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Ehsan Khorshidian, Afshin Farahbakhsh, Sina Aghili

Abstract:

Enzymes are promising biocatalysts for many organic reactions. They have excellent features like high activity, specificity and selectivity, and can catalyze under mild and environment friendly conditions. Epoxy-activated supports are almost-ideal ones to perform very easy immobilization of proteins and enzymes at both laboratory and industrial scale. The activated epoxy supports (chitosan/alginate, Eupergit C) may be very suitable to achieve the multipoint covalent attachment of proteins and enzymes, therefore, to stabilize their three-dimensional structure. The enzyme is firstly covalently immobilized under conditions pH 7.0 and 10.0. The remaining groups of the support are blocked to stop additional interaction between the enzyme and support by mercaptoethanol or Triton X-100. The results show support allowed obtaining biocatalysts with high immobilized protein amount and hydrolytic activity. The immobilization of lipases on epoxy support may be considered as attractive tool for obtaining highly active biocatalysts to be used in both aqueous and anhydrous aqueous media.

Keywords: immobilization of enzymes, epoxy supports, enzyme multipoint covalent attachment, microbial lipases

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: R. Berrached, H. Ait Mahamed, A. Iddou

Abstract:

Water pollution is nowadays a serious problem, due to the increasing scarcity of water and thus to the impact induced by such pollution on the human health. Various techniques are made use of to deal with water pollution. Among the most used ones, some can be enumerated: the bacterian bed, the activated mud, the Lagunage as biological processes and coagulation-floculation as a physic-chemical process. These processes are very expensive and an treatment efficiency which decreases along with the increase of the initial pollutants’ concentration. This is the reason why research has been reoriented towards the use of a process by adsorption as an alternative solution instead of the other traditional processes. In our study, we have tempted to exploit the characteristics of two metallic hydroxides Al and Fe to purify contaminated water by two industrial dyes SBL blue and SRL-150 orange. Results have shown the efficiency of the two materials on the blue SBL dye.

Keywords: metallic hydroxydes, industrial dyes, purificatıon,

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Authors: Hazaila Binti Hassan, Abu Yazid Bin Abu Bakar, Salleh Amat

Abstract:

This study is to get the validity and reliability of the questionnaire for behaviour change on low-performing officers. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the behaviour of low performing officers. There are 75 items in this questionnaire which involves 5 subscales, which are the 5 dimensions intended to be studied: 1st emotional stability, 2nd psycho-spiritual enhancement, 3rd social skills development, 4th cognitive and rationality improvement and 5th behavioural alignment and adjustment. There are 2 processes in this research whereby to check the validity and reliability. Both use quantitative methods. Validity content testing has been conducted to validate the behavioural change questionnaire of the low performing officers. For the face validity, 4 people are involved, two are psychologists who carried out the program and the other two are officers of the same rank, i.e. supporting officers. They are involved in correction of sentences, languages, and grammar as well as the sentence structures so that it tallies with the purpose of studies. The questionnaire underwent content validity by the experts. Five experts are appointed to attend this session, 3 are directly involved in the construction of this questionnaire and 2 others are experts from the university with a background in questionnaire development. The result shows that the content validity obtained a high coefficient of 0.745 with a minimum and maximum value of more than 0.60 which satisfies the characteristic of Content Value Ratio. The Cronbach’s alpha result is 0.867. The highest scores are the behavioural alignment and adjustment sub-scale recorded the highest value, followed by social skills development sub-scale, cognitive and rational improvements sub-scale, psycho-spiritual enhancement sub-scale, and lastly emotional stability. Therefore, both of validity and reliability result were accepted that this questionnaire is valid and reliable can be used in the study of behaviour changes of low performing officers in the civil service.

Keywords: content validity, reliability, five dimension, low-performing officers, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 283