Search results for: Zangezur copper and molybdenum combine

Authors: Ahmed Azizeldein Abubaker Abdelhafez

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This review explores the application of biochar as a strategy for enhancing soil fertility in arid regions, with a focus on Arab countries. Biochar, derived from the carbonization of biomass under low-oxygen conditions, has shown promise in improving the physical and chemical properties of soil, such as increasing water retention and nutrient availability. Despite the challenging conditions of arid and semi-arid regions, characterized by poor soil fertility and severe land degradation, biochar application has emerged as a viable method to enhance agricultural productivity and mitigate environmental issues. This paper examines various aspects of biochar, including production methods, such as pyrolysis and gasification, and the effects of biochar on soil fertility. It discusses different application techniques and presents case studies from Arab countries like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait, highlighting the successes and challenges faced in implementing biochar technology. The review also addresses the limitations of biochar use in arid regions and suggests future research directions to optimize its effectiveness. Overall, this study underscores the potential of biochar to contribute significantly to sustainable agriculture and ecological restoration in arid environments, advocating for integrated strategies that combine biochar application with other innovative agricultural practices.

Keywords: biochar, soil fertility, arid region, Arab countries, challenges and limitations

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Authors: Li Hua Li, Ling Ling Li

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With the National Fitness Program being established as a national strategy by the Chinese government, Chinese old planning strategies of sports facilities which are based on the purpose for hosting high-level sports events have been failed to meet the rapid growth of Chinese residents’ healthy needs. As the most important carrier for promoting the health of citizens in China, public sports facilities may have further conflicts when they are planned without considering the characteristics of the city itself and the fitness needs of the urban residents. With the planning practice in Songyuan in northeastern China, this paper explores the key planning strategies of public sports facilities through the field investigation to obtain the current situation of public sports facilities in Songyuan and the questionnaire to get the date of Songyuan residents’ fitness characteristics and needs. Findings from this investigation suggest that the planning of public sports facilities in Songyuan should first increase the quantities of public sports facilities at the community level, which could match the fitness population and meet the fitness needs in Songyuan. Secondly, the planning should combine with other available resources, such as urban parks, squares and other places where Songyuan residents often choose to do physical activities to enhance the vitality of public sports facilities. Finally, the planning should also link the urban transportation system in Songyuan to improve the accessibility and efficiency of public sports facilities. All these planning strategies could provide essential information for updating the urban and regional design of Songyuan.

Keywords: field investigation, healthy needs, public sports facilities, planning strategies, questionnaire

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Authors: H. Merzouka, D. T. Talantikitea, S. Fettouchib, L. Nessarkb

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Recently New nanosized materials studies are in huge expansion worldwide. They play a fundamental role in various industrial applications thanks their unique and functional properties. Moreover, in recent years, a great effort has been made in design and control fabrication of nano-structured semiconductors such as zinc sulphide. In recent years, much attention has been accorded in doped and co-doped ZnS to improve the ZnS films quality. We present in this work preparation and characterization of ZnS and Cu doped ZnS thin films. Nanoparticles ZnS and Cu doped ZnS films are prepared by chemical bath deposition method (CBD), for various dopant concentrations. Thin films are deposed onto commercial microscope glass slides substrates. Thiourea is used as sulfide ion source, zinc acetate as zinc ion source and copper acetate as Cu ion source in alkaline bath at 90 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses are carried out at room temperature on films and powders with a powder diffractometer, using CuK radiation. The average grain size obtained from the Debye–Scherrer’s formula is around 10 nm. Films morphology is examined by scanning electron microscopy. IR spectra of representative sample are recorded with the FTIR between 400 and 4000 cm-1. The transmittance is more than 70 % is performed with the UV–VIS spectrometer in the wavelength range 200–800 nm. This value is enhanced by Cu doping.

Keywords: Cu doped ZnS, nanostructured, thin films, CBD, XRD, FTIR

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Authors: Young Gyu Kim, Sangguk Ahn, Gyoutae Park, Hiesik Kim

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In the gas industrial fields, there are many problems to detect extremely small amounts of combustible gas (CH₄) if a conventional semiconductor is used. Those reasons are that measuring is difficult at the low concentration level, the stabilization time is long, and an initial response time is slow. In this study, we propose a method to solve these issues using two specific sensors to overcome the circumstances of temperature and humidity. This idea is to combine a catalytic and a semiconductor type sensor and to utilize every advantage from every sensor’s characteristic. In order to achieve the goal, we reduced fluctuations of a gas sensor for temperature and humidity by applying designed circuits for sensing temperature and humidity. And we induced the best calibration line of gas sensors through adjusting a weight value corresponding to changeable patterns of temperature and humidity after their data are previously acquired and stored. We proposed and developed the gas leak detector using two sensor modules, which is first operated by a semiconductor sensor for measuring small gas quantities and second a catalytic type sensor is detected if measuring range of the first sensor is beyond. We conclusively verified characteristics of sharp sensitivity and fast response time against even at lower gas concentration level through experiments other than a conventional gas sensor. We think that our proposed idea is very useful if another gas leak is developed to enable measuring extremely small quantities of toxic and flammable gases.

Keywords: gas sensor, leak detector, lower concentration, and calibration

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Authors: Parisa Mansour

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was discovered and rapidly spread to various countries around the world since the end of 2019. Computed tomography (CT) images have been used as an important alternative to the time-consuming RT. PCR test. However, manual segmentation of CT images alone is a major challenge as the number of suspected cases increases. Thus, accurate and automatic segmentation of COVID-19 infections is urgently needed. Because the imaging features of the COVID-19 infection are different and similar to the background, existing medical image segmentation methods cannot achieve satisfactory performance. In this work, we try to build a deep convolutional neural network adapted for the segmentation of chest CT images with COVID-19 infections. First, we maintain a large and novel chest CT image database containing 165,667 annotated chest CT images from 861 patients with confirmed COVID-19. Inspired by the observation that the boundary of an infected lung can be improved by global intensity adjustment, we introduce a feature variable block into the proposed deep CNN, which adjusts the global features of features to segment the COVID-19 infection. The proposed PV array can effectively and adaptively improve the performance of functions in different cases. We combine features of different scales by proposing a progressive atrocious space pyramid fusion scheme to deal with advanced infection regions with various aspects and shapes. We conducted experiments on data collected in China and Germany and showed that the proposed deep CNN can effectively produce impressive performance.

Keywords: chest, COVID-19, chest Image, coronavirus, CT image, chest CT

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Authors: Khushalini N. Ulman, Samane Maroufi, Veena H. Sahajwalla

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Globally, electronic waste (e-waste) continues to grow at an alarming rate. Several technologies have been developed to recover valuable materials from e-waste, however, their efficiency can be increased with a better knowledge of the e-waste components. Random access memory cards (RAMs) are considered as high value scrap for the e-waste recyclers. Despite their high precious metal content, RAMs are still recycled in a conventional manner resulting in huge loss of resources. Our research work highlights the precious metal rich components of a RAM. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis of RAMs of six different generations have been carried out and the trends in their metal content have been investigated. Over the past decade, the copper content of RAMs has halved and their tin content has increased by 70 %. The stricter environmental laws have facilitated ~96 % drop in the lead content of RAMs. To comprehend the fundamentals of thermal transformation of RAMs, our research provides their detailed kinetic study. This can assist the e-waste recyclers in optimising their metal recovery processes. Thus, understanding the chemical and thermal behaviour of RAMs can open new avenues for efficient e-waste recycling.

Keywords: electronic waste, kinetic study, recycling, thermal transformation

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Authors: Tariq Aljuneidi, Akif Asil Bulgak

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Remanufacturing may be defined as the process of bringing used products to “like-new” functional state with warranty to match, and it is one of the most popular product end-of-life scenarios. An efficient remanufacturing network lead to an efficient design of sustainable manufacturing enterprise. In remanufacturing network, products are collected from the customer zone, disassembled and remanufactured at a suitable remanufacturing facility. In this respect, another issue to consider is how the returned product to be remanufactured, in other words, what is the best layout for such facility. In order to achieve a sustainable manufacturing system, Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) designs are highly recommended, CMSs combine high throughput rates of line layouts with the flexibility offered by functional layouts (job shop). Introducing the CMS while designing a remanufacturing network will benefit the utilization of such a network. This paper presents and analyzes a comprehensive mathematical model for the design of Dynamic Cellular Remanufacturing Systems (DCRSs). In this paper, the proposed model is the first one to date that consider CMS and remanufacturing system simultaneously. The proposed DCRS model considers several manufacturing attributes such as multi-period production planning, dynamic system reconfiguration, duplicate machines, machine capacity, available time for workers, worker assignments, and machine procurement, where the demand is totally satisfied from a returned product. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed model.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing system, remanufacturing, mathematical programming, sustainability

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Authors: Morteza Ghanbarpour, Rahmatollah Khodabandeh

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In this study, second law of thermodynamic is employed to evaluate heat pipe thermal performance. In fact, nanofluids potential to decrease the entropy generation of cylindrical heat pipes are studied and the results are compared with experimental data. Some cylindrical copper heat pipes of 200 mm length and 6.35 mm outer diameter were fabricated and tested with distilled water and water based Al2O3 nanofluids with volume concentrations of 1-5% as working fluids. Nanofluids are nanotechnology-based colloidal suspensions fabricated by suspending nanoparticles in a base liquid. These fluids have shown potential to enhance heat transfer properties of the base liquids used in heat transfer application. When the working fluid undergoes between different states in heat pipe cycle the entropy is generated. Different sources of irreversibility in heat pipe thermodynamic cycle are investigated and nanofluid effect on each of these sources is studied. Both experimental and theoretical studies reveal that nanofluid is a good choice to minimize the entropy generation in heat pipe thermodynamic cycle which results in higher thermal performance and efficiency of the system.

Keywords: heat pipe, nanofluid, thermodynamics, entropy generation, thermal resistance

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Authors: Alireza Gholami, Amir H. D. Markazi

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In this paper, an observer-based direct adaptive fuzzy sliding mode (OAFSM) algorithm is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, the zero-input dynamics of the plant could be unknown. The input connection matrix is used to combine the sliding surfaces of individual subsystems, and an adaptive fuzzy algorithm is used to estimate an equivalent sliding mode control input directly. The fuzzy membership functions, which were determined by time consuming try and error processes in previous works, are adjusted by adaptive algorithms. The other advantage of the proposed controller is that the input gain matrix is not limited to be diagonal, i.e. the plant could be over/under actuated provided that controllability and observability are preserved. An observer is constructed to directly estimate the state tracking error, and the nonlinear part of the observer is constructed by an adaptive fuzzy algorithm. The main advantage of the proposed observer is that, the measured outputs is not limited to the first entry of a canonical-form state vector. The closed-loop stability of the proposed method is proved using a Lyapunov-based approach. The proposed method is applied numerically on a multi-link robot manipulator, which verifies the performance of the closed-loop control. Moreover, the performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with some conventional control algorithms.

Keywords: adaptive algorithm, fuzzy systems, membership functions, observer

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Authors: Vladimir A. Todiras

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Spatio-temporal models provide new possibilities for real-time action in pest risk analysis. It should be noted that estimation of the possibility and probability of introduction of a pest and of its economic consequences involves many uncertainties. We present a new mapping technique that assesses pest invasion risk using online BioClass software. BioClass is a GIS tool designed to solve multiple-criteria classification and optimization problems based on fuzzy logic and level set methods. This research describes a method for predicting the potential establishment and spread of a plant pest into new areas using a case study: corn rootworm (Diabrotica spp.), tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta) and plum fruit moth (Grapholita funebrana). Our study demonstrated that in BioClass we can combine fuzzy logic and geographic information systems with knowledge of pest biology and environmental data to derive new information for decision making. Pests are sensitive to a warming climate, as temperature greatly affects their survival and reproductive rate and capacity. Changes have been observed in the distribution, frequency and severity of outbreaks of Helicoverpa armigera on tomato. BioClass has demonstrated to be a powerful tool for applying dynamic models and map the potential future distribution of a species, enable resource to make decisions about dangerous and invasive species management and control.

Keywords: classification, model, pest, risk

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Authors: Ravindra N. Singh, Dheerendra P. Singh

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Recent discoveries of Bronze Age artefacts, tin slag, furnaces and crucibles, together with new geological evidence on tin deposits in Tosham area of Bhiwani district in Haryana (India) provide the opportunity to survey the evidence for possible sources of tin and the use of bronze in the Harappan sites of north western India. Earlier, Afghanistan emerged as the most promising eastern source of tin utilized by Indus Civilization copper-smiths. Our excavations conducted at Khanak near Tosham mining area during 2014 and 2016 revealed ample evidence of metallurgical activities as attested by the occurrence of slag, ores and evidences of ashes and fragments of furnaces in addition to the bronze objects. We have conducted petrological, XRD, EDAX, TEM, SEM and metallography on the slag, ores, crucible fragments and bronze objects samples recovered from Khanak excavations. This has given positive indication of mining and metallurgy of poly-mettalic Tin at the site; however, it can only be ascertained after the detailed scientific examination of the materials which is underway. In view of the importance of site, we intend to excavate the site horizontally in future so as to obtain more samples for scientific studies.

Keywords: archaeometallurgy, problem of tin, metallography, indus civilization

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Authors: Sonja Gögele, Petra Kletzenbauer

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International strategies are ranked as one of the core activities in the development plans of Austrian universities. This has led to numerous promising activities in terms of internationalization (i.e. development of international degree programmes, increased staff and student mobility, and blended international projects). The latest innovative approach in terms of Erasmus+ are so called Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) which combine jointly delivered teaching and learning elements of at least three participating ERASMUS universities in a virtual and short-term mobility setup. Students who participate in BIP can maintain their study plans at their home institution and include BIP as a parallel activity. This paper presents the experiences of this programme on the topic of sustainable computing hosted by the University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM. By means of an online survey and face-to-face interviews with all stakeholders (20 students, 8 professors), the empirical study addresses the challenges of hosting an international blended learning programme (i.e. virtual phase and on-site intensive phase) and discusses the impact of such activities in terms of internationalization and Englishization. In this context, key roles are assigned to the development of future transnational and transdisciplinary curricula by considering innovative aspects for learning and teaching (i.e. virtual collaboration, research-based learning).

Keywords: internationalization, englishization, short-term mobility, international teaching and learning

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Authors: Samuel Reisman

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Background: Comparative rankings are increasingly used to evaluate health care systems. These rankings combine discrete attribute rankings into a composite overall ranking. Health care equity is a component of overall rankings, but excelling in other categories can counterbalance low inequity grades. Highly ranked inequitable health care would commend systems that disregard human rights. We simulated the ranking of a maximally inequitable health care system using a published, influential ranking methodology. Methods: We used The Commonwealth Fund’s ranking of eleven health care systems to simulate the rank of a maximally inequitable system. Eighty performance indicators were simulated, assuming maximal ineptitude in equity benchmarks. Maximal rankings in all non-equity subcategories were assumed. Subsequent stepwise simulations lowered all non-equity rank positions by one. Results: The maximally non-equitable health care system ranked first overall. Three subsequent stepwise simulations, lowering non-equity rankings by one, each resulted in an overall ranking within the top three. Discussion: Our results demonstrate that grossly inequitable health care systems can rank highly in comparative health care system rankings. These findings challenge the validity of ranking methodologies that subsume equity under broader benchmarks. We advocate limiting maximum overall rankings of health care systems to their individual equity rankings. Such limits are logical given the insignificance of health care system improvements to those lacking adequate health care.

Keywords: global health, health equity, healthcare systems, international health

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Authors: N. Liu, K.Miao

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This research investigates novel methods to enhance people’s experience in religious culture through technology and digitization. This stage focuses on promoting Taiwanese culture regarding traditional religion. There are three primary research areas in this research field, namely the cultural and creative industry, digitalization, and digital games and cultural cognition. The research is designed based on mixed methodologies, which consist of two experiments. In Experiment I, experts who have religious and cultural background are being interviewed for qualitative data. The suggestions and opinions obtained from this experiment provide a deeper understanding of Taiwanese religious culture. In Experience II, quantitative approach is being adopted. This includes a survey among the younger generation in Taiwan to give a broader look at peoples’ thought about experiencing religious cultures with digitalization. This research allows us to determine the people’s interest in the digitalization of culture. It will help us to combine technology, culture, creativity, industrial, and cultural promotion. Including the design of applications, serious games, and immersive technology. This study shows that technology and digitalization can be used to help people to understand a traditional culture better. The outcome of this research can help designers and developers related to the cultural creativity industries by providing results on people’s interest regarding culture across three vital aspects: 1. Their attitude regarding the education of culture. 2. Their attitude regarding the promotion of culture. 3. Their attitude regarding the information on culture. In addition, this research will help designers who wish to implement cultural elements into their works. It also has great benefits for associations, governments, or individuals who try an innovative way of cultural perversion.

Keywords: culture heritage, digital games, digitalization, traditional religious culture

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Authors: Sunil P. Lonkar, Vishnu V. Pillai, Saeed Alhassan

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Design and development of highly efficient, inexpensive, and long-term stable earth-abundant electrocatalysts hold tremendous promise for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water electrolysis. The 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, especially molybdenum disulfide attracted a great deal of interests due to its high electrocatalytic activity. However, due to its poor electrical conductivity and limited exposed active sites, the performance of these catalysts is limited. In this context, a facile and scalable synthesis method for fabrication nanostructured electrocatalysts composed 3D graphene porous aerogels supported with MoS₂ and WS₂ is highly desired. Here we developed a highly active and stable electrocatalyst catalyst for the HER by growing it into a 3D porous architecture on conducting graphene. The resulting nanohybrids were thoroughly investigated by means of several characterization techniques to understand structure and properties. Moreover, the HER performance of these 3D catalysts is expected to greatly improve in compared to other, well-known catalysts which mainly benefits from the improved electrical conductivity of the by graphene and porous structures of the support. This technologically scalable process can afford efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and hydrodesulfurization catalysts for sulfur-rich petroleum fuels. Owing to the lower cost and higher performance, the resulting materials holds high potential for various energy and catalysis applications. In typical hydrothermal method, sonicated GO aqueous dispersion (5 mg mL⁻¹) was mixed with ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (ATTM) and tungsten molybdate was treated in a sealed Teflon autoclave at 200 ◦C for 4h. After cooling, a black solid macroporous hydrogel was recovered washed under running de-ionized water to remove any by products and metal ions. The obtained hydrogels were then freeze-dried for 24 h and was further subjected to thermal annealing driven crystallization at 600 ◦C for 2h to ensure complete thermal reduction of RGO into graphene and formation of highly crystalline MoS₂ and WoS₂ phases. The resulting 3D nanohybrids were characterized to understand the structure and properties. The SEM-EDS clearly reveals the formation of highly porous material with a uniform distribution of MoS₂ and WS₂ phases. In conclusion, a novice strategy for fabrication of 3D nanostructured MoS₂-WS₂/graphene is presented. The characterizations revealed that the in-situ formed promoters uniformly dispersed on to few layered MoS₂¬-WS₂ nanosheets that are well-supported on graphene surface. The resulting 3D hybrids hold high promise as potential electrocatalyst and hydrodesulfurization catalyst.

Keywords: electrocatalysts, graphene, transition metal chalcogenide, 3D assembly

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Authors: Mulatu Kassie Birhanu

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Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ is an emerging and current issue for its conversion in to valuable product upon minimization of its atmospheric level for contribution of maintaining within the range of permissible limit. Among plenty of electro-catalysts gold and copper are efficient and effective catalysts, which are synthesized and applicable for this research work. The two metal catalysts were prepared in inert environment with different compositions through co-reduction process from their corresponding precursors and then by adding multi-walled carbon nano-tube as a supporter and enhanced the conductivity. The catalytic performance of CO₂ reduction for each composition was performed and resulted an outstanding catalytic activity with generation of high current density (70 mA/cm² at 0.91V vs. RHE) and relatively small onset potential. The catalytic performance, compositions, morphologies, structure and geometric arrangements were evaluated by electrochemical analysis (LSV, impedance, chronoamperometry & tafel plot), EDS, SEM and XAS respectively. The composite metals showed better selectivity of products and faradaic efficiencies due to the synergetic effects of the combined nano-particles in addition to the impact of grain size in reduction of CO₂. Carbon monoxide, hydrogen, formate and ethanol are the reduction products, which are detected and quantifiable by chromatographic techniques considering their physical state of each product.

Keywords: carbondioxide, faradaic efficiency, electrocatalyst, current density

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Authors: Taehoon Kwon, Hyeongrae Cho, Dirk Henkensmeier, Youngjong Kang, Chong Min Koo

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Ionic polymer actuators have been of interest in the bio-inspired artificial muscle devices. However, the relatively slow response and low power density were the obstacles for practical applications. In this study, ionic polymer actuators are fabricated with ionic polymer composite membranes based on sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) and copper(II) phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid (CuPCSA). CuPCSA is an organic filler with very high ion exchange capacity (IEC, 4.5 mmol H+/g) that can be homogeneously dispersed on the molecular scale into the SPAES membrane. SPAES/CuPCSA actuators show larger ionic conductivity, mechanical properties, bending deformation, exceptional faster response to electrical stimuli, and larger mechanical power density (3028 W m–3) than Nafion actuators. This outstanding actuation performance of SPAES/CuPCSA composite membrane actuators makes them attractive for next generation transducers with high power density, which are currently developed biomimetic devices such as endoscopic surgery.

Keywords: actuation performance, composite membranes, ionic polymer actuators, organic filler

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Authors: Yasar N. Kavil, Yasser A. Shaban, Radwan K. Al Farawati, Mohamed I. Orif, Shahed U. M. Khanc

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Photocatalytic way of reduction of CO₂ in polluted seawater into chemical fuel, methanol, was successfully gained over Cu/C-co-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles under UV and natural sunlight. A homemade stirred batch annular reactor was used to carry out the photocatalytic reduction experiments. Photocatalysts with various Cu loadings (0, 0.5, 1, 3, 5 and 7 wt.%) were synthesized by the sol-gel procedure and were characterized by XRD, SEM, UV–Vis, FTIR, and XPS. The photocatalytic production of methanol was promoted by the co-doping with C and Cu into TiO₂. This improvement was attributed to the modification of bandgap energy and the hindrance of the charges recombination. The polluted seawater showing the yield depended on its background hydrographic parameters. We assessed two types of polluted seawater system, the observed yield was 2910 and 990 µmol g⁻¹ after 5 h of illumination under UV and natural sunlight respectively in system 1 and the corresponding yield in system 2 was 2250 and 910 µmol g⁻¹ after 5 h of illumination. The production of methanol in the case of oxygen-depleted water was low, this is mainly attributed to the competition of methanogenic bacteria over methanol production. The results indicated that the methanol yield produced by Cu-C/TiO₂ was much higher than those of carbon-modified titanium oxide (C/TiO₂) and Degussa (P25-TiO₂). Under the current experimental condition, the optimum loading was achieved by the doping of 3 wt % of Cu. The highest methanol yield was obtained over 1 g L-1 of 3wt% Cu/C-TiO₂.

Keywords: CO₂ photoreduction, copper, Cu/C-co-doped TiO₂, methanol, seawater

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Authors: Ali Alotaibi, Francis Edum-Fotwe, Andrew Price /

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Mega construction projects create buildings and major infrastructure to respond to work and life requirements while playing a vital role in promoting any nation’s economy. However, the industry is often criticised for not balancing economic, environmental and social dimensions of their projects, with emphasis typically on one aspect to the detriment of the others. This has resulted in many negative impacts including environmental pollution, waste throughout the project lifecycle, low productivity, and avoidable accidents. The identification of comprehensive Social Responsibility (SR) indicators, which combine social, environmental and economic aspects, is urgently needed. This is particularly the case in the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which often has mega public construction projects. The aim of this paper is to develop a set of wide-ranging SR indicators which encompass social, economic and environmental aspects unique to the KSA. A qualitative approach was applied to explore relevant indicators through a review of the existing literature, international standards and reports. A list of appropriate indicators was developed, and its comprehensiveness was corroborated by interviews with experts on mega construction projects working with SR concepts in the KSA. The findings present 39 indicators and their metrics, covering 10 economic, 12 environmental and 17 social aspects of SR mapped against their references. These indicators are a valuable reference for decision-makers and academics in the KSA to understand factors related to SR in mega construction projects. The indicators are related to mega construction projects within the KSA and require validation in a real case scenario or within a different industry to demonstrate their generalisability.

Keywords: social responsibility, construction projects, economic, social, environmental, indicators

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Authors: YU Kaijun, Liang Dong, Zhang Yarong, Jin Zhenzhou, Yang Zhaobao

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For the impact monitoring of distributed structures, the traditional positioning methods are based on the time difference, which includes the four-point arc positioning method and the triangulation positioning method. But in the actual operation, these two methods have errors. In this paper, the Multi-Agent Blackboard Coordination Principle is used to combine the two methods. Fusion steps: (1) The four-point arc locating agent calculates the initial point and records it to the Blackboard Module.(2) The triangulation agent gets its initial parameters by accessing the initial point.(3) The triangulation agent constantly accesses the blackboard module to update its initial parameters, and it also logs its calculated point into the blackboard.(4) When the subsequent calculation point and the initial calculation point are within the allowable error, the whole coordination fusion process is finished. This paper presents a Multi-Agent collaboration method whose agent framework is JADE. The JADE platform consists of several agent containers, with the agent running in each container. Because of the perfect management and debugging tools of the JADE, it is very convenient to deal with complex data in a large structure. Finally, based on the data in Jade, the results show that the impact location method based on Multi-Agent coordination fusion can reduce the error of the two methods.

Keywords: impact monitoring, structural health monitoring(SHM), multi-agent system(MAS), black-board coordination, JADE

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Authors: Suraphan Rattanavadi

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This research was a study based on an application of used glass in producing glaze on ceramics. The aim was to identify the factors in the production process that affected ceramic product property when used glass was applied as the ceramic glaze. The study factors included appropriate materials, appropriate temperature used in fusion process, percentage of water absorption, fluidity, crazing and appropriate proportion in glaze production by Biaxial Blend Technique and use of oxide in glaze coloring both on test and real product. The test of fluidity revealed that the glazes number 15 and 16 had appropriate fluidity ratio for use as basic glaze. When each glaze was mixed with oxide at different proportion, it was discovered that the glaze number 16 showed glossy brown with beautiful but not clear crazing, due to its dark shade. This was from the mixture of kaolin and pieces of glass at the ratio of 1:3 (kaolin : pieces of glass), affecting at 10% with iron oxide. When 0.5% of copper carbonate and 0.1% of tin oxide were added, the result was the glaze with glossy, Muzo emerald (green- blue) color with beautiful and clear crazing. Lastly, 0.4% of cobalt carbonate was added, ending in the glaze with glossy, bright blue with beautiful but not clear, due to its dark shade.

Keywords: glaze, recycled, bottle glass, ceramic

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Authors: I. Nazari, B. Shaabani, P. Abaasifar

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In small quantities certain heavy metals are nutritionally essential for a healthy life. The heavy metals linked most often to human poisoning are lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Other heavy metals including copper, zinc and chromium are actually required by the body in small quantity but can also be toxic in large doses. Nowadays, we have contamination to this heavy metals in some untreated industrial waste waters and even in several populated cities drinking waters around the world. The contamination of ground and underground water sources to heavy metals can be concentrated and travel up to food chain by drinking water and agricultural products. In recent years, the need for safe and economical methods for removal of heavy metals from contaminated water has necessitated research interest towards the finding low-cost alternatives. Bio-adsorbents have emerged as low-cost and efficient materials for the removal of heavy metals from waste and ground waters. The bio-adsorbents have an affinity for heavy metals ions to form metal complexes or chelates due to having functional groups including carboxyl, hydroxyl, imidazole, and etc. The objective of this study is to review researches in less expensive adsorbents and their utilization possibilities for various low-cost bio-adsorbents such as coffee beans, rice husk, and saw dust for the removal of heavy metals from contaminated waters.

Keywords: heavy metals, water pollution, bio-adsorbents, low cost adsorbents

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Authors: Moon Moon Devi, Ran Budnik

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The current large area cosmic ray detector surface arrays typically measure only the net flux and arrival-time of the charged particles produced in an extensive air shower (EAS). Measurement of the individual charged particles at a surface array will provide additional distinguishing parameters to identify the primary and to map the very high energy interactions in the upper layers of the atmosphere. In turn, these may probe anomalies in QCD interactions at energies beyond the reach of current accelerators. The recent attempts of studying the individual muon tracks are limited in their expandability to larger arrays and can only probe primary particles with energy up to about 10^15.5 eV. New developments in detector technology allow for a realistic cost of large area detectors, however with limitations on energy resolutions, directional information, and dynamic range. In this study, we perform a simulation study using CORSIKA to combine the energy spectrum and lateral spread of the muons with the longitudinal depth (Xmax) of an EAS initiated by a primary at ultra high energies (10¹⁶ – 10¹⁹) eV. Using proton and iron as the shower primaries, we show that the muon observables and Xmax together can be used to distinguish the primary. This study can be used to design a future detector for the surface array, which will be able to enhance our knowledge of primaries and QCD interactions.

Keywords: ultra high energy extensive air shower, muon tracking, air shower primaries, QCD interactions

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Authors: Grichting Anna, Al Sada Sara, Caccayam Angelica, Khan Urshi

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The Qatar Museums Authority recently announced a series of public art initiatives in Doha with the purpose of 'bringing art out of the walls of the museum' to make it accessible to the public on a daily basis and to encourage discussion and debate. While the installation of sculptures in public spaces is not new in Doha, the practice of integrating art in public spaces and architectural projects is reaching a new dimension as internationally renowned artists – such as Damien Hirst and Richard Serra - are being commissioned to install their works in the public spaces and buildings of the city of Doha as well as in more remote desert locations. This research discusses the changing presence, role and context of public art in Doha, both from a historical and cultural overview, and the different forms and media as well as the typologies of urban and public spaces in which the art is installed. It examines the process of implementing site-specific artworks, looking at questions of scale, history, social meaning and formal aesthetics. The methodologies combine theoretical research on the understanding of public art and its role and placement in public space, as well as empirical research on contemporary public art projects in Doha, based on documentation and interviews and as well as site and context analysis of the urban or architectural spaces within which the art is situated. Surveys and interviews – using social media - in different segments of the contemporary Qatari society, including all nationalities and social groups, are used to measure and qualify the impacts and effects on the population.

Keywords: public space, public art, urban design, knowledge economy

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Authors: Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Abouelmagd

Abstract:

The diversity is the usual remedy of the transmitted signal level variations (Fading phenomena) in radio frequency channels. Diversity techniques utilize two or more copies of a signal and combine those signals to combat fading. The basic concept of diversity is to transmit the signal via several independent diversity branches to get independent signal replicas via time – frequency - space - and polarization diversity domains. Coding and decoding processes can be an alternative remedy for fading phenomena, it cannot increase the channel capacity, but it can improve the error performance. In this paper we propose the use of replication decoding with BCH code class, and Viterbi decoding algorithm with convolution coding; as examples of coding and decoding processes. The results are compared to those obtained from two optimized selection space diversity techniques. The performance of Rayleigh fading channel, as the model considered for radio frequency channels, is evaluated for each case. The evaluation results show that the coding and decoding approaches, especially the BCH coding approach with replication decoding scheme, give better performance compared to that of selection space diversity optimization approaches. Also, an approach for combining the coding and decoding diversity as well as the space diversity is considered, the main disadvantage of this approach is its complexity but it yields good performance results.

Keywords: Rayleigh fading, diversity, BCH codes, Replication decoding, ‎convolution coding, viterbi decoding, space diversity

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Authors: A. Nguyen, K. Nguyen, J. Jackson, E. Manlapig

Abstract:

With the recent advancement in core imaging systems, a large volume of high resolution drill core images can now be collected rapidly. This paper presents a method for rapid prediction of ore-specific breakage parameters from high resolution mineral classified core images. The aim is to allow for a rapid assessment of the variability in ore hardness within a mineral deposit with reduced amount of physical breakage tests. This method sees its application primarily in project evaluation phase, where proper evaluation of the variability in ore hardness of the orebody normally requires prolong and costly metallurgical test work program. Applying this image-based texture analysis method on mineral classified core images, the ores are classified according to their textural characteristics. A small number of physical tests are performed to produce a dataset used for developing the relationship between texture classes and measured ore hardness. The paper also presents a case study in which this method has been applied on core samples from a copper porphyry deposit to predict the ore-specific breakage A*b parameter, obtained from JKRBT tests.

Keywords: geometallurgy, hyperspectral drill core imaging, process simulation, texture analysis

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Authors: Maryam Hasheminasab, Ahmed Cheldavi, Ahmed Kishk

Abstract:

Frequency-diverse arrays (FDAs) have garnered significant attention from researchers due to their ability to combine frequency diversity with the inherent spatial diversity of an array. The introduction of frequency diversity in FDAs enables the generation of auto-scanning patterns that are range-dependent, which can have advantageous applications in communication and radar systems. However, the main challenge in implementing FDAs lies in determining the technique for distributing frequencies among the array elements. One approach to address this challenge is by utilizing coupled oscillators, which are a technique commonly employed in active microwave theory. Nevertheless, the limited stability range of coupled oscillators poses another obstacle to effectively utilizing this technique. In this paper, we explore the possibility of employing a coupled oscillator array in the mode lock state (MLS) for implementing frequency distribution in FDAs. Additionally, we propose and simulate the use of a digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) as a backup technique to stabilize the oscillators. Through simulations, we validate the functionality of this technique. This technique holds great promise for advancing the implementation of phased arrays and overcoming current scan rate and phase shifter limitations, especially in millimeter wave frequencies.

Keywords: angle-changing rate, auto scanning beam, pull-in range, hold-in range, locking range, mode locked state, frequency locked state

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Authors: Shimaa Nagro, Russell Campion

Abstract:

Mobile devices are becoming ever more widely available, with growing functionality, and they are increasingly used as enabling technology to give students access to educational material anytime and anywhere. However, the design of educational material's user interfaces for mobile devices is beset by many unresolved research problems such as those arising from constraints associated with mobile devices or from issues linked to effective learning. The proposed research aims to produce: (i) a method framework for the design and evaluation of educational material’s interfaces to be delivered on mobile devices, in multimedia form based on Human Computer Interaction strategies; and (ii) a software tool implemented as a fast-track alternative to use the method framework in full. The investigation will combine qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews and questionnaires for data collection and three case studies for validating the method framework. The method framework is a framework to enable an educational designer to effectively and efficiently create educational multimedia interfaces to be used on mobile devices by following a particular methodology that contains practical and usable tools and techniques. It is a method framework that accepts any educational material in its final lesson plan and deals with this plan as a static element, it will not suggest any changes in any information given in the lesson plan but it will help the instructor to design his final lesson plan in a multimedia format to be presented in mobile devices.

Keywords: mobile learning, M-Learn, HCI, educational multimedia, interface design

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Authors: Anand Prakash Dwivedi, Sounak Kumar Choudhury

Abstract:

Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) is a well-established and one of the most primitive unconventional manufacturing processes, that is used world-wide for the machining of geometrically complex or hard and electrically conductive materials which are extremely difficult to cut by any other conventional machining process. One of the major flaws, over all its advantages, is its very slow Material Removal Rate (MRR). In order to eradicate this slow machining rate, various researchers have proposed various methods like; providing rotational motion to the tool or work-piece or to both, mixing of conducting additives (such as SiC, Cr, Al, graphite etc) powders in the dielectric, providing vibrations to the tool or work-piece or to both etc. Present work is a comparative study of Rotational and Stationary Tool EDM, which deals with providing rotational motion to the copper tool for the machining of AISI D3 Tool Steel and the results have been compared with stationary tool EDM. It has been found that the tool rotation substantially increases the MRR up to 28%. The average surface finish increases around 9-10% by using the rotational tool EDM. The average tool wear increment is observed to be around 19% due to the tool rotation. Apart from this, the present work also focusses on the recast layer analysis, which are being re-deposited on the work-piece surface during the operation. The recast layer thickness is less in case of Rotational EDM and more for Stationary Tool EDM. Moreover, the cracking on the re-casted surface is also more for stationary tool EDM as compared with the rotational EDM.

Keywords: EDM, MRR, Ra, TWR

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Authors: N. Bazyar Shourabi, K. Nyarko, C. Scott, M. Jeihnai

Abstract:

Ground drones have the potential to reduce the cost and time of making last-mile deliveries. They also have the potential to make a huge impact on human life. Despite this potential, little work has gone into developing a suitable feasibility model for ground drone delivery in dense urban areas. Today, most of the experimental ground delivery drones utilize sidewalks only, with just a few of them starting to use bike lanes, which a significant portion of some urban areas have. This study works on the feasibility of using bike lanes in conjunction with sidewalks for ground drone applications in last-mile delivery for dense urban areas. This work begins with surveying bike lanes and sidewalks within the city of Boston using Geographic Information System (GIS) software to determine the percentage of coverage currently available within the city. Then six scenarios are examined. Based on this research, a mathematical model is developed. The daily cost of delivering packages using each scenario is calculated by the mathematical model. Comparing the drone delivery scenarios with the traditional method of package delivery using trucks will provide essential information concerning the feasibility of implementing routing protocols that combine the use of sidewalks and bike lanes. The preliminary results of the model show that ground drones that can travel via sidewalks or bike lanes have the potential to significantly reduce delivery cost.

Keywords: ground drone, intelligent transportation system, last-mile delivery, sidewalk robot

Procedia PDF Downloads 116