Search results for: software solution

Authors: Rizwan Ahmad, Soomin Chang, Daeun Kwon, Jeonghwan Kim

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Interests in an inorganic membrane are growing rapidly for industrial wastewater treatment due to its excellent chemical and thermal stability over polymeric membrane. Nevertheless, understanding of the membrane rejection and fouling rate caused by the deposit of contaminants on membrane surface and within membrane pores through inorganic porous membranes still requires much attention. Microfiltration alumina membranes were developed and applied for the industrial wastewater treatment to investigate rejection efficiency of organic contaminant and membrane fouling at various operational conditions. In this study, organic rejection and membrane fouling were investigated by using the alumina flat-tubular membrane developed for the treatment of industrial wastewaters. The flat-tubular alumina membranes were immersed in a fluidized membrane reactor added with granular activated carbon (GAC) particles. Fluidization was driven by recirculating a bulk industrial wastewater along membrane surface through the reactor. In the absence of GAC particles, for hazardous anionic dye contaminants, functional group characterized by the organic contaminant was found as one of the main factors affecting both membrane rejection and fouling rate. More fouling on the membrane surface led to the existence of dipolar characterizations and this was more pronounced at lower solution pH, thereby improving membrane rejection accordingly. Similar result was observed with a real metal-plating wastewater. Strong correlation was found that higher fouling rate resulted in higher organic rejection efficiency. Hydrophilicity exhibited by alumina membrane improved the organic rejection efficiency of the membrane due to the formation of hydrophilic fouling layer deposited on it. In addition, less surface roughness of alumina membrane resulted in less fouling rate. Regardless of the operational conditions applied in this study, fluidizing the GAC particles along the surface of alumina membrane was very effective to enhance organic removal efficiency higher than 95% and provide an excellent tool to reduce membrane fouling. Less than 0.1 bar as suction pressure was maintained with the alumina membrane at 25 L/m²hr of permeate set-point flux during the whole operational periods without performing any backwashing and chemical enhanced cleaning for the membrane.

Keywords: alumina membrane, fluidized membrane reactor, industrial wastewater, membrane fouling, rejection

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Nonhlanhla Nkosi, Kulsum Kondiah

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The toxicological manifestation of heavy metals motivates interest towards the development of a reliable, eco-friendly biosorption process. With that being said, the aim of the current study was to characterise the EPS from heavy-metal resistant bacteria isolated from acid mine decant on the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. To achieve this, six exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing, metal resistant strains (Pb101, Pb102, Pb103, Pb204, Co101, and Ni101) were identified as Bacillus safensis strain NBRC 100820, Bacillus proteolyticus, Micrococcus luteus, Enterobacter sp. Pb204, Bacillus wiedmannii and Bacillus zhangzhouensis, respectively with 16S rRNA sequencing. Thereafter, EPS was extracted using chemical (formaldehyde/NaOH) and physical (ultrasonification) methods followed by physicochemical characterisation of carbohydrate, DNA, and protein contents using chemical assays and spectroscopy (FTIR- Fourier transformed infrared and 3DEEM- three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy). EPS treated with formaldehyde/NaOH showed better recovery of macromolecules than ultrasonification. The results of the present study showed that carbohydrates were more abundant than proteins, with carbohydrate and protein concentrations of 8.00 mg/ml and 0.22 mg/ml using chemical method in contrast to 5.00 mg/ml and 0.77 mg/ml using physical method, respectively. The FTIR spectroscopy results revealed that the extracted EPS contained hydroxyl, amide, acyl, and carboxyl groups that corresponded to the aforementioned chemical analysis results, thus asserting the presence of carbohydrates, DNA, polysaccharides, and proteins in the EPS. These findings suggest that identified functional groups of EPS form surface charges, which serve as the binding sites for suspended particles, thus possibly mediating adsorption of divalent cations and heavy metals. Using the extracted EPS in the development of a cost-effective biosorption solution for industrial wastewater treatment is attainable.

Keywords: biosorbent, exopolysaccharides, heavy metals, wastewater treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Pauliasi Tony Fakahau

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This paper provides an overview of the impact of the revenue reform programme on vulnerable communities in the Kingdom of Tonga. Economic turmoil and mismanagement during the late 1990s forced the government to seek technical and financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank to undertake a comprehensive Economic and Public Sector Reform (EPSR) programme. The EPSR is a Western model recommended by donor agencies as the solution to Tonga’s economic challenges. The EPSR programme included public sector reform, private sector growth, and revenue generation. Tax reform was the main tool for revenue generation, which set out to strengthen tax compliance and administration as well as implement a value-added consumption tax. The EPSR is based on Western values and ideology but failed to recognise that Tongan cultural values are important to the local community. Two participant groups were interviewed. Participant group one consisted of 51 people representing vulnerable communities. Participant group two consisted of six people from the government and business sector who were from the elite of Tongan society. The Kakala Research Methodology provided the framework for the research, and the Talanoa Research Method was used to conduct semi-structured interviews in the homes of the first group and in the workplaces of the second group. The research found a heavy burden of the consumption tax on the purchasing power of participant group one (vulnerable participants), having an impact on nearly every financial transaction they made. Participant group ones’ main financial priorities were kavenga fakalotu (obligations to the church), kavenga fakafāmili (obligations to the family) and kavenga fakafonua (obligations to cultural events for the village, nobility, and royalty). The findings identified inequalities of the revenue reform, especially from consumption tax, for vulnerable people and communities compared to the elite of society. The research concluded that government and donor agencies need ameliorating policies to reduce the burden of tax on vulnerable groups more susceptible to the impact of revenue reform.

Keywords: tax reform, tonga vulnerable community revenue, revenue reform, public sector reform

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Jinjun Jiang, Lianzhong Chen, Rui Xu

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The accurate of model attitude angel plays an important role on the aerodynamic test results in the wind tunnel test. The original method applies the spherical coordinate system transformation to obtain attitude angel calculation.The model attitude angel is obtained by coordinate transformation and spherical surface mapping applying the nominal attitude angel (the balance attitude angel in the wind tunnel coordinate system) indicated by the mechanism. First, the coordinate transformation of this method is not only complex but also difficult to establish the transformed relationship between the space coordinate systems especially after many steps of coordinate transformation, moreover it cannot realize the iterative calculation of the interference relationship between attitude angels; Second, during the calculate process to solve the problem the arc is approximately used to replace the straight line, the angel for the tangent value, and the inverse trigonometric function is applied. Therefore, in the calculation of attitude angel, the process is complex and inaccurate, which can be solved approximately when calculating small attack angel. However, with the advancing development of modern aerodynamic unsteady research, the aircraft tends to develop high or super large attack angel and unsteadyresearch field.According to engineering practice and vector theory, the concept of vector angel coordinate systemis proposed for the first time, and the vector angel coordinate system of attitude angel is established.With the iterative correction calculation and avoiding the problem of approximate and inverse trigonometric function solution, the model attitude calculation process is carried out in detail, which validates that the calculation accuracy and accuracy of model attitude angels are improved.Based on engineering and theoretical methods, a vector angel coordinate systemis established for the first time, which gives the transformation and angel definition relations between different flight attitude coordinate systems, that can accurately calculate the attitude angel of the corresponding coordinate systemand determine its direction, especially in the channel coupling calculation, the calculation of the attitude angel between the coordinate systems is only related to the angel, and has nothing to do with the change order s of the coordinate system, whichsimplifies the calculation process.

Keywords: attitude angel, angel vector coordinate system, iterative calculation, spherical coordinate system, wind tunnel test

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Geun-Yeon Kim, S. P. Praveen Kumar, Kwon-Hee Lee

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A steering knuckle arm is the component that connects the steering system and suspension system. The structural performances such as stiffness, strength, and durability are considered in its design process. The former study suggested the lightweight design of a knuckle arm considering the structural performances and using the metamodel-based optimization. The six shape design variables were defined, and the optimum design was calculated by applying the kriging interpolation method. The finite element method was utilized to predict the structural responses. The suggested knuckle was made of the aluminum Al6082, and its weight was reduced about 60% in comparison with the base steel knuckle, satisfying the design requirements. Then, we investigated its manufacturability by performing foraging analysis. The forging was done as hot process, and the product was made through two-step forging. As a final step of its developing process, the durability is investigated by using the flexible dynamic analysis software, LS-DYNA and the pre and post processor, eta/VPG. Generally, a car make does not provide all the information with the part manufacturer. Thus, the part manufacturer has a limit in predicting the durability performance with the unit of full car. The eta/VPG has the libraries of suspension, tire, and road, which are commonly used parts. That makes a full car modeling. First, the full car is modeled by referencing the following information; Overall Length: 3,595mm, Overall Width: 1,595mm, CVW (Curve Vehicle Weight): 910kg, Front Suspension: MacPherson Strut, Rear Suspension: Torsion Beam Axle, Tire: 235/65R17. Second, the road is selected as the cobblestone. The road condition of the cobblestone is almost 10 times more severe than that of usual paved road. Third, the dynamic finite element analysis using the LS-DYNA is performed to predict the durability performance of the suggested knuckle arm. The life of the suggested knuckle arm is calculated as 350,000km, which satisfies the design requirement set up by the part manufacturer. In this study, the overall design process of a knuckle arm is suggested, and it can be seen that the developed knuckle arm satisfies the design requirement of the durability with the unit of full car. The VPG analysis is successfully performed even though it does not an exact prediction since the full car model is very rough one. Thus, this approach can be used effectively when the detail to full car is not given.

Keywords: knuckle arm, structural optimization, Metamodel, forging, durability, VPG (Virtual Proving Ground)

Procedia PDF Downloads 408

Authors: Tarek Duzan, Walid Esayed

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Fluid flow in porous media is attributed fundamentally to parameters that are controlled by depositional and post-depositional environments. After deposition, digenetic events can act negatively on the reservoir and reduce the effective porosity, thereby making the rock less permeable. Therefore, exploiting hydrocarbons from such resources requires partially altering the rock properties to improve the long-term production rate and enhance the recovery efficiency. In this study, we try to address, firstly, the phenomena of permeability reduction in tight sandstone reservoirs and illustrate the implemented procedures to investigate the problem roots; finally, benchmark the candidate solutions at the field scale and recommend the mitigation strategy for the field development plan. During the study, two investigations have been considered: subsurface analysis using ( PLT ) and Laboratory tests for four candidate wells of the interested reservoir. Based on the above investigations, it was obvious that the Production logging tool (PLT) has shown areas of contribution in the reservoir, which is considered very limited, considering the total reservoir thickness. Also, Alcohol treatment was the first choice to go with for the AA9 well. The well productivity has been relatively restored but not to its initial productivity. Furthermore, Alcohol treatment in the lab was effective and restored permeability in some plugs by 98%, but operationally, the challenge would be the ability to distribute enough alcohol in a wellbore to attain the sweep Efficiency obtained within a laboratory core plug. However, the Second solution, which is based on fracking wells, has shown excellent results, especially for those wells that suffered a high drop in oil production. It is suggested to frac and pack the wells that are already damaged in the Waha field to mitigate the damage and restore productivity back as much as possible. In addition, Critical fluid velocity and its effect on fine sand migration in the reservoir have to be well studied on core samples, and therefore, suitable pressure drawdown will be applied in the reservoir to limit fine sand migration.

Keywords: alcohol treatment, post-depositional environments, permeability, tight sandstone

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Neelam Vats, Madhvi Pathak Pillai, Rajender Lal, Indu Dabas

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The pressure of scoring higher marks to be able to get admission in a higher ranked institution has become a social stigma for school students. It leads to various social and academic pressures on them, causing psychological anxiety. This undue stress on students sometimes may even steer to aggressive behavior or suicidal tendencies. Human mind is always surrounded by the some desires, emotions and passions, which usually disturbs our mental peace. In such a scenario, we look for a solution that helps in removing all the obstacles of mind and make us mentally peaceful and strong enough to be able to deal with all kind of pressure. Preksha meditation is one such technique which aims at bringing the positive changes for overall transformation of personality. Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the impact of Preksha Meditation on the academic anxiety on female teenagers. The study was conducted on 120 high school students from the capital city of India. All students were in the age group of 13-15 years. They also belonged to similar social as well as economic status. The sample was equally divided into two groups i.e. experimental group (N = 60) and control group (N = 60). Subjects of the experimental group were given the intervention of Preksha Meditation practice by the trained instructor for one hour per day, six days a week, for three months for the first experimental stage and another three months for the second experimental stage. The subjects of the control group were not assigned any specific type of activity rather they continued doing their normal official activities as usual. The Academic Anxiety Scale was used to collect data during multi-level stages i.e. pre-experimental stage, post-experimental stage phase-I, and post-experimental stage phase-II. The data were statistically analyzed by computing the two-tailed-‘t’ test for inter group comparison and Sandler’s ‘A’ test with alpha = or p < 0.05 for intra-group comparisons. The study concluded that the practice for longer duration of Preksha Meditation practice brings about very significant and beneficial changes in the pattern of academic anxiety.

Keywords: academic anxiety, academic pressure, Preksha, meditation

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Sylvie Studente

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Despite the increase in international students migrating to the UK, the transition from home environment to a host institution abroad can be overwhelming for many students due to acculturative stressors. These stressors are reported to peak within the first six months of transitioning into study abroad which has determinantal impacts for Higher Education Institutions. These impacts include; increased drop-out rates and overall decreases in academic performance. Research suggests that belongingness can negate acculturative stressors through providing opportunities for students to form necessary social connections. In response to this universities have focussed on utilising technology to create learning communities with the most commonly deployed being social media, blogs, and discussion forums. Despite these attempts, the application of technology in supporting international students is still ambiguous. With the reported growing popularity of mobile devices among students and accelerations in learning technology owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential is recognised to address this challenge via the use of chatbot technology. Whilst traditionally, chatbots were deployed as conversational agents in business domains, they have since been applied to the field of education. Within this emerging area of research, a gap exists in addressing the educational value of chatbots over and above the traditional service orientation categorisation. The proposed study seeks to extend upon current understandings by investigating the challenges faced by international students in studying abroad and exploring the potential of chatbots as a solution to assist students’ acculturation. There has been growing interest in the application of chatbot technology to education accelerated by the shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although interest in educational chatbots has surged, there is a lack of consistency in the research area in terms of guidance on the design to support international students in HE. This gap is widened when considering the additional challenge of supporting multicultural international students with diverse. Diversification in education is rising due to increases in migration trends for international study. As global opportunities for education increase, so does the need for multiculturally inclusive learning support.

Keywords: chatbots, education, international students, acculturation

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Authors: G. W. Greubel, A. Kalam

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South Africa finds itself at a confluence of forces where the national electricity supply system is constrained with under-supply primarily from old and failing coal-fired power stations and congested and inadequate transmission and distribution systems. Simultaneously the country attempts to meet carbon reduction targets driven by both an alignment with international goals and a consumer-driven requirement. The constrained electricity system is an aspect of an economy characterized by very low economic growth, high unemployment, and frequent and significant load shedding. The fiscus does not have the funding to build new generation capacity or strengthen the grid. The under-supply is increasingly alleviated by the penetration of wind and solar generation capacity and embedded roof-top solar. However, this increased penetration results in less inertia, less synchronous generation, and less capability for fast frequency response, with resultant instability. The renewable energy facilities assist in solving the under-supply issues, but merely ‘kick the can down the road’ by not contributing to grid stability or by substituting the lost inertia, thus creating an expanding issue for the grid to manage. By technically balancing its electricity demand and supply a company with facilities located across the country can be spared the effects of load shedding, and thus ensure financial and production performance, protect jobs, and contribute meaningfully to the economy. By treating the company’s load (across the country) and its various distributed generation facilities as a ‘virtual grid’ which by design will provide ancillary services to the grid one is able to create a win-win situation for both the company and the grid. This paper provides a review of the technical problems facing the South African electricity system and discusses a hypothetical ‘virtual grid’ concept that may assist in solving the problems. The proposed solution has potential application across emerging markets with constrained power infrastructure or for companies who wish to be entirely powered by renewable energy.

Keywords: load shedding, renewable energy integration, smart grid, virtual grid

Procedia PDF Downloads 42

Authors: Nihar Bheda

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Protecting digital assets such as networks, systems, and data from advanced cyber threats is the aim of Digital Immunity Systems (DIS), which are a subset of cybersecurity. With features like continuous monitoring, coordinated reactions, and long-term adaptation, DIS seeks to mimic biological immunity. This minimizes downtime by automatically identifying and eliminating threats. Traditional security measures, such as firewalls and antivirus software, are insufficient for enterprises, such as healthcare providers, given the rapid evolution of cyber threats. The number of medical record breaches that have occurred in recent years is proof that attackers are finding healthcare data to be an increasingly valuable target. However, obstacles to enhancing security include outdated systems, financial limitations, and a lack of knowledge. DIS is an advancement in cyber defenses designed specifically for healthcare settings. Protection akin to an "immune system" is produced by core capabilities such as anomaly detection, access controls, and policy enforcement. Coordination of responses across IT infrastructure to contain attacks is made possible by automation and orchestration. Massive amounts of data are analyzed by AI and machine learning to find new threats. After an incident, self-healing enables services to resume quickly. The implementation of DIS is consistent with the healthcare industry's urgent requirement for resilient data security in light of evolving risks and strict guidelines. With resilient systems, it can help organizations lower business risk, minimize the effects of breaches, and preserve patient care continuity. DIS will be essential for protecting a variety of environments, including cloud computing and the Internet of medical devices, as healthcare providers quickly adopt new technologies. DIS lowers traditional security overhead for IT departments and offers automated protection, even though it requires an initial investment. In the near future, DIS may prove to be essential for small clinics, blood banks, imaging centers, large hospitals, and other healthcare organizations. Cyber resilience can become attainable for the whole healthcare ecosystem with customized DIS implementations.

Keywords: digital immunity system, cybersecurity, healthcare data, emerging technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: Abdul Qadir Jangda, Khadija Mariam, Usman Ahmed, Sharib Ahmed

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The Gafchromic EBT3 film has the characteristic of high spatial resolution, weak energy dependence and near tissue equivalence which makes them viable to be used for in-vivo dosimetry in External Beam and Brachytherapy applications. The aim of this study is to assess the smallest film dimension that may be feasible for the use in in-vivo dosimetry. To evaluate the viability, the film sizes from 3 x 3 mm to 20 x 20 mm were calibrated with 6 MV Photon and 6 MeV electron beams. The Gafchromic EBT3 (Lot no. A05151201, Make: ISP) film was cut into five different sizes in order to establish the relationship between absorbed dose vs. film dimensions. The film dimension were 3 x 3, 5 x 5, 10 x 10, 15 x 15, and 20 x 20 mm. The films were irradiated on Varian Clinac® 2100C linear accelerator for dose range from 0 to 1000 cGy using PTW solid water phantom. The irradiation was performed as per clinical absolute dose rate calibratin setup, i.e. 100 cm SAD, 5.0 cm depth and field size of 10x10 cm2 and 100 cm SSD, 1.4 cm depth and 15x15 cm2 applicator for photon and electron respectively. The irradiated films were scanned with the landscape orientation and a post development time of 48 hours (minimum). Film scanning accomplished using Epson Expression 10000 XL Flatbed Scanner and quantitative analysis carried out with ImageJ freeware software. Results show that the dose variation with different film dimension ranging from 3 x 3 mm to 20 x 20 mm is very minimal with a maximum standard deviation of 0.0058 in Optical Density for a dose level of 3000 cGy and the the standard deviation increases with the increase in dose level. So the precaution must be taken while using the small dimension films for higher doses. Analysis shows that there is insignificant variation in the absorbed dose with a change in film dimension of EBT3 film. Study concludes that the film dimension upto 3 x 3 mm can safely be used up to a dose level of 3000 cGy without the need of recalibration for particular dimension in use for dosimetric application. However, for higher dose levels, one may need to calibrate the films for a particular dimension in use for higher accuracy. It was also noticed that the crystalline structure of the film got damage at the edges while cutting the film, which can contribute to the wrong dose if the region of interest includes the damage area of the film

Keywords: external beam radiotherapy, film calibration, film dosimetery, in-vivo dosimetery

Procedia PDF Downloads 480

Authors: V. E. Messerle, A. L. Mosse, O. A. Lavrichshev, A. N. Nikonchuk, A. B. Ustimenko

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One of the most serious environmental problems today is pollution by biomedical waste (BMW), which in most cases has undesirable properties such as toxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, fire. Sanitary and hygienic survey of typical solid BMW, made in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries shows that their risk to the environment is significantly higher than that of most chemical wastes. Utilization of toxic BMW requires use of the most universal methods to ensure disinfection and disposal of any of their components. Such technology is a plasma technology of BMW processing. To implement this technology a thermodynamic analysis of the plasma processing of BMW was fulfilled and plasma-box furnace was developed. The studies have been conducted on the example of the processing of bone. To perform thermodynamic calculations software package Terra was used. Calculations were carried out in the temperature range 300 - 3000 K and a pressure of 0.1 MPa. It is shown that the final products do not contain toxic substances. From the organic mass of BMW synthesis gas containing combustible components 77.4-84.6% was basically produced, and mineral part consists mainly of calcium oxide and contains no carbon. Degree of gasification of carbon reaches 100% by the temperature 1250 K. Specific power consumption for BMW processing increases with the temperature throughout its range and reaches 1 kWh/kg. To realize plasma processing of BMW experimental installation with DC plasma torch of 30 kW power was developed. The experiments allowed verifying the thermodynamic calculations. Wastes are packed in boxes weighing 5-7 kg. They are placed in the box furnace. Under the influence of air plasma flame average temperature in the box reaches 1800 OC, the organic part of the waste is gasified and inorganic part of the waste is melted. The resulting synthesis gas is continuously withdrawn from the unit through the cooling and cleaning system. Molten mineral part of the waste is removed from the furnace after it has been stopped. Experimental studies allowed determining operating modes of the plasma box furnace, the exhaust gases was analyzed, samples of condensed products were assembled and their chemical composition was determined. Gas at the outlet of the plasma box furnace has the following composition (vol.%): CO - 63.4, H2 - 6.2, N2 - 29.6, S - 0.8. The total concentration of synthesis gas (CO + H2) is 69.6%, which agrees well with the thermodynamic calculation. Experiments confirmed absence of the toxic substances in the final products.

Keywords: biomedical waste, box furnace, plasma torch, processing, synthesis gas

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Authors: Sara Segura, Diego Nuñez, Miryam Villamil

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In this work, we studied the microscale interaction of foreign substances with blood inside an artificial transparent artery system that represents medium and small muscular arteries. This artery system had channels ranging from 75 μm to 930 μm and was fabricated using glass and transparent polymer blends like Phenylbis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl) phosphine oxide, Poly(ethylene glycol) and PDMS in order to be monitored in real time. The setup was performed using a computer controlled precision micropump and a high resolution optical microscope capable of tracking fluids at fast capture. Observation and analysis were performed using a real time software that reconstructs the fluid dynamics determining the flux velocity, injection dependency, turbulence and rheology. All experiments were carried out with fully computer controlled equipment. Interactions between substances like water, serum (0.9% sodium chloride and electrolyte with a ratio of 4 ppm) and blood cells were studied at microscale as high as 400nm of resolution and the analysis was performed using a frame-by-frame observation and HD-video capture. These observations lead us to understand the fluid and mixing behavior of the interest substance in the blood stream and to shed a light on the use of implantable devices for drug delivery at arteries with different Endothelial dysfunction. Several substances were tested using the artificial artery system. Initially, Milli-Q water was used as a control substance for the study of the basic fluid dynamics of the artificial artery system. However, serum and other low viscous substances were pumped into the system with the presence of other liquids to study the mixing profiles and behaviors. Finally, mammal blood was used for the final test while serum was injected. Different flow conditions, pumping rates, and time rates were evaluated for the determination of the optimal mixing conditions. Our results suggested the use of a very fine controlled microinjection for better mixing profiles with and approximately rate of 135.000 μm3/s for the administration of drugs inside arteries.

Keywords: artificial artery, drug delivery, microfluidics dynamics, arteriosclerosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Dounya Barrit, Ming-Chun Tang, Hoang Dang, Kai Wang, Detlef-M. Smilgies, Aram Amassian

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Several deposition methods have been developed for perovskite film preparation. The one-step spin-coating process has emerged as a more popular option thanks to its ability to produce films of different compositions, including mixed cation and mixed halide perovskites, which can stabilize the perovskite phase and produce phases with desired band gap. The two-step method, however, is not understood in great detail. There is a significant need and opportunity to adopt the two-step process toward mixed cation and mixed halide perovskites, but this requires deeper understanding of the two-step conversion process, for instance when using different cations and mixtures thereof, to produce high-quality perovskite films with uniform composition. In this work, we demonstrate using in situ investigations that the conversion of PbI₂ to perovskite is largely dictated by the state of the PbI₂ precursor film in terms of its solvated state. Using time-resolved grazing incidence wide-angle X-Ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements during spin coating of PbI₂ from a DMF (Dimethylformamide) solution we show the film formation to be a sol-gel process involving three PbI₂-DMF solvate complexes: disordered precursor (P₀), ordered precursor (P₁, P₂) prior to PbI₂ formation at room temperature after 5 minutes. The ordered solvates are highly metastable and eventually disappear, but we show that performing conversion from P₀, P₁, P₂ or PbI₂ can lead to very different conversion behaviors and outcomes. We compare conversion behaviors by using MAI (Methylammonium iodide), FAI (Formamidinium Iodide) and mixtures of these cations, and show that conversion can occur spontaneously and quite rapidly at room temperature without requiring further thermal annealing. We confirm this by demonstrating improvements in the morphology and microstructure of the resulting perovskite films, using techniques such as in situ quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring, SEM and XRD.

Keywords: in situ GIWAXS, lead iodide, mixed cation, perovskite solar cell, sol-gel process, solvate phase

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Onuoha Ogbonnaya Gideon, Ishaq Hafsah Yusuf

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Introduction: Meat is a perishable food of good nutrition. Meat ranks among the most significant, nutritious, and favored food items available to most locals. It is a good source of protein (17-19%), depending on sources, and contains appreciable amounts of fat and moisture. However, it has a very short shelf life due mainly to its high moisture, fat, and other nutrient contents. Meat spoilage can result from microbial proliferation as well as inherent enzymes in the meat tissues. Bacteria contamination and permeability to both oxygen and water vapor are major concerns associated with spoilage of meat and its storage. Packaging is fundamental in the preservation and presentation of food. Red clay is a very common substance; hydrous aluminum phyllosilicate, sometimes with varying amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earth, and cation formed from sedimentary rocks. Furthermore, red clay is an extremely absorbent material and develops plasticity when wet due to the molecular film of water surrounding the clay particles but can become hard, impervious, brittle, and non-brittle and non-plastic when dry. In developing countries, the high cost of refrigeration technologies and most other methods of preserving meat are exorbitant and thus can be substituted with the less expensive and readily available red clay for the preservation of meat. Methodology: 1000g of lean meat was diced into cubes of 10g each. The sample was then divided into four groups labelled raw meat (RMC); raw in 10% brine solution (RMB), boiled meat (BMC), and fried meat (FMC). It was then encapsulated with 2mm thick red clay and then heated in a muffle furnace at a temperature of 600OC for 30min. The samples were kept on a bench top for 30 days, and a storage study was carried out. Results: Our findings showed a decrease in value during storage for the physiochemical properties of all the sample; pH values decreased [RMC (7.05-7.6), RMB (8.46-7.0), BMC (6.0-5.0), FMC (4.08-3.9)]; free fatty acid content decreased with storage time [RMC (32.6%-31%), RMB (30.2%-28.6%), BMC (30.5%-27.4%), FMC (25.6%-23.8%)]; total soluble solid value decreased [RMC16.20-15.07, RMB (17.22-16.04), BMC (17.05-15.54), FMC (15.3-14.9)]. Conclusion: This result shows that encapsulation with red clay reduced all the values analyzed and thus has the potential to extend the shelf life of stored meat.

Keywords: red clay, encapsulating, shelf life, physicochemical properties, lean meat

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Fikremariam Beyene, Getachew Bekele

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Ethiopia is currently on the move with various projects to raise the amount of power generated in the country. The progress observed in recent years indicates this fact clearly and indisputably. The rural electrification program, the modernization of the power transmission system, the development of wind farm is some of the main accomplishments worth mentioning. As it is well known, currently, wind power is globally embraced as one of the most important sources of energy mainly for its environmentally friendly characteristics, and also that once it is installed, it is a source available free of charge. However, integration of wind power plant with an existing network has many challenges that need to be given serious attention. In Ethiopia, a number of wind farms are either installed or are under construction. A series of wind farm is planned to be installed in the near future. Ashegoda Wind farm (13.2°, 39.6°), which is the subject of this study, is the first large scale wind farm under construction with the capacity of 120 MW. The first phase of 120 MW (30 MW) has been completed and is expected to be connected to the grid soon. This paper is concerned with the investigation of the wind farm interaction with the national grid under transient operating condition. The main concern is the fault ride through (FRT) capability of the system when the grid voltage drops to exceedingly low values because of short circuit fault and also the active and reactive power behavior of wind turbines after the fault is cleared. On the wind turbine side, a detailed dynamic modelling of variable speed wind turbine of a 1 MW capacity running with a squirrel cage induction generator and full-scale power electronics converters is done and analyzed using simulation software DIgSILENT PowerFactory. On the Ethiopian electric power corporation side, after having collected sufficient data for the analysis, the grid network is modeled. In the model, a fault ride-through (FRT) capability of the plant is studied by applying 3-phase short circuit on the grid terminal near the wind farm. The results show that the Ashegoda wind farm can ride from voltage deep within a short time and the active and reactive power performance of the wind farm is also promising.

Keywords: squirrel cage induction generator, active and reactive power, DIgSILENT PowerFactory, fault ride-through capability, 3-phase short circuit

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Zhi Hao Chow, Cian Mulligan, Jack Walsh, Antonio Garzon Vico, Dimitar Krastev

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Drug development is resource-intensive, time-consuming, and increasingly expensive with each developmental stage. The success rates of drug development are also relatively low, and the resources committed are wasted with each failed candidate. As such, a reliable method of predicting the success of drug development is in demand. The hypothesis was that some examples of failed drug candidates are pushed through developmental pipelines based on false confidence and may possess common linguistic features identifiable through sentiment analysis. Here, the concept of using text analysis to discover such features in research publications and investor reports as predictors of success was explored. R studios were used to perform text mining and lexicon-based sentiment analysis to identify affective phrases and determine their frequency in each document, then using SPSS to determine the relationship between our defined variables and the accuracy of predicting outcomes. A total of 161 publications were collected and categorised into 4 groups: (i) Cancer treatment, (ii) Neurodegenerative disease treatment, (iii) Vaccines, and (iv) Others (containing all other drugs that do not fit into the 3 categories). Text analysis was then performed on each document using 2 separate datasets (BING and AFINN) in R within the category of drugs to determine the frequency of positive or negative phrases in each document. A relative positivity and negativity value were then calculated by dividing the frequency of phrases with the word count of each document. Regression analysis was then performed with SPSS statistical software on each dataset (values from using BING or AFINN dataset during text analysis) using a random selection of 61 documents to construct a model. The remaining documents were then used to determine the predictive power of the models. Model constructed from BING predicts the outcome of drug performance in clinical trials with an overall percentage of 65.3%. AFINN model had a lower accuracy at predicting outcomes compared to the BING model at 62.5% but was not effective at predicting the failure of drugs in clinical trials. Overall, the study did not show significant efficacy of the model at predicting outcomes of drugs in development. Many improvements may need to be made to later iterations of the model to sufficiently increase the accuracy.

Keywords: data analysis, drug development, sentiment analysis, text-mining

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Authors: Andy Sand, Naama Massad – Ivanir, Nadav Nitzan, Elisa Valderrama, Alfred Wegenberger, Koranit Shlosman, Rotem Shemesh, Ester Segal

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Microbial spoilage of food products is of great concern in the food industry due to the direct impact on the shelf life of foods and the risk of foodborne illness. Therefore, food packaging may serve as a crucial contribution to keep the food fresh and suitable for consumption. Active packaging solutions that have the ability to inhibit the development of microorganism in food products attract a lot of interest, and many efforts have been made to engineer and assimilate such solutions on various food products. NanoPack is an EU-funded international project aiming to develop state-of-the-art antimicrobial packaging systems for perishable foods. The project is based on natural essential oils which possess significant antimicrobial activity against many bacteria, yeasts and molds. The essential oils are encapsulated in natural aluminosilicate clays, halloysite nanotubes (HNT's), that serves as a carrier for the volatile essential oils and enable their incorporation into polymer films. During the course of the project, several polyethylene films with diverse essential oils combinations were designed based on the characteristics of their target food products. The antimicrobial activity of the produced films was examined in vitro on a broad spectrum of microorganisms including gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, yeasts and molds. The films that showed promising in vitro results were successfully assimilated on in vivo active packaging of several food products such as cheese, bread, fruits and raw meat. The results of the in vivo analyses showed significant inhibition of the microbial spoilage, indicating the strong contribution of the NanoPack packaging solutions on the extension of shelf life and reduction of food waste caused by early spoilage throughout the supply chain.

Keywords: food safety, food packaging, essential oils, nanotechnology

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Authors: Pouya Taraghi, Yong Li, Nader Yoosef-Ghodsi, Muntaseer Kainat, Samer Adeeb

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Buried pipelines play a crucial role in the transportation of energy products such as oil, gas, and various chemical fluids, ensuring their efficient and safe distribution. However, these pipelines are often susceptible to ground movements caused by geohazards like landslides, fault movements, lateral spreading, and more. Such ground movements can lead to strain-induced failures in pipes, resulting in leaks or explosions, leading to fires, financial losses, environmental contamination, and even loss of human life. Therefore, it is essential to study how buried pipelines respond when traversing geohazard-prone areas to assess the potential impact of ground movement on pipeline design. As such, this study introduces an approach called the Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) to predict the strain demand in inelastic pipes subjected to permanent ground displacement (PGD). This method uses a deep learning framework that does not require training data and makes it feasible to consider more realistic assumptions regarding existing nonlinearities. It leverages the underlying physics described by differential equations to approximate the solution. The study analyzes various scenarios involving different geohazard types, PGD values, and crossing angles, comparing the predictions with results obtained from finite element methods. The findings demonstrate a good agreement between the results of the proposed method and the finite element method, highlighting its potential as a simulation-free, data-free, and meshless alternative. This study paves the way for further advancements, such as the simulation-free reliability assessment of pipes subjected to PGD, as part of ongoing research that leverages the proposed method.

Keywords: strain demand, inelastic pipe, permanent ground displacement, machine learning, physics-informed neural network

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Authors: Emre Bayamlıoğlu

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This paper aims to provide an account of the legal and the regulative aspects of the algorithmic reputation systems with a special emphasis on the sharing economy (i.e., Uber, Airbnb, Lyft) business model. The first section starts with an analysis of the legal and commercial nature of the tripartite relationship among the parties, namely, the host platform, individual sharers/service providers and the consumers/users. The section further examines to what extent an algorithmic system of reputational information could serve as an alternative to legal regulation. Shortcomings are explained and analyzed with specific examples from Airbnb Platform which is a pioneering success in the sharing economy. The following section focuses on the issue of governance and control of the reputational information. The section first analyzes the legal consequences of algorithmic filtering systems to detect undesired comments and how a delicate balance could be struck between the competing interests such as freedom of speech, privacy and the integrity of the commercial reputation. The third section deals with the problem of manipulation by users. Indeed many sharing economy businesses employ certain techniques of data mining and natural language processing to verify consistency of the feedback. Software agents referred as "bots" are employed by the users to "produce" fake reputation values. Such automated techniques are deceptive with significant negative effects for undermining the trust upon which the reputational system is built. The third section is devoted to explore the concerns with regard to data mobility, data ownership, and the privacy. Reputational information provided by the consumers in the form of textual comment may be regarded as a writing which is eligible to copyright protection. Algorithmic reputational systems also contain personal data pertaining both the individual entrepreneurs and the consumers. The final section starts with an overview of the notion of reputation as a communitarian and collective form of referential trust and further provides an evaluation of the above legal arguments from the perspective of public interest in the integrity of reputational information. The paper concludes with certain guidelines and design principles for algorithmic reputation systems, to address the above raised legal implications.

Keywords: sharing economy, design principles of algorithmic regulation, reputational systems, personal data protection, privacy

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Authors: Gaurav Prabhudesai, Gaetan Brill

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The sun's energy source comes from a hydrogen-to-helium thermonuclear reaction, generating a temperature of about 5760 K on its outer layer. On account of this high temperature, energy is radiated by the sun, a part of which reaches the earth. This sunlight, even after losing part of its energy en-route to scattering and absorption, provides a time and space averaged solar flux of 174.7 W/m^2 striking the earth’s surface. According to one study, the solar energy striking earth’s surface in one and a half hour is more than the energy consumption that was recorded in the year 2001 from all sources combined. Thus, technology for extraction of solar energy holds much promise for solving energy crisis. Of the many technologies developed in this regard, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants with central solar tower and receiver system are very impressive because of their capability to provide a renewable energy that can be stored in the form of heat. One design of central receiver towers is an open cavity where sunlight is concentrated into by using mirrors (also called heliostats). This concentrated solar flux produces high temperature inside the cavity which can be utilized in an energy conversion process. The amount of energy captured is reduced by losses occurring at the cavity through all three modes viz., radiation to the atmosphere, conduction to the adjoining structure and convection. This study investigates the natural convection losses to the environment from the receiver. Computational fluid dynamics were used to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer of the receiver; since no analytical solution can be obtained and no empirical correlations exist for the given geometry. The results provide guide lines for predicting natural convection losses for hexagonal and circular shaped open cavities. Additionally, correlations are given for various inclination angles and aspect ratios. These results provide methods to minimize natural convection through careful design of receiver geometry and modification of the inclination angle, and aspect ratio of the cavity.

Keywords: concentrated solar power (CSP), central receivers, natural convection, CFD, open cavities

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Authors: Abigail Kusi Amponsah, Evans Frimpong Kyei, John Bright Agyemang, Hanson Boakye, Joana Kyei-Dompim, Collins Kwadwo Ahoto, Evans Oduro

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Staff shortages, deficient knowledge, inappropriate attitudes, demanding workloads, analgesic shortages, and low prioritization of pain management have been identified in earlier studies as the nursing-related barriers to optimal children’s pain management. These studies have mainly been undertaken in developed countries, which have different healthcare dynamics than those in developing countries. The current study, therefore, sought to identify and understand the nursing-related barriers to children’s pain management in the Ghanaian context. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted among 28 purposively sampled nurses working in the pediatric units of five hospitals in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Over the course of three months, participants were interviewed on the barriers which prevented them from optimally managing children’s pain in practice. Recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and deductively analysed based on a conceptual interest in pain assessment and management-related barriers. NVivo 12 plus software guided data management and analyses. The mean age of participating nurses was 30 years, with majority being females (n =24). Participants had worked in the nursing profession for an average of five years and in the pediatric care settings for an average of two years. The nursing-related barriers identified in the present study included communication difficulties in assessing and evaluating pain management interventions with children who have nonfunctional speech, insufficient training, misconceptions on the experience of pain in children, lack of assessment tools, and insufficient number of nurses to manage the workload and nurses’ inability to prescribe analgesics. The present study revealed some barriers which prevented Ghanaian nurses from optimally managing children’s pain. Nurses should be educated, empowered, and supported with the requisite material resources to effectively manage children’s pain and improve outcomes for families, healthcare systems, and the nation. Future studies should explore the facilitators and barriers from other stakeholders involved in pediatric pain management

Keywords: Nursing-Related Barriers, Children, Pain Management, Ghana

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Authors: Akhila Vasudev, Himanshu Kaushik, Tadikonda Venkata Bharat

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A large number of mine tailings are produced every year as part of the extraction process of phosphates, gold, copper, and other materials. Mine tailings are high in water content and have very slow dewatering behavior. The efficient design of tailings dam and economical disposal of these slurries requires the knowledge of tailings consolidation behavior. The large-strain consolidation theory closely predicts the self-weight consolidation of these slurries as the theory considers the conservation of mass and momentum conservation and considers the hydraulic conductivity as a function of void ratio. Classical laboratory techniques, such as settling column test, seepage consolidation test, etc., are expensive and time-consuming for the estimation of hydraulic conductivity variation with void ratio. Inverse estimation of the constitutive relationships from the measured settlement versus time curves is explored. In this work, inverse analysis based on metaheuristics techniques will be explored for predicting the hydraulic conductivity parameters for mine tailings from the base excess pore water pressure dissipation curve and the initial conditions of the mine tailings. The proposed inverse model uses particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, which is based on the social behavior of animals searching for food sources. The finite-difference numerical solution of the forward analytical model is integrated with the PSO algorithm to solve the inverse problem. The method is tested on synthetic data of base excess pore pressure dissipation curves generated using the finite difference method. The effectiveness of the method is verified using base excess pore pressure dissipation curve obtained from a settling column experiment and further ensured through comparison with available predicted hydraulic conductivity parameters.

Keywords: base excess pore pressure, hydraulic conductivity, large strain consolidation, mine tailings

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Authors: J. Shamash

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The high-school curriculum in algebra deals mainly with the solution of different types of equations. However, modern algebra has a completely different viewpoint and is concerned with algebraic structures and operations. A question then arises: What might be the relevance and contribution of an abstract algebra course for developing expertise and mathematical perspective in secondary school mathematics instruction? This is the focus of this paper. The course Algebra: From Equations to Structures is a carefully designed abstract algebra course for Israeli secondary school mathematics teachers. The course provides an introduction to algebraic structures and modern abstract algebra, and links abstract algebra to the high-school curriculum in algebra. It follows the historical attempts of mathematicians to solve polynomial equations of higher degrees, attempts which resulted in the development of group theory and field theory by Galois and Abel. In other words, algebraic structures grew out of a need to solve certain problems, and proved to be a much more fruitful way of viewing them. This theorems in both group theory and field theory. Along the historical ‘journey’, many other major results in algebra in the past 150 years are introduced, and recent directions that current research in algebra is taking are highlighted. This course is part of a unique master’s program – the Rothschild-Weizmann Program – offered by the Weizmann Institute of Science, especially designed for practicing Israeli secondary school teachers. A major component of the program comprises mathematical studies tailored for the students at the program. The rationale and structure of the course Algebra: From Equations to Structures are described, and its relevance to teaching school algebra is examined by analyzing three kinds of data sources. The first are position papers written by the participating teachers regarding the relevance of advanced mathematics studies to expertise in classroom instruction. The second data source are didactic materials designed by the participating teachers in which they connected the mathematics learned in the mathematics courses to the school curriculum and teaching. The third date source are final projects carried out by the teachers based on material learned in the course.

Keywords: abstract algebra , linking abstract algebra and school mathematics, school algebra, secondary school mathematics, teacher professional development

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Authors: Kausar Harun, Ahmad Azmin Mohamad

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been extensively used in optoelectronic devices, with recent interest as photoanode material in dye-sensitize solar cell. Numerous methods employed to experimentally synthesized ZnO, while some are theoretically-modeled. Both approaches provide information on ZnO properties, but theoretical calculation proved to be more accurate and timely effective. Thus, integration between these two methods is essential to intimately resemble the properties of synthesized ZnO. In this study, experimentally-grown ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by sol-gel storage method with zinc acetate dihydrate and methanol as precursor and solvent. A 1 M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution was used as stabilizer. The optimum time to produce ZnO nanoparticles were recorded as 12 hours. Phase and structural analysis showed that single phase ZnO produced with wurtzite hexagonal structure. Further work on quantitative analysis was done via Rietveld-refinement method to obtain structural and crystallite parameter such as lattice dimensions, space group, and atomic coordination. The lattice dimensions were a=b=3.2498Å and c=5.2068Å which were later used as main input in first-principles calculations. By applying density-functional theory (DFT) embedded in CASTEP computer code, the structure of synthesized ZnO was built and optimized using several exchange-correlation functionals. The generalized-gradient approximation functional with Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof and Hubbard U corrections (GGA-PBE+U) showed the structure with lowest energy and lattice deviations. In this study, emphasize also given to the modification of valence electron energy level to overcome the underestimation in DFT calculation. Both Zn and O valance energy were fixed at Ud=8.3 eV and Up=7.3 eV, respectively. Hence, the following electronic and optical properties of synthesized ZnO were calculated based on GGA-PBE+U functional within ultrasoft-pseudopotential method. In conclusion, the incorporation of Rietveld analysis into first-principles calculation was valid as the resulting properties were comparable with those reported in literature. The time taken to evaluate certain properties via physical testing was then eliminated as the simulation could be done through computational method.

Keywords: density functional theory, first-principles, Rietveld-refinement, ZnO nanoparticles

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Authors: Diana Peninger

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Over 10% of couples in the U.S. have infertility problems, with roughly 40% traceable to the male partner. Yet, little attention has been given to improving men’s contribution to the conception process. One solution that is showing promise in increasing conception rates for IVF and other assisted reproductive technology treatments is a first-of-its-kind semen collection that has been engineered to mitigate sperm damage caused by traditional collection methods. Patients are able to collect semen at home and deliver to clinics within 48 hours for use in fertility analysis and treatment, with less stress and improved specimen viability. This abstract will share these findings along with expert insight and tips to help attendees understand the key role sperm collection plays in addressing and treating reproductive issues, while helping to improve patient outcomes and success. Our research was to determine if male reproductive outcomes can be increased by improving sperm specimen health with a focus on technology. We utilized a redesigned semen collection cup (patented as the Device for Improved Semen Collection/DISC—U.S. Patent 6864046 – known commercially as a ProteX) that met a series of physiological parameters. Previous research demonstrated significant improvement in semen perimeters (motility forward, progression, viability, and longevity) and overall sperm biochemistry when the DISC is used for collection. Animal studies have also shown dramatic increases in pregnancy rates. Our current study compares samples collected in the DISC, next-generation DISC (DISCng), and a standard specimen cup (SSC), dry, with the 1 mL measured amount of media and media in excess ( 5mL). Both human and animal testing will be included. With sperm counts declining at alarming rates due to environmental, lifestyle, and other health factors, accurate evaluations of sperm health are critical to understanding reproductive health, origins, and treatments of infertility. An increase in the health of the sperm as measured by extensive semen parameter analysis and improved semen parameters stable for 48 hours, expanding the processing time from 1 hour to 48 hours were also demonstrated.

Keywords: reprodutive, sperm, male, infertility

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Julius Y Asamoah

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Mobile money has seen faster adoption in the decade. Its emergence serves as an essential driver of financial inclusion and an innovative financial service delivery channel, especially to the unbanked population. The rising importance of mobile money services has caught policymakers and regulators' attention, seeking to understand the many issues emerging from this context. At the same time, it is unlocking the potential of knowledge of this new technology. Regulatory responses and support are essential, requiring significant changes to current regulatory practices in Ghana. The article aims to answer the following research questions: "What risk does an unregulated mobile money service pose to consumers and the financial system? "What factors stimulate and hinder the introduction of mobile payments in developing countries? The sample size used was 250 respondents selected from the study area. The study has adopted an analytical approach comprising a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Actor-network theory (ANT) is used as an interpretive lens to analyse this process. ANT helps analyse how actors form alliances and enrol other actors, including non-human actors (i.e. technology), to secure their interests. The study revealed that government regulatory policies impact mobile money as critical to mobile money services in developing countries. Regulatory environment should balance the needs of advancing access to finance with the financial system's stability and draw extensively from Kenya's work as the best strategies for the system's players. Thus, regulators need to address issues related to the enhancement of supportive regulatory frameworks. It recommended that the government involve various stakeholders, such as mobile phone operators. Moreover, the national regulatory authority creates a regulatory environment that promotes fair practices and competition to raise revenues to support a business-enabling environment's key pillars as infrastructure.

Keywords: actor-network theory (ANT), cashless future, Developing countries, Ghana, Mobile Money

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Authors: Thomas Meier

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One of the major challenges for sustainable smart building systems is to support device interoperability, i.e. connecting sensor or actuator devices from different vendors, and present their functionality to the external applications. Furthermore, smart building systems are supposed to connect with devices that are not available yet, i.e. devices that become available on the market sometime later. It is of vital importance that a sustainable smart building platform provides an appropriate external interface that can be leveraged by external applications and smart services. An external platform interface must be stable and independent of specific devices and should support flexible and scalable usage scenarios. A typical approach applied in smart home systems is based on a generic device interface used within the smart building platform. Device functions, even of rather complex devices, are mapped to that generic base type interface by means of specific device drivers. Our new approach, presented in this work, extends that approach by using the smart building system’s rule engine to create complex virtual devices that can represent the most diverse properties of real devices. We examined and evaluated both approaches by means of a practical case study using a smart building system that we have developed. We show that the solution we present allows the highest degree of flexibility without affecting external application interface stability and scalability. In contrast to other systems our approach supports complex virtual device configuration on application layer (e.g. by administration users) instead of device configuration at platform layer (e.g. platform operators). Based on our work, we can show that our approach supports almost arbitrarily flexible use case scenarios without affecting the external application interface stability. However, the cost of this approach is additional appropriate configuration overhead and additional resource consumption at the IoT platform level that must be considered by platform operators. We conclude that the concept of complex virtual devices presented in this work can be applied to improve the usability and device interoperability of sustainable intelligent building systems significantly.

Keywords: Internet of Things, smart building, device interoperability, device integration, smart home

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Authors: Ji Young Lee, Jong Woon Kim

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It is essential to secure high availability of railway vehicles to realize high quality and efficiency of railway service. Once the availability decreased, planned railway service could not be provided or more cars need to be reserved. additional cars need to be purchased or the frequency of railway service could be decreased. Such situation would be a big loss in terms of quality and cost related to railway service. Therefore, we make various efforts to get high availability of railway vehicles. Because it is a big loss to operators, we make various efforts to get high availability of railway vehicles. To secure high availability, the idle time of the vehicle needs to be reduced and the following methods are applied to railway vehicles. First, through modularization design, exchange time for line replaceable units is reduced which makes railway vehicles could be put into the service quickly. Second, to reduce periodic preventive maintenance time, preventive maintenance with short period would be proceeded test oriented to minimize the maintenance time, and reliability is secured through overhauls for each main component. With such design changes for railway vehicles, modularized components are exchanged first at the time of vehicle failure or overhaul so that vehicles could be put into the service quickly and exchanged components are repaired or overhauled. Therefore, spare components are required for any future failures or overhauls. And, as components are modularized and costs for components are high, it is considerably important to get reasonable quantities of spare components. Especially, when a number of railway vehicles were put into the service simultaneously, the time of overhauls come almost at the same time. Thus, for some vehicles, components need to be exchanged and overhauled before appointed overhaul period so that these components could be secured as spare parts for the next vehicle’s component overhaul. For this reason, components overhaul time and spare parts quantities should be decided at the same time. This study deals with the time of overhauls for repairable components of railway vehicles and the calculation of spare parts quantities in consideration of future failure/overhauls. However, as railway vehicles are used according to the service schedule, maintenance work cannot be proceeded after the service was closed thus it is quite difficult to resolve this situation mathematically. In this study, Simulation software system is used in this study for analyzing the time of overhauls for repairable components of railway vehicles and the spare parts for the railway systems.

Keywords: overhaul time, rolling stocks, simulation, spare parts

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Authors: Obuzor Eze Obuzor, Ekpoke Okurube Sliver

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The study was carried out at Debee farms at Ahoada West Local Government area, Rivers State, Nigeria. To evaluate the impact of two different cost-effective available feed composition on growth performance of weaned piglets. Thirty weaned uncontrolled cross bred (Large white x pietrain) piglets of average initial weight of 3.04 Kg weaned at 30days were assigned to three dietary treatments, comprising three replicates of 10 weaned piglets each, piglets were kept at 7 °C in different pens with dimensions of 4.50 × 4.50 m. The design of the experiment was completely randomized design, data from the study were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant means were separated using Duncan's Multiple Range Test using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software for windows (2 0 0 3), statistical significance was assessed at P < 0.05 (95% confidence interval) while survival rate was calculated using simple percentage. A standard diet was prepared to meet the nutrient requirements of weaned piglets at (20.8% crude protein). The three diets were fed to the animals in concrete feeding trough, control diet (C) had soybean meal while first treatment had spent grain (T1) and the second treatment had wheat offal (T2) respectively. The experiment was partitioned into four weeks periods (days 1-7, 8-14, 15-21 and 22-28). Feed and water were given unrestrictedly throughout the period of the experiment. The feed intake and weights of the pigs were recorded on weekly basis. Feed conversion ratio and daily weight gain were calculated and the study lasted for four weeks. There was no significant (P>0.05) effect of diet on survival rate, final body weight, average daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The overall performance showed that treatment one (T1) had survival rate (93%), improved daily weight gain (36.21 g), average daily feed intake (120.14 g) and had the best feed conversion ratio (0.29) similar high mean value with the control while treatment two (T2) had lowest and negative response to all parameters. It could be concluded that feed formulated with spent grain is cheaper than control (soybean meal) and also improved the growth performance of weaned piglets.

Keywords: piglets, weaning, feed conversions ratio, daily weight gain

Procedia PDF Downloads 48