Search results for: distribution network reconfiguration
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9419

Search results for: distribution network reconfiguration

1679 Functionalized Nano porous Ceramic Membranes for Electrodialysis Treatment of Harsh Wastewater

Authors: Emily Rabe, Stephanie Candelaria, Rachel Malone, Olivia Lenz, Greg Newbloom

Abstract:

Electrodialysis (ED) is a well-developed technology for ion removal in a variety of applications. However, many industries generate harsh wastewater streams that are incompatible with traditional ion exchange membranes. Membrion® has developed novel ceramic-based ion exchange membranes (IEMs) offering several advantages over traditional polymer membranes: high performance in low pH, chemical resistance to oxidizers, and a rigid structure that minimizes swelling. These membranes are synthesized with our patented silane-based sol-gel techniques. The pore size, shape, and network structure are engineered through a molecular self-assembly process where thermodynamic driving forces are used to direct where and how pores form. Either cationic or anionic groups can be added within the membrane nanopore structure to create cation- and anion-exchange membranes. The ceramic IEMs are produced on a roll-to-roll manufacturing line with low-temperature processing. Membrane performance testing is conducted using in-house permselectivity, area-specific resistance, and ED stack testing setups. Ceramic-based IEMs show comparable performance to traditional IEMs and offer some unique advantages. Long exposure to highly acidic solutions has a negligible impact on ED performance. Additionally, we have observed stable performance in the presence of strong oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide. This stability is expected, as the ceramic backbone of these materials is already in a fully oxidized state. This data suggests ceramic membranes, made using sol-gel chemistry, could be an ideal solution for acidic and/or oxidizing wastewater streams from processes such as semiconductor manufacturing and mining.

Keywords: ion exchange, membrane, silane chemistry, nanostructure, wastewater

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1678 Applying Semi-Automatic Digital Aerial Survey Technology and Canopy Characters Classification for Surface Vegetation Interpretation of Archaeological Sites

Authors: Yung-Chung Chuang

Abstract:

The cultural layers of archaeological sites are mainly affected by surface land use, land cover, and root system of surface vegetation. For this reason, continuous monitoring of land use and land cover change is important for archaeological sites protection and management. However, in actual operation, on-site investigation and orthogonal photograph interpretation require a lot of time and manpower. For this reason, it is necessary to perform a good alternative for surface vegetation survey in an automated or semi-automated manner. In this study, we applied semi-automatic digital aerial survey technology and canopy characters classification with very high-resolution aerial photographs for surface vegetation interpretation of archaeological sites. The main idea is based on different landscape or forest type can easily be distinguished with canopy characters (e.g., specific texture distribution, shadow effects and gap characters) extracted by semi-automatic image classification. A novel methodology to classify the shape of canopy characters using landscape indices and multivariate statistics was also proposed. Non-hierarchical cluster analysis was used to assess the optimal number of canopy character clusters and canonical discriminant analysis was used to generate the discriminant functions for canopy character classification (seven categories). Therefore, people could easily predict the forest type and vegetation land cover by corresponding to the specific canopy character category. The results showed that the semi-automatic classification could effectively extract the canopy characters of forest and vegetation land cover. As for forest type and vegetation type prediction, the average prediction accuracy reached 80.3%~91.7% with different sizes of test frame. It represented this technology is useful for archaeological site survey, and can improve the classification efficiency and data update rate.

Keywords: digital aerial survey, canopy characters classification, archaeological sites, multivariate statistics

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1677 BiFormerDTA: Structural Embedding of Protein in Drug Target Affinity Prediction Using BiFormer

Authors: Leila Baghaarabani, Parvin Razzaghi, Mennatolla Magdy Mostafa, Ahmad Albaqsami, Al Warith Al Rushaidi, Masoud Al Rawahi

Abstract:

Predicting the interaction between drugs and their molecular targets is pivotal for advancing drug development processes. Due to the time and cost limitations, computational approaches have emerged as an effective approach to drug-target interaction (DTI) prediction. Most of the introduced computational based approaches utilize the drug molecule and protein sequence as input. This study does not only utilize these inputs, it also introduces a protein representation developed using a masked protein language model. In this representation, for every individual amino acid residue within the protein sequence, there exists a corresponding probability distribution that indicates the likelihood of each amino acid being present at that particular position. Then, the similarity between each pair of amino-acids is computed to create similarity matrix. To encode the knowledge of the similarity matrix, Bi-Level Routing Attention (BiFormer) is utilized, which combines aspects of transformer-based models with protein sequence analysis and represents a significant advancement in the field of drug-protein interaction prediction. BiFormer has the ability to pinpoint the most effective regions of the protein sequence that are responsible for facilitating interactions between the protein and drugs, thereby enhancing the understanding of these critical interactions. Thus, it appears promising in its ability to capture the local structural relationship of the proteins by enhancing the understanding of how it contributes to drug protein interactions, thereby facilitating more accurate predictions. To evaluate the proposed method, it was tested on two widely recognized datasets: Davis and KIBA. A comprehensive series of experiments was conducted to illustrate its effectiveness in comparison to cuttingedge techniques.

Keywords: BiFormer, transformer, protein language processing, self-attention mechanism, binding affinity, drug target interaction, similarity matrix, protein masked representation, protein language model

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1676 Detect Critical Thinking Skill in Written Text Analysis. The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Text Analysis vs Chat/Gpt

Authors: Lucilla Crosta, Anthony Edwards

Abstract:

Companies and the market place nowadays struggle to find employees with adequate skills in relation to anticipated growth of their businesses. At least half of workers will need to undertake some form of up-skilling process in the next five years in order to remain aligned with the requests of the market . In order to meet these challenges, there is a clear need to explore the potential uses of AI (artificial Intelligence) based tools in assessing transversal skills (critical thinking, communication and soft skills of different types in general) of workers and adult students while empowering them to develop those same skills in a reliable trustworthy way. Companies seek workers with key transversal skills that can make a difference between workers now and in the future. However, critical thinking seems to be the one of the most imprtant skill, bringing unexplored ideas and company growth in business contexts. What employers have been reporting since years now, is that this skill is lacking in the majority of workers and adult students, and this is particularly visible trough their writing. This paper investigates how critical thinking and communication skills are currently developed in Higher Education environments through use of AI tools at postgraduate levels. It analyses the use of a branch of AI namely Machine Learning and Big Data and of Neural Network Analysis. It also examines the potential effect the acquisition of these skills through AI tools and what kind of effects this has on employability This paper will draw information from researchers and studies both at national (Italy & UK) and international level in Higher Education. The issues associated with the development and use of one specific AI tool Edulai, will be examined in details. Finally comparisons will be also made between these tools and the more recent phenomenon of Chat GPT and forthcomings and drawbacks will be analysed.

Keywords: critical thinking, artificial intelligence, higher education, soft skills, chat GPT

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1675 Pollution Associated with Combustion in Stove to Firewood (Eucalyptus) and Pellet (Radiate Pine): Effect of UVA Irradiation

Authors: Y. Vásquez, F. Reyes, P. Oyola, M. Rubio, J. Muñoz, E. Lissi

Abstract:

In several cities in Chile, there is significant urban pollution, particularly in Santiago and in cities in the south where biomass is used as fuel in heating and cooking in a large proportion of homes. This has generated interest in knowing what factors can be modulated to control the level of pollution. In this project was conditioned and set up a photochemical chamber (14m3) equipped with gas monitors e.g. CO, NOX, O3, others and PM monitors e.g. dustrack, DMPS, Harvard impactors, etc. This volume could be exposed to UVA lamps, producing a spectrum similar to that generated by the sun. In this chamber, PM and gas emissions associated with biomass burning were studied in the presence and absence of radiation. From the comparative analysis of wood stove (eucalyptus globulus) and pellet (radiata pine), it can be concluded that, in the first approximation, 9-nitroanthracene, 4-nitropyrene, levoglucosan, water soluble potassium and CO present characteristics of the tracers. However, some of them show properties that interfere with this possibility. For example, levoglucosan is decomposed by radiation. The 9-nitroanthracene, 4-nitropyrene are emitted and formed under radiation. The 9-nitroanthracene has a vapor pressure that involves a partition involving the gas phase and particulate matter. From this analysis, it can be concluded that K+ is compound that meets the properties known to be tracer. The PM2.5 emission measured in the automatic pellet stove that was used in this thesis project was two orders of magnitude smaller than that registered by the manual wood stove. This has led to encouraging the use of pellet stoves in indoor heating, particularly in south-central Chile. However, it should be considered, while the use of pellet is not without problems, due to pellet stove generate high concentrations of Nitro-HAP's (secondary organic contaminants). In particular, 4-nitropyrene, compound of high toxicity, also primary and secondary particulate matter, associated with pellet burning produce a decrease in the size distribution of the PM, which leads to a depth penetration of the particles and their toxic components in the respiratory system.

Keywords: biomass burning, photochemical chamber, particulate matter, tracers

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1674 Application of a Confirmatory Composite Model for Assessing the Extent of Agricultural Digitalization: A Case of Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) Farmers in South Africa

Authors: Mazwane S., Makhura M. N., Ginege A.

Abstract:

Digitalization in South Africa has received considerable attention from policymakers. The support for the development of the digital economy by the South African government has been demonstrated through the enactment of various national policies and strategies. This study sought to develop an index for agricultural digitalization by applying composite confirmatory analysis (CCA). Another aim was to determine the factors that affect the development of digitalization in PLAS farms. Data on the indicators of the three dimensions of digitalization were collected from 300 Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) farms in South Africa using semi-structured questionnaires. Confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) was employed to reduce the items into three digitalization dimensions and ultimately to a digitalization index. Standardized digitalization index scores were extracted and fitted to a linear regression model to determine the factors affecting digitalization development. The results revealed that the model shows practical validity and can be used to measure digitalization development as measures of fit (geodesic distance, standardized root mean square residual, and squared Euclidean distance) were all below their respective 95%quantiles of bootstrap discrepancies (HI95 values). Therefore, digitalization is an emergent variable that can be measured using CCA. The average level of digitalization in PLAS farms was 0.2 and varied significantly across provinces. The factors that significantly influence digitalization development in PLAS land reform farms were age, gender, farm type, network type, and cellular data type. This should enable researchers and policymakers to understand the level of digitalization and patterns of development, as well as correctly attribute digitalization development to the contributing factors.

Keywords: agriculture, digitalization, confirmatory composite model, land reform, proactive land acquisition strategy, South Africa

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1673 An Evolutionary Perspective on the Role of Extrinsic Noise in Filtering Transcript Variability in Small RNA Regulation in Bacteria

Authors: Rinat Arbel-Goren, Joel Stavans

Abstract:

Cell-to-cell variations in transcript or protein abundance, called noise, may give rise to phenotypic variability between isogenic cells, enhancing the probability of survival under stress conditions. These variations may be introduced by post-transcriptional regulatory processes such as non-coding, small RNAs stoichiometric degradation of target transcripts in bacteria. We study the iron homeostasis network in Escherichia coli, in which the RyhB small RNA regulates the expression of various targets as a model system. Using fluorescence reporter genes to detect protein levels and single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization to monitor transcripts levels in individual cells, allows us to compare noise at both transcript and protein levels. The experimental results and computer simulations show that extrinsic noise buffers through a feed-forward loop configuration the increase in variability introduced at the transcript level by iron deprivation, illuminating the important role that extrinsic noise plays during stress. Surprisingly, extrinsic noise also decouples of fluctuations of two different targets, in spite of RyhB being a common upstream factor degrading both. Thus, phenotypic variability increases under stress conditions by the decoupling of target fluctuations in the same cell rather than by increasing the noise of each. We also present preliminary results on the adaptation of cells to prolonged iron deprivation in order to shed light on the evolutionary role of post-transcriptional downregulation by small RNAs.

Keywords: cell-to-cell variability, Escherichia coli, noise, single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH), transcript

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1672 Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation: Need to Designate a Navigable Spatial Identity for Slums Dwellers in India to Maximize Accessibility and Policy Impact

Authors: Resham Badri

Abstract:

Cities today are unable to justify equitable distribution of theirsocio- economic and infrastructural benefits to the marginalized urban poor, and the emergence of a pressing pandemic like COVID-19 has amplified its impact. Lack of identity, vulnerability, and inaccessibility contribute to exclusion. Owing to systemic gaps in institutional processes, urban development policiesfail to represent and cater to the urban poor. This paper aims to be a roadmap for the Indian Government to understand the significance of the designation of a navigable spatial identity to slum dwellers in the form of a digital address, which can form the fundamental basis of identification to enable accessibility to not only basic servicesbut also other utilities. Capitalizing on such a granular and technology backed approach shall allow to target and reach out to the urban poor strategically andaid effective urban governance. This paper adopts a three-pronged approach;(i) Policy analysis- understanding gaps in existing urban policies of India, such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Adhaar Card policy, (ii) Program Evaluation- analyzing a case study, where slum dwellers in Kolhapur city in India have been provided with navigable addresses using Google Plus Codes and have gained access to basic services, vaccinations, and other emergency deliveries in COVID-19 times, (iii) Policy recommendation. This designation of a navigable spatial identity has tremendous potential to form the foundation on which policies can further base their data collection and service delivery processes to not only provide basic services but also other infrastructural and social welfare initiatives. Hence, a massive window of opportunity lies in addressing the unaddressed to elevate their living standards and respond to their basic needs.

Keywords: policy analysis, urban poor, navigable spatial identity, accessibility

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1671 Adapting Tools for Text Monitoring and for Scenario Analysis Related to the Field of Social Disasters

Authors: Svetlana Cojocaru, Mircea Petic, Inga Titchiev

Abstract:

Humanity faces more and more often with different social disasters, which in turn can generate new accidents and catastrophes. To mitigate their consequences, it is important to obtain early possible signals about the events which are or can occur and to prepare the corresponding scenarios that could be applied. Our research is focused on solving two problems in this domain: identifying signals related that an accident occurred or may occur and mitigation of some consequences of disasters. To solve the first problem, methods of selecting and processing texts from global network Internet are developed. Information in Romanian is of special interest for us. In order to obtain the mentioned tools, we should follow several steps, divided into preparatory stage and processing stage. Throughout the first stage, we manually collected over 724 news articles and classified them into 10 categories of social disasters. It constitutes more than 150 thousand words. Using this information, a controlled vocabulary of more than 300 keywords was elaborated, that will help in the process of classification and identification of the texts related to the field of social disasters. To solve the second problem, the formalism of Petri net has been used. We deal with the problem of inhabitants’ evacuation in useful time. The analysis methods such as reachability or coverability tree and invariants technique to determine dynamic properties of the modeled systems will be used. To perform a case study of properties of extended evacuation system by adding time, the analysis modules of PIPE such as Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN) Analysis, Simulation, State Space Analysis, and Invariant Analysis have been used. These modules helped us to obtain the average number of persons situated in the rooms and the other quantitative properties and characteristics related to its dynamics.

Keywords: lexicon of disasters, modelling, Petri nets, text annotation, social disasters

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1670 Gene Expression Analysis for Corals / Zooxanthellae under High Seawater Temperature Stress

Authors: Haruka Ito, Toru Maruyama, Michihiro Ito, Chuya Shinzato, Hiroyuki Fujimura, Yoshikatsu Nakano, Shoichiro Suda, Sachiyo Aburatani, Haruko Takeyama

Abstract:

Clarifying symbiotic relationships is one of the most important theme for understanding the marine eco-system. Coral reef has been regarded as an important environmental resource. Coral holobiont composed by coral, symbiotic microalgae zooxanthellae, and bacteria have complexed relationship. Zooxanthellae mainly supply organic matter to the host corals through their photosynthetic activity. The symbiotic relationship is indispensable for corals but may easily collapses due to the rise of seawater temperature. However, the molecular mechanism how seawater temperature influences their relationships still remain unclear. In this study, the transcriptomic analysis has applied to elucidate the coral-zooxanthellae relationships under high seawater temperature stress. To observe reactions of corals and zooxanthellae against the rise of seawater temperature, meta-gene expression in coral have been analyzed. The branches from six different colonies of a stony coral, Acropora tenuis, were sampled at nine times by 2016 at two locations, Ishikawabaru and South of Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan. The mRNAs extracted from the branches including zooxanthellae were sequenced by illumina HiSeq. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) based on hyper geometric distribution was performed. The seawater temperature at 2016 summer was unusually high, which was caused by El Niño event, and the number of zooxanthellae in coral was decreased in August. GSEA derived the several specific genes expressed in A. tenuis under heat stress conditions. The upregulated genes under heat stress highly related with infection immunity. The downregulated genes significantly contained cell cycle related genes. Thu, it is considered that heat stress cause disorder in cell metabolism of A. tenuis, resulting in serious influence to coral holobiont.

Keywords: coral, symbiosis, thermal stress response, transcriptome analysis

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1669 Gnss Aided Photogrammetry for Digital Mapping

Authors: Muhammad Usman Akram

Abstract:

This research work based on GNSS-Aided Photogrammetry for Digital Mapping. It focuses on topographic survey of an area or site which is to be used in future Planning & development (P&D) or can be used for further, examination, exploration, research and inspection. Survey and Mapping in hard-to-access and hazardous areas are very difficult by using traditional techniques and methodologies; as well it is time consuming, labor intensive and has less precision with limited data. In comparison with the advance techniques it is saving with less manpower and provides more precise output with a wide variety of multiple data sets. In this experimentation, Aerial Photogrammetry technique is used where an UAV flies over an area and captures geocoded images and makes a Three-Dimensional Model (3-D Model), UAV operates on a user specified path or area with various parameters; Flight altitude, Ground sampling distance (GSD), Image overlapping, Camera angle etc. For ground controlling, a network of points on the ground would be observed as a Ground Control point (GCP) using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) in PPK or RTK mode. Furthermore, that raw data collected by UAV and DGPS will be processed in various Digital image processing programs and Computer Aided Design software. From which as an output we obtain Points Dense Cloud, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Ortho-photo. The imagery is converted into geospatial data by digitizing over Ortho-photo, DEM is further converted into Digital Terrain Model (DTM) for contour generation or digital surface. As a result, we get Digital Map of area to be surveyed. In conclusion, we compared processed data with exact measurements taken on site. The error will be accepted if the amount of error is not breached from survey accuracy limits set by concerned institutions.

Keywords: photogrammetry, post processing kinematics, real time kinematics, manual data inquiry

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1668 Investigation of Different Machine Learning Algorithms in Large-Scale Land Cover Mapping within the Google Earth Engine

Authors: Amin Naboureh, Ainong Li, Jinhu Bian, Guangbin Lei, Hamid Ebrahimy

Abstract:

Large-scale land cover mapping has become a new challenge in land change and remote sensing field because of involving a big volume of data. Moreover, selecting the right classification method, especially when there are different types of landscapes in the study area is quite difficult. This paper is an attempt to compare the performance of different machine learning (ML) algorithms for generating a land cover map of the China-Central Asia–West Asia Corridor that is considered as one of the main parts of the Belt and Road Initiative project (BRI). The cloud-based Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was used for generating a land cover map for the study area from Landsat-8 images (2017) by applying three frequently used ML algorithms including random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and artificial neural network (ANN). The selected ML algorithms (RF, SVM, and ANN) were trained and tested using reference data obtained from MODIS yearly land cover product and very high-resolution satellite images. The finding of the study illustrated that among three frequently used ML algorithms, RF with 91% overall accuracy had the best result in producing a land cover map for the China-Central Asia–West Asia Corridor whereas ANN showed the worst result with 85% overall accuracy. The great performance of the GEE in applying different ML algorithms and handling huge volume of remotely sensed data in the present study showed that it could also help the researchers to generate reliable long-term land cover change maps. The finding of this research has great importance for decision-makers and BRI’s authorities in strategic land use planning.

Keywords: land cover, google earth engine, machine learning, remote sensing

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1667 Impact of Charging PHEV at Different Penetration Levels on Power System Network

Authors: M. R. Ahmad, I. Musirin, M. M. Othman, N. A. Rahmat

Abstract:

Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (PHEV) has gained immense popularity in recent years. PHEV offers numerous advantages compared to the conventional internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. Millions of PHEVs are estimated to be on the road in the USA by 2020. Uncoordinated PHEV charging is believed to cause severe impacts to the power grid; i.e. feeders, lines and transformers overload and voltage drop. Nevertheless, improper PHEV data model used in such studies may cause the findings of their works is in appropriated. Although smart charging is more attractive to researchers in recent years, its implementation is not yet attainable on the street due to its requirement for physical infrastructure readiness and technology advancement. As the first step, it is finest to study the impact of charging PHEV based on real vehicle travel data from National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and at present charging rate. Due to the lack of charging station on the street at the moment, charging PHEV at home is the best option and has been considered in this work. This paper proposed a technique that comprehensively presents the impact of charging PHEV on power system networks considering huge numbers of PHEV samples with its traveling data pattern. Vehicles Charging Load Profile (VCLP) is developed and implemented in IEEE 30-bus test system that represents a portion of American Electric Power System (Midwestern US). Normalization technique is used to correspond to real time loads at all buses. Results from the study indicated that charging PHEV using opportunity charging will have significant impacts on power system networks, especially whereas bigger battery capacity (kWh) is used as well as for higher penetration level.

Keywords: plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, transportation electrification, impact of charging PHEV, electricity demand profile, load profile

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1666 Drought Resilient Water Supply for Livelihood: Establishment of Groundwater Treatment Plant at Construction Sites in Taichung City

Authors: Shang-Hsin Ou, Yang-Chun Lin, Ke-Hao Cheng

Abstract:

The year 2021 marked a historic drought in Taiwan, posing unprecedented challenges due to record-low rainfall and inadequate reservoir storage. The central region experienced water scarcity, leading to the implementation of "Groundwater Utilization at Construction Sites" for drought-resilient livelihood water supply. This study focuses on the establishment process of temporary groundwater treatment plants at construction sites in Taichung City, serving as a reference for future emergency response and the utilization of construction site groundwater. To identify suitable sites for groundwater reuse projects, site selection operations were carried out based on relevant water quality regulations and assessment principles. Subsequently, the planning and design of temporary water treatment plants were conducted, considering the water quality, quantity, and on-site conditions of groundwater wells associated with construction projects. The study consolidates the major water treatment facilities at each site and addresses encountered challenges during the establishment process. Practical insights gained from operating temporary groundwater treatment plants are presented, including improvements related to stable water quality, water quantity, equipment operation, and hydraulic control. In light of possible future droughts, this study provides an outlook and recommendations to expedite and improve the setup of groundwater treatment plants at construction sites. This includes considering on-site water abstraction, treatment, and distribution conditions. The study's results aim to offer practical guidelines for effectively establishing and managing such treatment plants, while offering experiences and recommendations for other regions facing similar emergencies, water shortages, and drought situations. These endeavors contribute to ensuring sustainable water supply for drought-resilient livelihoods and maintaining societal stability.

Keywords: drought resilience, groundwater treatment, construction site, water supply

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1665 Toxic Masculinity as Dictatorship: Gender and Power Struggles in Tomás Eloy Martínez´s Novels

Authors: Mariya Dzhyoyeva

Abstract:

In the present paper, I examine manifestations of toxic masculinity in the novels by Tomás Eloy Martínez, a post-Boom author, journalist, literary critic, and one of the representatives of the Argentine writing diaspora. I focus on the analysis of Martínez´s characters that display hypermasculine traits to define the relationship between toxic masculinity and power, including the power of authorship and violence as they are represented in his novels. The analysis reveals a complex network in which gender, power, and violence are intertwined and influence and modify each other. As the author exposes toxic masculine behaviors that generate violence, he looks to undermine them. Departing from M. Kimmel´s idea of masculinity as homophobia, I examine how Martínez “outs” his characters by incorporating into the narrative some secret, privileged sources that provide alternative accounts of their otherwise hypermasculine lives. These background stories expose their “weaknesses,” both physical and mental, and thereby feminize them in their own eyes. In a similar way, the toxic masculinity of the fictional male author that wields his power by abusing the written word as he abuses the female character in the story is exposed as a complex of insecurities accumulated by the character due to his childhood trauma. The artistic technique that Martínez uses to condemn the authoritarian male behavior is accessing his subjectivity and subverting it through a multiplicity of identities. Martínez takes over the character’s “I” and turns it into a host of pronouns with a constantly shifting point of reference that distorts not only the notions of gender but also the very notion of identity. In doing so, he takes the character´s affirmation of masculinity to the limit where the very idea of it becomes unsustainable. Viewed in the context of Martínez´s own exilic story, the condemnation of toxic masculine power turns into the condemnation of dictatorship and authoritarianism.

Keywords: gender, masculinity., toxic masculinity, authoritarian, Argentine literature, Martínez

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1664 Efficient Compact Micro Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma Reactor for Ozone Generation for Industrial Application in Liquid and Gas Phase Systems

Authors: D. Kuvshinov, A. Siswanto, J. Lozano-Parada, W. Zimmerman

Abstract:

Ozone is well known as a powerful fast reaction rate oxidant. The ozone based processes produce no by-product left as a non-reacted ozone returns back to the original oxygen molecule. Therefore an application of ozone is widely accepted as one of the main directions for a sustainable and clean technologies development. There are number of technologies require ozone to be delivered to specific points of a production network or reactors construction. Due to space constrains, high reactivity and short life time of ozone the use of ozone generators even of a bench top scale is practically limited. This requires development of mini/micro scale ozone generator which can be directly incorporated into production units. Our report presents a feasibility study of a new micro scale rector for ozone generation (MROG). Data on MROG calibration and indigo decomposition at different operation conditions are presented. At selected operation conditions with residence time of 0.25 s the process of ozone generation is not limited by reaction rate and the amount of ozone produced is a function of power applied. It was shown that the MROG is capable to produce ozone at voltage level starting from 3.5kV with ozone concentration of 5.28E-6 (mol/L) at 5kV. This is in line with data presented on numerical investigation for a MROG. It was shown that in compare to a conventional ozone generator, MROG has lower power consumption at low voltages and atmospheric pressure. The MROG construction makes it applicable for emerged and dry systems. With a robust compact design MROG can be used as incorporated unit for production lines of high complexity.

Keywords: dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), micro reactor, ozone, plasma

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1663 Improvement of Plantain Leaves Nutritive Value in Goats by Urea Treatment and Nitrogen Supplements

Authors: Marie Lesly Fontin, Audalbert Bien-Aimé, Didier Marlier, Yves Beckers

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Fecal digestibility of mature plantain leaves was determined in castrated Creolegoatsin order to better assess them. Five diets made from plantain leaves were used in an in vivo digestibility study on 20 castrated Creole goats over three periods using a completely random design in order to assess their apparent fecal digestibility (Dg). These diets consisted of sun-dried leaves (DL), sun-dried urea treated leaves (DUTL, 5kg of urea per 100kg of raw product ensilaged during 90 days with 60 kg of water), sun-dried leaves + hoopvine (Trichostigma octandrum, L)(DLH, DL: 61.4% + Hoopvine: 38.6%), sun-dried leaves + urea (DLU, DL: 98.2%+ U: 1.8%), and fresh leaves. (FL).0.5% of salt diluted with water was added to diets before distribution to the goats. A mineral lick block was available for each goat in its digestibility cage. During each period, diets were distributed to meet the maintenance needs of the goats for 21 days, including 14 days of adaptation and 7 days of measurement. Offered and refused diets and feces were weighed every day, and samples were taken for laboratory analysis. Results showed that the urea treatment increasedCP (Crude Protein) content of DL by 44% (from 10.4% for DL to 15.0% for DUTL) and decreased their NDF (Neutral Detergent Fiber) content (55.5% to 52.4%). Large amounts of refused feed (around 40%) were observed in goats fed with FL, DLU, and DL diets, for which no significant difference was observed for DM (Dry Matter) intakes (40.3; 36.6 and 35.1g/kg0.75 respectively) (p>0.05). DM intakes of DUTL (59.9 g/kg0.75) were significantly (p<0.05) greater than DLH (50.2 g/kg0.75). DM Dg of DL was very low (29.2%). However, supplementation with hoopvine and urea treatment resulted in a significant increase of DM Dg (40.3% and 42.1%, respectively), but the addition of urea (DLU) had no effect on it. FL showed a DM Dg similar to DHL and DUTL diets (39.0%). OM (Organic Matter)Dg was higher for the DUTL diet (45.1%), followed by DLH (40.9%), then by DLU and FL (32.9% and 40.7% respectively) and finally by DL (29.8%). CP Dg was higher for the FL diet (65.7%) and lower for the DL diet (39.9%). NDF Dg was also increased with urea treatment (54.8% for DUTL) and with the addition of hoopvine (41.4%) compared to the DL diet (31.0% for DLH). In conclusion, urea treatment and complementation with hoopvine of plantain leaves are the best treatments among those tested for increasing the nutritive value of this foragein the castrated Creole goats.

Keywords: apparent fecal digestibility, nitrogen supplements, plantain leaves, urea treatment

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1662 Hyper Parameter Optimization of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Pavement Distress Classification

Authors: Oumaima Khlifati, Khadija Baba

Abstract:

Pavement distress is the main factor responsible for the deterioration of road structure durability, damage vehicles, and driver comfort. Transportation agencies spend a high proportion of their funds on pavement monitoring and maintenance. The auscultation of pavement distress was based on the manual survey, which was extremely time consuming, labor intensive, and required domain expertise. Therefore, the automatic distress detection is needed to reduce the cost of manual inspection and avoid more serious damage by implementing the appropriate remediation actions at the right time. Inspired by recent deep learning applications, this paper proposes an algorithm for automatic road distress detection and classification using on the Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN). In this study, the types of pavement distress are classified as transverse or longitudinal cracking, alligator, pothole, and intact pavement. The dataset used in this work is composed of public asphalt pavement images. In order to learn the structure of the different type of distress, the DCNN models are trained and tested as a multi-label classification task. In addition, to get the highest accuracy for our model, we adjust the structural optimization hyper parameters such as the number of convolutions and max pooling, filers, size of filters, loss functions, activation functions, and optimizer and fine-tuning hyper parameters that conclude batch size and learning rate. The optimization of the model is executed by checking all feasible combinations and selecting the best performing one. The model, after being optimized, performance metrics is calculated, which describe the training and validation accuracies, precision, recall, and F1 score.

Keywords: distress pavement, hyperparameters, automatic classification, deep learning

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1661 A Critical Study on Unprecedented Employment Discrimination and Growth of Contractual Labour Engaged by Rail Industry in India

Authors: Munmunlisa Mohanty, K. D. Raju

Abstract:

Rail industry is one of the model employers in India has separate national legislation (Railways Act 1989) to regulate its vast employment structure, functioning across the country. Indian Railway is not only the premier transport industry of the country; indeed, it is Asia’s most extensive rail network organisation and the world’s second-largest industry functioning under one management. With the growth of globalization of industrial products, the scope of anti-employment discrimination is no more confined to gender aspect only; instead, it extended to the unregularized classification of labour force applicable in the various industrial establishments in India. And the Indian Rail Industry inadvertently enhanced such discriminatory employment trends by engaging contractual labour in an unprecedented manner. The engagement of contractual labour by rail industry vanished the core “Employer-Employee” relationship between rail management and contractual labour who employed through the contractor. This employment trend reduces the cost of production and supervision, discourages the contractual labour from forming unions, and reduces its collective bargaining capacity. So, the primary intention of this paper is to highlight the increasing discriminatory employment scope for contractual labour engaged by Indian Railways. This paper critically analyses the diminishing perspective of anti-employment opportunity practiced by Indian Railways towards contractual labour and demands an urgent outlook on the probable scope of anti-employment discrimination against contractual labour engaged by Indian Railways. The researcher used doctrinal methodology where primary materials (Railways Act, Contract Labour Act and Occupational, health and Safety Code, 2020) and secondary data (CAG Report 2018, Railways Employment Regulation Rules, ILO Report etc.) are used for the paper.

Keywords: anti-employment, CAG Report, contractual labour, discrimination, Indian Railway, principal employer

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1660 Nondestructive Acoustic Microcharacterisation of Gamma Irradiation Effects on Sodium Oxide Borate Glass X2Na2O-X2B2O3 by Acoustic Signature

Authors: Ibrahim Al-Suraihy, Abdellaziz Doghmane, Zahia Hadjoub

Abstract:

We discuss in this work the elastic properties by using acoustic microscopes to measure Rayleigh and longitudinal wave velocities in a no radiated and radiated sodium borate glasses X2Na2O-X2B2O3 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 27 (mol %) at microscopic resolution. The acoustic material signatures were first measured, from which the characteristic surface velocities were determined.Longitudinal and shear ultrasonic velocities were measured in a different composition of sodium borate glass samples before and after irradiation with γ-rays. Results showed that the effect due to increasing sodium oxide content on the ultrasonic velocity appeared more clearly than due to γ-radiation. It was found that as Na2O composition increases, longitudinal velocities vary from 3832 to 5636 m/s in irradiated sample and it vary from 4010 to 5836 m/s in high radiated sample by 10 dose whereas shear velocities vary from 2223 to 3269 m/s in irradiated sample and it vary from 2326 m/s in low radiation to 3385 m/s in high radiated sample by 10 dose. The effect of increasing sodium oxide content on ultrasonic velocity was very clear. The increase of velocity was attributed to the gradual increase in the rigidity of glass and hence strengthening of network due to gradual change of boron atoms from the three-fold to the four-fold coordination of oxygen atoms. The ultrasonic velocities data of glass samples have been used to find the elastic modulus. It was found that ultrasonic velocity, elastic modulus and microhardness increase with increasing barium oxide content and increasing γ-radiation dose.

Keywords: mechanical properties X2Na2O-X2B2O3, acoustic signature, SAW velocities, additives, gamma-radiation dose

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1659 Barriers to Access among Indigenous Women Seeking Prenatal Care: A Literature Review

Authors: Zarish Jawad, Nikita Chugh, Karina Dadar

Abstract:

Introduction: This paper aims to identify barriers indigenous women face in accessing prenatal care in Canada. It explores the differences in prenatal care received between indigenous and non-indigenous women. The objective is to look at changes or programs in Canada's healthcare system to reduce barriers to accessing safe prenatal care for indigenous women. Methods: A literature search of 12 papers was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, Medline, OVID, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. The studies included were written in English only, including indigenous females between the age of 19-35, and review articles were excluded. Participants in the studies examined did not have any severe underlying medical conditions for the duration of the study, and study designs included in the review are prospective cohort, cross-sectional, case report, and case-control studies. Results: Among all the barriers Indigenous women face in accessing prenatal care, the three most significant barriers Indigenous women face include a lack of culturally safe prenatal care, lack of services in the Indigenous community, proximity of prenatal facilities to Indigenous communities and costs of transportation. Discussion: The study found three significant barriers indigenous women face in accessing prenatal care in Canada; the geographical distribution of healthcare facilities, distrust between patients and healthcare professionals, and cultural sensitivity. Some of the suggested solutions include building more birthing and prenatal care facilities in rural areas for indigenous women, educating healthcare professionals on culturally sensitive healthcare, and involving indigenous people in the decision-making process to reduce distrust and power imbalances. Conclusion: The involvement of indigenous women and community leaders is important in making decisions regarding the implementation of effective healthcare and prenatal programs for indigenous women. However, further research is required to understand the effectiveness of the solutions and the barriers that make prenatal care less accessible for indigenous women in Canada.

Keywords: indigenous, maternal health, prenatal care, barriers

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1658 Experimental Modeling of Spray and Water Sheet Formation Due to Wave Interactions with Vertical and Slant Bow-Shaped Model

Authors: Armin Bodaghkhani, Bruce Colbourne, Yuri S. Muzychka

Abstract:

The process of spray-cloud formation and flow kinematics produced from breaking wave impact on vertical and slant lab-scale bow-shaped models were experimentally investigated. Bubble Image Velocimetry (BIV) and Image Processing (IP) techniques were applied to study the various types of wave-model impacts. Different wave characteristics were generated in a tow tank to investigate the effects of wave characteristics, such as wave phase velocity, wave steepness on droplet velocities, and behavior of the process of spray cloud formation. The phase ensemble-averaged vertical velocity and turbulent intensity were computed. A high-speed camera and diffused LED backlights were utilized to capture images for further post processing. Various pressure sensors and capacitive wave probes were used to measure the wave impact pressure and the free surface profile at different locations of the model and wave-tank, respectively. Droplet sizes and velocities were measured using BIV and IP techniques to trace bubbles and droplets in order to measure their velocities and sizes by correlating the texture in these images. The impact pressure and droplet size distributions were compared to several previously experimental models, and satisfactory agreements were achieved. The distribution of droplets in front of both models are demonstrated. Due to the highly transient process of spray formation, the drag coefficient for several stages of this transient displacement for various droplet size ranges and different Reynolds number were calculated based on the ensemble average method. From the experimental results, the slant model produces less spray in comparison with the vertical model, and the droplet velocities generated from the wave impact with the slant model have a lower velocity as compared with the vertical model.

Keywords: spray charachteristics, droplet size and velocity, wave-body interactions, bubble image velocimetry, image processing

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1657 Prediction of the Dark Matter Distribution and Fraction in Individual Galaxies Based Solely on Their Rotation Curves

Authors: Ramzi Suleiman

Abstract:

Recently, the author proposed an observationally-based relativity theory termed information relativity theory (IRT). The theory is simple and is based only on basic principles, with no prior axioms and no free parameters. For the case of a body of mass in uniform rectilinear motion relative to an observer, the theory transformations uncovered a matter-dark matter duality, which prescribes that the sum of the densities of the body's baryonic matter and dark matter, as measured by the observer, is equal to the body's matter density at rest. It was shown that the theory transformations were successful in predicting several important phenomena in small particle physics, quantum physics, and cosmology. This paper extends the theory transformations to the cases of rotating disks and spheres. The resulting transformations for a rotating disk are utilized to derive predictions of the radial distributions of matter and dark matter densities in rotationally supported galaxies based solely on their observed rotation curves. It is also shown that for galaxies with flattening curves, good approximations of the radial distributions of matter and dark matter and of the dark matter fraction could be obtained from one measurable scale radius. Test of the model on five galaxies, chosen randomly from the SPARC database, yielded impressive predictions. The rotation curves of all the investigated galaxies emerged as accurate traces of the predicted radial density distributions of their dark matter. This striking result raises an intriguing physical explanation of gravity in galaxies, according to which it is the proximal drag of the stars and gas in the galaxy by its rotating dark matter web. We conclude by alluding briefly to the application of the proposed model to stellar systems and black holes. This study also hints at the potential of the discovered matter-dark matter duality in fixing the standard model of elementary particles in a natural manner without the need for hypothesizing about supersymmetric particles.

Keywords: dark matter, galaxies rotation curves, SPARC, rotating disk

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1656 Re-Integrating Historic Lakes into the City Fabric in the Case of Vandiyur Lake, Madurai

Authors: Soumya Pugal

Abstract:

The traditional lake system of an ancient town is a network of water holding blue spaces, erected further than 2000 years ago by the rulers of ancient cities and maintained for centuries by the original communities. These blue spaces form a micro-watershed wherein an individual tank has its own catchment, tank bed area, and command area. These lakes are connected by a common sluice from the upstream tank, thereby feeding the downstream tank. The lakes used to be of socio-economic significance in those times, but the rapid growth of the city, as well as the change in systems of ownership of the lakes, have turned them into the backyard of urban development. Madurai is one such historic city to be facing the issues of finding a balance to the social, ecological, and profitable requirements of the people with respect to the traditional lake system. To find a solution to problems caused by the neglect of vital ecological systems of a city, the theory of transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design has been explored. This approach re-invents the relationship between the people and the urban lakes to suit the modern aspirations while respecting the environment. The thesis aims to develop strategies to guide the development along the major urban lake of Vandiyur to equip the lake to meet the growing requirements of the megacity in terms of its recreational requirements and give a renewed connection between people and water. The intent of the design is to understand the ecological and social structures of the lake and find ways to use the lake to produce social cohesion within the community and balance the city's profitable and ecological requirements by using transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design..

Keywords: urban lakes, urban blue spaces, placemaking, revitalisation of lakes, urban cohesion

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1655 The Image of Saddam Hussein and Collective Memory: The Semiotics of Ba'ath Regime's Mural in Iraq (1980-2003)

Authors: Maryam Pirdehghan

Abstract:

During the Ba'ath Party's rule in Iraq, propaganda was utilized to justify and to promote Saddam Hussein's image in the collective memory as the greatest Arab leader. Consequently, urban walls were routinely covered with images of Saddam. Relying on these images, the regime aimed to provide a basis for evoking meanings in the public opinion, which would supposedly strengthen Saddam’s power and reconstruct facts to legitimize his political ideology. Nonetheless, Saddam was not always portrayed with common and explicit elements but in certain periods of his rule, the paintings depicted him in an unusual context, where various historical and contemporary elements were combined in a narrative background. Therefore, an understanding of the implied socio-political references of these elements is required to fully elucidate the impact of these images on forming the memory and collective unconscious of the Iraqi people. To obtain such understanding, one needs to address the following questions: a) How Saddam Hussein is portrayed in mural during his rule? b) What of elements and mythical-historical narratives are found in the paintings? c) Which Saddam's political views were subject to the collective memory through mural? Employing visual semiotics, this study reveals that during Saddam Hussein's regime, the paintings were initially simple portraits but gradually transformed into narrative images, characterized by a complex network of historical, mythical and religious elements. These elements demonstrate the transformation of a secular-nationalist politician into a Muslim ruler who tried to instill three major policies in domestic and international relations i.e. the arabization of Iraq, as well as the propagation of pan-arabism ideology (first period), the implementation of anti-Israel policy (second period) and the implementation of anti-American-British policy (last period).

Keywords: Ba'ath Party, Saddam Hussein, mural, Iraq, propaganda, collective memory

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1654 Quality Assurance Comparison of Map Check 2, Epid, and Gafchromic® EBT3 Film for IMRT Treatment Planning

Authors: Khalid Iqbal, Saima Altaf, M. Akram, Muhammad Abdur Rafaye, Saeed Ahmad Buzdar

Abstract:

Objective: Verification of patient-specific intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans using different 2-D detectors has become increasingly popular due to their ease of use and immediate readout of the results. The purpose of this study was to test and compare various 2-D detectors for dosimetric quality assurance (QA) of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with the vision to find alternative QA methods. Material and Methods: Twenty IMRT patients (12 of brain and 8 of the prostate) were planned on Eclipse treatment planning system using Varian Clinac DHX on both energies 6MV and 15MV. Verification plans of all such patients were also made and delivered to Map check2, EPID (Electronic portal imaging device) and Gafchromic EBT3. Gamma index analyses were performed using different criteria to evaluate and compare the dosimetric results. Results: Statistical analysis shows the passing rate of 99.55%, 97.23% and 92.9% for 6MV and 99.53%, 98.3% and 94.85% for 15 MV energy using a criteria of ±5% of 3mm, ±3% of 3mm and ±3% of 2mm respectively for brain, whereas using ±5% of 3mm and ±3% of 3mm gamma evaluation criteria, the passing rate is 94.55% and 90.45% for 6MV and 95.25%9 and 95% for 15 MV energy for the case of prostate using EBT3 film. Map check 2 results shows the passing rates of 98.17%, 97.68% and 86.78% for 6MV energy and 94.87%,97.46% and 88.31% for 15 MV energy respectively for brain using a criteria of ±5% of 3mm, ±3% of 3mm and ±3% of 2mm, whereas using ±5% of 3mm and ±3% of 3mm gamma evaluation criteria gives the passing rate of 97.7% and 96.4% for 6MV and 98.75%9 and 98.05% for 15 MV energy for the case of prostate. EPID 6 MV and gamma analysis shows the passing rate of 99.56%, 98.63% and 98.4% for the brain, 100% and 99.9% for prostate using the same criteria as for map check 2 and EBT 3 film. Conclusion: The results demonstrate excellent passing rates were obtained for all dosimeter when compared with the planar dose distributions for 6 MV IMRT fields as well as for 15 MV. EPID results are better than EBT3 films and map check 2 because it is likely that part of this difference is real, and part is due to manhandling and different treatment set up verification which contributes dose distribution difference. Overall all three dosimeter exhibits results within limits according to AAPM report.120.

Keywords: gafchromic EBT3, radiochromic film dosimetry, IMRT verification, EPID

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1653 Inactivation of Root-Knot Nematode Eggs Meloidogyne enterolobii in Irrigation Water Treated with Ozone

Authors: I. A. Landa-Fernandez, I. Monje-Ramirez, M. T. Orta-Ledesma

Abstract:

Every year plant-parasitic nematodes diminish the yield of high-value crops worldwide causing important economic losses. Currently, Meloidogyne enterolobii has increased its importance due to its high aggressiveness, increasing geographical distribution and host range. Root-knot nematodes inhabit the rhizosphere soil around plant roots. However, they can come into contact with irrigation water. Thus, plant-parasitic nematodes can be transported by water, as eggs or juveniles. Due to their high resistance, common water disinfection methods are not effective for inactivating these parasites. Ozone is the most effective disinfectant for microbial inactivation. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that ozone treatment is an alternative method control in irrigation water of the root-knot nematode M. enterolobii. It has been shown that ozonation is an effective treatment for the inactivation of protozoan cysts and oocysts (Giardia and Cryptosporidium) and for other species of the genus Meloidogyne (M. incognita), but not for the enterolobii specie. In this study, the strain of M. enterolobii was isolated from tomatoes roots. For the tests, eggs were used and were inoculated in water with similar characteristics of irrigation water. Subsequently, the disinfection process was carried out in an ozonation unit. The performance of the treatments was evaluated through the egg's viability by assessing its structure by optical microscopy. As a result of exposure to ozone, the viability of the nematode eggs was reduced practically in its entirety; with dissolved ozone levels in water close to the standard concentration (equal to 0.4 mgO₃/L), but with high contact times (greater than 4 min): 0.2 mgO₃/L for 15 minutes or 0.55 mgO₃/L for 10 minutes. Additionally, the effect of temperature, alkalinity and organic matter of the water was evaluated. Ozonation is effective and a promising alternative for the inactivation of nematodes in irrigation water, which could contribute to diminish the agricultural losses caused by these organisms.

Keywords: inactivation process, irrigation water treatment, ozonation, plant-parasite nematodes

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1652 The Use of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) in Improving the Measurement System on the Example of Textile Heaps

Authors: Arkadiusz Zurek

Abstract:

The potential of using drones is visible in many areas of logistics, especially in terms of their use for monitoring and control of many processes. The technologies implemented in the last decade concern new possibilities for companies that until now have not even considered them, such as warehouse inventories. Unmanned aerial vehicles are no longer seen as a revolutionary tool for Industry 4.0, but rather as tools in the daily work of factories and logistics operators. The research problem is to develop a method for measuring the weight of goods in a selected link of the clothing supply chain by drones. However, the purpose of this article is to analyze the causes of errors in traditional measurements, and then to identify adverse events related to the use of drones for the inventory of a heap of textiles intended for production purposes. On this basis, it will be possible to develop guidelines to eliminate the causes of these events in the measurement process using drones. In a real environment, work was carried out to determine the volume and weight of textiles, including, among others, weighing a textile sample to determine the average density of the assortment, establishing a local geodetic network, terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetric raid using an unmanned aerial vehicle. As a result of the analysis of measurement data obtained in the facility, the volume and weight of the assortment and the accuracy of their determination were determined. In this article, this work presents how such heaps are currently being tested, what adverse events occur, indicate and describes the current use of photogrammetric techniques of this type of measurements so far performed by external drones for the inventory of wind farms or construction of the station and compare them with the measurement system of the aforementioned textile heap inside a large-format facility.

Keywords: drones, unmanned aerial system, UAS, indoor system, security, process automation, cost optimization, photogrammetry, risk elimination, industry 4.0

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1651 Advanced Electron Microscopy Study of Fission Products in a TRISO Coated Particle Neutron Irradiated to 3.6 X 1021 N/cm² Fast Fluence at 1040 ⁰C

Authors: Haiming Wen, Isabella J. Van Rooyen

Abstract:

Tristructural isotropic (TRISO)-coated fuel particles are designed as nuclear fuel for high-temperature gas reactors. TRISO coating consists of layers of carbon buffer, inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC), SiC, and outer pyrolytic carbon. The TRISO coating, especially the SiC layer, acts as a containment system for fission products produced in the kernel. However, release of certain metallic fission products across intact TRISO coatings has been observed for decades. Despite numerous studies, mechanisms by which fission products migrate across the coating layers remain poorly understood. In this study, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) were used to examine the distribution, composition and structure of fission products in a TRISO coated particle neutron irradiated to 3.6 x 1021 n/cm² fast fluence at 1040 ⁰C. Precession electron diffraction was used to investigate characters of grain boundaries where specific fission product precipitates are located. The retention fraction of 110mAg in the investigated TRISO particle was estimated to be 0.19. A high density of nanoscale fission product precipitates was observed in the SiC layer close to the SiC-IPyC interface, most of which are rich in Pd, while Ag was not identified. Some Pd-rich precipitates contain U. Precipitates tend to have complex structure and composition. Although a precipitate appears to have uniform contrast in STEM, EDS indicated that there may be composition variations throughout the precipitate, and HRTEM suggested that the precipitate may have several parts different in crystal structure or orientation. Attempts were made to measure charge states of precipitates using EELS and study their possible effect on precipitate transport.

Keywords: TRISO particle, fission product, nuclear fuel, electron microscopy, neutron irradiation

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1650 Woody Carbon Stock Potentials and Factor Affecting Their Storage in Munessa Forest, Southern Ethiopia

Authors: Mojo Mengistu Gelasso

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The tropical forest is considered the most important forest ecosystem for mitigating climate change by sequestering a high amount of carbon. The potential carbon stock of the forest can be influenced by many factors. Therefore, studying these factors is crucial for understanding the determinants that affect the potential for woody carbon storage in the forest. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential for woody carbon stock and how it varies based on plant community types, as well as along altitudinal, slope, and aspect gradients in the Munessa dry Afromontane forest. Vegetation data was collected using systematic sampling. Five line transects were established at 100 m intervals along the altitudinal gradient between two consecutive transect lines. On each transect, 10 quadrats (20 x 20 m), separated by 200 m, were established. The woody carbon was estimated using an appropriate allometric equation formulated for tropical forests. The data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA in R software. The results showed that the total woody carbon stock of the Munessa forest was 210.43 ton/ha. The analysis of variance revealed that woody carbon density varied significantly based on environmental factors, while community types had no significant effect. The highest mean carbon stock was found at middle altitudes (2367-2533 m.a.s.l), lower slopes (0-13%), and west-facing aspects. The Podocarpus falcatus-Croton macrostachyus community type also contributed a higher woody carbon stock, as larger tree size classes and older trees dominated it. Overall, the potential for woody carbon sequestration in this study was strongly associated with environmental variables. Additionally, the uneven distribution of species with larger diameter at breast height (DBH) in the study area might be linked to anthropogenic factors, as the current forest growth indicates characteristics of a secondary forest. Therefore, our study suggests that the development and implementation of a sustainable forest management plan is necessary to increase the carbon sequestration potential of this forest and mitigate climate change.

Keywords: munessa forest, woody carbon stock, environmental factors, climate mitigation

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