Search results for: power set point

Authors: Ira Solomatina

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This paper looks at the role of fashion and clothes in the context of the late nineteenth-century Indian zenana. It suggests that fashion and clothes served as tools for self-assertion and empowerment among the zenana women, allowing them to negotiate between tradition and modernity and establish themselves as modern subjects. In pre-Independence India and in upper-class Indians households, zenana was women's part of the house, where women lived separately from men and in seclusion (purdah). To male colonial scholars and officials, zenana remained impenetrable, inviting speculations about the position of the zenana women. In the colonial imagination, the Indian woman was not only the helpless victim, oppressed by the Indian man but also the agent of deviant sexuality. Consequently, in the colonial British scholarship, zenana was portrayed as a space of idleness, perverse sexuality, ignorance, and illness. Contrary to the dominating ideas about zenana, some Western women writers presented more varied accounts of the zenana life, noting on the good education, dignified manners, and sophisticated fashion choices of the women in the zenana. Contemporary research by postcolonial scholars shows that zenana women in purdah travelled, had access to education and political power. The history of India has examples of women rulers in purdah and more than enough instances of zenana women influencing politics and culture. Zenana, in short, was not an ahistorical, dark realm of idleness but the space of culture and a space impacted by modernity. The paper proves that in the context of zenana, clothes, and fashion provided a visual vocabulary for the women to establish themselves as modern subjects and negotiate between modernity and tradition. To do so, it relies on photographs of zenana women and written accounts about and from the nineteenth-century zenana.

Keywords: woman's fashion, colonial India, modernity, zenana

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Authors: Chih-Chung Huang, Po-Hsun Peng

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Ultrasound transient elastography has become a valuable tool for many clinical diagnoses, such as liver diseases and breast cancer. The pathological tissue can be distinguished by elastography due to its stiffness is different from surrounding normal tissues. An ultrafast frame rate of ultrasound imaging is needed for transient elastography modality. The elastography obtained in the ultrafast system suffers from a low quality for resolution, and affects the robustness of the transient elastography. In order to overcome these problems, a coherent plane wave compounding technique has been proposed for conventional ultrasound system which the operating frequency is around 3-15 MHz. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel beamforming technique for high frequency ultrasound coherent plane-wave compounding imaging and the simulated results will provide the standards for hardware developments. Plane-wave compounding imaging produces a series of low-resolution images, which fires whole elements of an array transducer in one shot with different inclination angles and receives the echoes by conventional beamforming, and compounds them coherently. Simulations of plane-wave compounding image and focused transmit image were performed using Field II. All images were produced by point spread functions (PSFs) and cyst phantoms with a 64-element linear array working at 35MHz center frequency, 55% bandwidth, and pitch of 0.05 mm. The F number is 1.55 in all the simulations. The simulated results of PSFs and cyst phantom which were obtained using single, 17, 43 angles plane wave transmission (angle of each plane wave is separated by 0.75 degree), and focused transmission. The resolution and contrast of image were improved with the number of angles of firing plane wave. The lateral resolutions for different methods were measured by -10 dB lateral beam width. Comparison of the plane-wave compounding image and focused transmit image, both images exhibited the same lateral resolution of 70 um as 37 angles were performed. The lateral resolution can reach 55 um as the plane-wave was compounded 47 angles. All the results show the potential of using high-frequency plane-wave compound imaging for realizing the elastic properties of the microstructure tissue, such as eye, skin and vessel walls in the future.

Keywords: plane wave imaging, high frequency ultrasound, elastography, beamforming

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Authors: Supatra Karnjanapratum, Soottawat Benjakul

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Gelatin hydrolysate, especially from marine resource, has been known to possess antioxidative activity. Nevertheless, the activity is still lower in comparison with the commercially available antioxidant. Maillard reactions can be use to increase antioxidative activity of gelatin hydrolysate, in which the numerous amino group could be involved in glycation. In the present study, gelatin hydrolysate (GH) from unicorn leatherjacket skin prepared using glycyl endopeptidase with prior autolysis assisted process was used for preparation of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) under dry condition. The impacts of different factors including, types of saccharides, GH to saccharide ratio, incubation temperatures, relative humidity (RH) and times on antioxidative activity of MRPs were investigated. MRPs prepared using the mixture of GH and galactose showed the highest antioxidative activity as determined by both ABTS radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power during heating (0-48 h) at 60 °C with 65% RH, compared with those derived from other saccharide tested. GH to galactose ratio at 2:1 (w/w) yielded the MRPs with the highest antioxidative activity, followed by the ratios of 1:1 and 1:2, respectively. When the effects of incubation temperatures (50, 60, 70 °C) and RH (55, 65, 75%) were examined, the highest browning index and the absorbance at 280 nm were found at 70 °C, regardless of RH. The pH and free amino group content of MRPs were decreased with the concomitant increase in antioxidative activity as the reaction time increased. Antioxidative activity of MRPs generally increased with increasing temperature and the highest antioxidative activity was found when RH of 55% was used. Based on electrophoresis of MRP, the polymerization along with the formation of high molecular weight material was observed. The optimal condition for preparing antioxidative MRPs was heating the mixture of GH and galactose (2:1) at 70 °C and 55% RH for 36 h. Therefore, antioxidative activity of GH was improved by Maillard reaction and the resulting MRP could be used as natural antioxidant in food products.

Keywords: antioxidative activity, gelatin hydrolysate, maillard reaction, unicorn leatherjacket

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Authors: Chuang-Hung Lin, Cheng-Yuan Hsu, Jia-Yan Lin

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It is an indispensible strategy to adopt greenery approach on architectural bases so as to improve ecological habitats, decrease heat-island effect, purify air quality, and relieve surface runoff as well as noise pollution, all of which are done in an attempt to achieve sustainable environment. How we can do with plant design to attain the best visual quality and ideal carbon dioxide fixation depends on whether or not we can appropriately make use of greenery according to the nature of architectural bases. To achieve the goal, it is a need that architects and landscape architects should be provided with sufficient local references. Current greenery studies focus mainly on the heat-island effect of urban with large scale. Most of the architects still rely on people with years of expertise regarding the adoption and disposition of plantation in connection with microclimate scale. Therefore, environmental design, which integrates science and aesthetics, requires fundamental research on landscape environment technology divided from building environment technology. By doing so, we can create mutual benefits between green building and the environment. This issue is extremely important for the greening design of the bases of green buildings in cities and various open spaces. The purpose of this study is to establish plant selection and allocation strategies under different building sunshade levels. Initially, with the shading of sunshine on the greening bases as the starting point, the effects of the shades produced by different building types on the greening strategies were analyzed. Then, by measuring the PAR( photosynthetic active radiation), the relative DLI( daily light integral) was calculated, while the DLI Map was established in order to evaluate the effects of the building shading on the established environmental greening, thereby serving as a reference for plant selection and allocation. The discussion results were to be applied in the evaluation of environment greening of greening buildings and establish the “right plant, right place” design strategy of multi-level ecological greening for application in urban design and landscape design development, as well as the greening criteria to feedback to the eco-city greening buildings.

Keywords: daily light integral, plant design, urban open space

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Authors: Dalila Lino

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The power of play for learning and development in early childhood education is beyond question. The main goal of this study is to analyse how three contemporary early childhood pedagogical approaches, the High Scope, the Modern School Movement (MEM) and the Pedagogy of Participation integrate play in their curriculum development. From this main goal the following objectives emerged: (i) to characterize how play is integrated in the daily routine of the pedagogical approaches under study; (ii) to analyse the teachers’ role during children’s playing situations; (iii) to identify the types of play that children are more often involved. The methodology used is the qualitative approach and is situated under the interpretative paradigm. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews to 30 preschool teachers and through observations of typical daily routines. The participants are 30 Portuguese preschool classrooms attending children from 3 to 6 years and working with the High Scope curriculum (10 classrooms), the MEM (10 classrooms) and the Pedagogy of Participation (10 classrooms). The qualitative method of content analysis was used to analyse the data. To ensure confidentiality, no information is disclosed without participants' consent, and the interviews were transcribed and sent to the participants for a final revision. The results show that there are differences how play is integrated and promoted in the three pedagogical approaches. The teachers’ role when children are at play varies according the pedagogical approach adopted, and also according to the teachers’ understanding about the meaning of play. The study highlights the key role that early childhood curriculum models have to promote opportunities for children to play, and therefore to be involved in meaningful learning.

Keywords: curriculum models, early childhood education, pedagogy, play

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Authors: Chhabi Nigam, S. Ramakrishnan

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This paper brings out the analysis of the airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to study the impact of Doppler centroid on Image quality and geocoding accuracy from the perspective of Stripmap mode of data acquisition. Although in Stripmap mode of data acquisition radar beam points at 90 degrees broad side (side looking), shift in the Doppler centroid is invariable due to platform motion. In-accurate estimation of Doppler centroid leads to poor image quality and image miss-registration. The effect of Doppler centroid is analyzed in this paper using multiple sets of data collected from airborne platform. Occurrences of ghost (ambiguous) targets and their power levels have been analyzed that impacts appropriate choice of PRF. Effect of aircraft attitudes (roll, pitch and yaw) on the Doppler centroid is also analyzed with the collected data sets. Various stages of the RDA (Range Doppler Algorithm) algorithm used for image formation in Stripmap mode, range compression, Doppler centroid estimation, azimuth compression, range cell migration correction are analyzed to find the performance limits and the dependence of the imaging geometry on the final image. The ability of Doppler centroid estimation to enhance the imaging accuracy for registration are also illustrated in this paper. The paper also tries to bring out the processing of low squint SAR data, the challenges and the performance limits imposed by the imaging geometry and the platform dynamics on the final image quality metrics. Finally, the effect on various terrain types, including land, water and bright scatters is also presented.

Keywords: ambiguous target, Doppler Centroid, image registration, Airborne SAR

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Authors: Lowai Abed

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The differences in languages play a big role in cross-cultural communication. If meanings are not translated accurately, the risk can be crucial not only on an interpersonal level, but also on the international and political levels. The use of metaphorical language by politicians can cause great confusion, often leading to statements being misconstrued. In these situations, it is the translators who struggle to put forward the intended meaning with clarity and this makes translation an important field to study and analyze when it comes to cross-cultural communication. Owing to the growing importance of language and the power of translation in politics, this research analyzes part of President Bush’s speech in 2001 in which he used the word “Crusade” which caused his statement to be misconstrued. The research uses a discourse analysis of cross-cultural communication literature which provides answers supported by historical, linguistic, and communicative perspectives. The first finding indicates that the word ‘crusade’ carries different meaning and significance in the narratives of the Western world when compared to the Middle East. The second one is that, linguistically, maintaining cultural meanings through translation is quite difficult and challenging. Third, when it comes to the cross-cultural communication perspective, the common and frequent usage of literal translation is a sign of poor strategies being followed in translation training. Based on the example of Bush’s speech, this paper hopes to highlight the weak practices in translation in cross-cultural communication which are still commonly used across the world. Translation studies have to take issues such as this seriously and attempt to find a solution. In every language, there are words and phrases that have cultural, historical and social meanings that are woven into the language. Literal translation is not the solution for this problem because that strategy is unable to convey these meanings in the target language.

Keywords: crusade, metaphor, mistranslation, war in terror

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Authors: Emilienne Lardy, Eric Ballot, Mariam Lafkihi

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Efficient urban logistics requires a comprehensive understanding of traffic dynamics, particularly as it pertains to kinetic parameters influencing energy consumption and trip duration estimations. While real-time traffic information is increasingly accessible, current high-precision forecasting services embedded in route planning often function as opaque 'black boxes' for users. These services, typically relying on AI-processed counting data, fall short in accommodating open design parameters essential for management studies, notably within Supply Chain Management. This work revisits the modelling of traffic conditions in the context of city logistics, emphasizing its significance from the user’s point of view, with two focuses. Firstly, the focus is not on the vehicle flow but on the vehicles themselves and the impact of the traffic conditions on their driving behaviour. This means opening the range of studied indicators beyond vehicle speed, to describe extensively the kinetic and dynamic aspects of the driving behaviour. To achieve this, we leverage the Art. Kinema parameters are designed to characterize driving cycles. Secondly, this study examines how the driving context (i.e., exogenous factors to the traffic flow) determines the mentioned driving behaviour. Specifically, we explore how accurately the kinetic behaviour of a vehicle can be predicted based on a limited set of exogenous factors, such as time, day, road type, orientation, slope, and weather conditions. To answer this question, statistical analysis was conducted on real-world driving data, which includes high-frequency measurements of vehicle speed. A Factor Analysis and a Generalized Linear Model have been established to link kinetic parameters with independent categorical contextual variables. The results include an assessment of the adjustment quality and the robustness of the models, as well as an overview of the model’s outputs.

Keywords: factor analysis, generalised linear model, real world driving data, traffic congestion, urban logistics, vehicle kinematics

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Authors: L. K. Nivedha, V. Maruthapandian, R. Kothandaraman

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Rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZAB) are gaining significant research attention owing to their high energy density and copious zinc resources worldwide. However, the unsolved obstacles such as dendrites, passivation, depth of discharge and the lack of an efficient cathode catalyst restrict their practical application1. By and large, non-noble transition metal-based catalysts are well-reputed materials for catalysing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with greater stability in alkaline medium2. Herein, we report the synthesis and application of Mn₃O4-NiFeLDH/Carbon composite as a cathode catalyst for rechargeable ZAB. The synergetic effects of the mixed transition metals (Mn/Ni/Fe) have aided in catalysing ORR and OER in alkaline electrolyte with a shallow potential gap of 0.7 V. The composite, by its distinctive physicochemical characteristics, shows an excellent OER activity with a current density of 1.5 mA cm⁻² at a potential of 1.6 V and a superior ORR activity with an onset potential of 0.8 V when compared with their counterparts. Nevertheless, the catalyst prefers a two-electron pathway for the electrochemical reduction of oxygen which results in a limiting current density of 2.5 mA cm⁻². The bifunctional activity of the Mn₃O₄-NiFeLDH/Carbon composite was utilized in developing rechargeable ZAB. The fully fabricated ZAB delivers an open circuit voltage of 1.4 V, a peak power density of 70 mW cm⁻², and a specific capacity of 800 mAh g⁻¹ at a current density of 20 mA cm⁻² with an average discharge voltage of 1 V and the cell is operable upto 50 mA cm-2. Rechargeable ZAB demonstrated over 110 h at 10 mA cm⁻². Further, the cause for the diminished charge-discharge performance experienced beyond the 100th cycle was investigated, and carbon corrosion was testified using Infrared spectroscopy.

Keywords: rechargeable zinc-air battery, oxygen evolution reaction, bifunctional catalyst, alkaline medium

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Authors: Suresh Kumar Reddy Narala, Rakesh Kumar Gunda

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In modern industry, mechanical parts are subjected to friction and wear, leading to heat generation, which affects the reliability, life and power consumption of machinery. To overcome the tribological losses due to friction and wear, a significant portion of lubricant with high viscous properties allows very smooth relative motion between two sliding surfaces. Advancement in modern tribology has facilitated the use of applying solid lubricants in various industrial applications. Solid lubricant additives with high viscous thin film formation between the sliding surfaces can adequately wet and adhere to a work surface. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to investigate and evaluate the tribological studies of various solid lubricants like MoS¬2, graphite, and boric acid at different sliding conditions. The base oil used in this study was SAE 40 oil with a viscosity of 220 cSt at 400C. The tribological properties were measured on pin-on-disc tribometer. An experimental set-up has been developed for effective supply of solid lubricants to the pin-disc interface zone. The results obtained from the experiments show that the friction coefficient increases with increase in applied load for all the considered environments. The tribological properties with MoS2 solid lubricant exhibit larger load carrying capacity than that of graphite and boric acid. The present research work also contributes to the understanding of the behavior of film thickness distribution of solid lubricant using potential contact technique under different sliding conditions. The results presented in this research work are expected to form a scientific basis for selecting the best solid lubricant in various industrial applications for possible minimization of friction and wear.

Keywords: friction, wear, temperature, solid lubricant

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Authors: Lilian Bambirra De Assis, Patricia Albuquerque Gomes, Kamila Pagel De Oliveira, Deborah Oliveira Santos, Marcelo Esteves Chaves Campos

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This paper aimed to analyze how performance management occurs in the context of the modernization of the federal public sector in Chile and Portugal. To do so, the study was based on a theoretical framework that covers the modernization of public administration to performance management, passing on people management. The work consisted of qualitative-descriptive research in which 16 semi-structured interviews were applied in the countries of study and documents and legislation were used referring to the subject. Performance management, as well as other people management subsystems, is criticized for using private sector management tools, based on a results-driven logic. From this point of view, it is understood that certain practices of the private sector, regarding the measurement of performance, can not be simply inserted in the scenario of the public administration. Beyond this criticism, performance management can contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the countries and its focus is upward, a trend that can be verified through the manuals produced; by the interest of consultants and professional organizations, both public and private; and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) evaluations. In Portugal, public administration reform was implemented during the Constitutional Government (2005-2009) and had as its objective the restructuring of human resources management, with an emphasis on its integration with budget management, which is an inclination of the OECD, while in Chile HRM (Human Resource Management) practices are directed to ministries to a lesser extent than the OECD average. The central human resources management sector, for the most part, coordinates policy but is also responsible for other issues, including payment and classification systems. Chile makes less use of strategic Human Resource Management practices than the average of OECD countries, and its prominence lies in the decentralization of public bodies, which may grant autonomy, but fragments the implementation of policies and practices in that country since they are not adopted by all organs. Through the analysis, it was possible to identify that Chile and Portugal have practices and personnel management policies that make reference to performance management, which is similar to other OECD countries. The study countries also have limitations to implement performance management and the results indicate that there are still processes to be perfected, such as performance appraisal and compensation.

Keywords: management of people in the public sector, modernization of public administration, performance management in the public sector, HRM, OECD

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Authors: Don Anushka Sandaruwan Elvitigala, P. D. S. U. Wickramasinghe, Jehee Lee

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Cystatins are a large superfamily of proteins which act as reversible inhibitors of cysteine proteases. Papain proteases and cysteine cathepsins are predominant substrates of cystatins. Cystatin superfamily can be further clustered into three groups as Stefins, Cystatins, and Kininogens. Among them, stefines are also known as family 1 cystatins which harbors cystatin Bs and cystatin As. In this study, a homologue of family one cystatins more close to cystatin Bs was identified from Korean black rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli) using a prior constructed cDNA (complementary deoxyribonucleic acid) database and designated as RfCyt1. The full-length cDNA of RfCyt1 consisted of 573 bp, with a coding region of 294 bp. It comprised a 5´-untranslated region (UTR) of 55 bp, and 3´-UTR of 263 bp. The coding sequence encodes a polypeptide consisting of 97 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 11kDa and theoretical isoelectric point of 6.3. The RfCyt1 shared homology with other teleosts and vertebrate species and consisted conserved features of cystatin family signature including single cystatin-like domain, cysteine protease inhibitory signature of pentapeptide (QXVXG) consensus sequence and N-terminal two conserved neighboring glycine (⁸GG⁹) residues. As expected, phylogenetic reconstruction developed using the neighbor-joining method showed that RfCyt1 is clustered with the cystatin family 1 members, in which more closely with its teleostan orthologues. An SYBR Green qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) assay was performed to quantify the RfCytB transcripts in different tissues in healthy and immune stimulated fish. RfCyt1 was ubiquitously expressed in all tissue types of healthy animals with gill and spleen being the highest. Temporal expression of RfCyt1 displayed significant up-regulation upon infection with Aeromonas salmonicida. Recombinantly expressed RfCyt1 showed concentration-dependent papain inhibitory activity. Collectively these findings evidence for detectable protease inhibitory and immunity relevant roles of RfCyt1 in Sebastes schlegeli.

Keywords: Sebastes schlegeli, family 1 cystatin, immune stimulation, expressional modulation

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Authors: Flavio Cannavo

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Continuous evaluation of the status of potentially hazardous volcanos plays a key role for civil protection purposes. The importance of monitoring volcanic activity, especially for energetic paroxysms that usually come with tephra emissions, is crucial not only for exposures to the local population but also for airline traffic. Presently, real-time surveillance of most volcanoes worldwide is essentially delegated to one or more human experts in volcanology, who interpret data coming from different kind of monitoring networks. Unfavorably, the high nonlinearity of the complex and coupled volcanic dynamics leads to a large variety of different volcanic behaviors. Moreover, continuously measured parameters (e.g. seismic, deformation, infrasonic and geochemical signals) are often not able to fully explain the ongoing phenomenon, thus making the fast volcano state assessment a very puzzling task for the personnel on duty at the control rooms. With the aim of aiding the personnel on duty in volcano surveillance, here we introduce a system based on an ensemble of data-driven classifiers to infer automatically the ongoing volcano status from all the available different kind of measurements. The system consists of a heterogeneous set of independent classifiers, each one built with its own data and algorithm. Each classifier gives an output about the volcanic status. The ensemble technique allows weighting the single classifier output to combine all the classifications into a single status that maximizes the performance. We tested the model on the Mt. Etna (Italy) case study by considering a long record of multivariate data from 2011 to 2015 and cross-validated it. Results indicate that the proposed model is effective and of great power for decision-making purposes.

Keywords: Bayesian networks, expert system, mount Etna, volcano monitoring

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Authors: Taslim Khan, Ray Hua Horng, Rajendra Singh

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This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the design, fabrication, and performance evaluation of a solar-blind Schottky photodetector based on ZnGa₂O₄ grown via MOCVD, utilizing Ni/Au as the Schottky electrode. ZnGa₂O₄, with its wide bandgap of 5.2 eV, is well-suited for high-performance solar-blind photodetection applications. The photodetector demonstrates an impressive responsivity of 280 A/W, indicating its exceptional sensitivity within the solar-blind ultraviolet band. One of the device's notable attributes is its high rejection ratio of 10⁵, which effectively filters out unwanted background signals, enhancing its reliability in various environments. The photodetector also boasts a photodetector responsivity contrast ratio (PDCR) of 10⁷, showcasing its ability to detect even minor changes in incident UV light. Additionally, the device features an outstanding detective of 10¹⁸ Jones, underscoring its capability to precisely detect faint UV signals. It exhibits a fast response time of 80 ms and an ON/OFF ratio of 10⁵, making it suitable for real-time UV sensing applications. The noise-equivalent power (NEP) of 10^-17 W/Hz further highlights its efficiency in detecting low-intensity UV signals. The photodetector also achieves a high forward-to-backward current rejection ratio of 10⁶, ensuring high selectivity. Furthermore, the device maintains an extremely low dark current of approximately 0.1 pA. These findings position the ZnGa₂O₄-based Schottky photodetector as a leading candidate for solar-blind UV detection applications. It offers a compelling combination of sensitivity, selectivity, and operational efficiency, making it a highly promising tool for environments requiring precise and reliable UV detection.

Keywords: wideband gap, solar blind photodetector, MOCVD, zinc gallate

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Authors: Mona Awad Wanis Gad

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The method of factory making plans has changed loads, in particular, whilst it's miles approximately making plans the factory building itself. Factory making plans have the venture of designing merchandise, plants, tactics, organization, regions, and the construction of a factory. Ordinary restructuring is turning into greater essential for you to preserve the competitiveness of a manufacturing unit. Regulations in new regions, shorter lifestyle cycles of product and manufacturing era, in addition to a VUCA global (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) cause extra common restructuring measures inside a factory. A digital factory model is the planning foundation for rebuilding measures and turns into a critical device. Furthermore, digital building fashions are increasingly being utilized in factories to help facility management and manufacturing processes. First, exclusive styles of digital manufacturing unit fashions are investigated, and their residences and usabilities to be used instances are analyzed. Within the scope of research are point cloud fashions, building statistics fashions, photogrammetry fashions, and those enriched with sensor information are tested. It investigated which digital fashions permit a simple integration of sensor facts and in which the variations are. In the end, viable application areas of virtual manufacturing unit models are determined by a survey, and the respective digital manufacturing facility fashions are assigned to the application areas. Ultimately, an application case from upkeep is selected and implemented with the assistance of the best virtual factory version. It is shown how a completely digitalized preservation process can be supported by a digital manufacturing facility version by offering facts. Among different functions, the virtual manufacturing facility version is used for indoor navigation, facts provision, and display of sensor statistics. In summary, the paper suggests a structuring of virtual factory fashions that concentrates on the geometric representation of a manufacturing facility building and its technical facilities. A practical application case is proven and implemented. For that reason, the systematic selection of virtual manufacturing facility models with the corresponding utility cases is evaluated.

Keywords: augmented reality, digital factory model, factory planning, restructuring digital factory model, photogrammetry, factory planning, restructuring building information modeling, digital factory model, factory planning, maintenance

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Authors: Keundong Lee, Dongha Yoo, Youngbin Tchoe, Gyu-Chul Yi

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Light emitting diode (LED) array is an ideal optical stimulation tool for optogenetics, which controls inhibition and excitation of specific neurons with light-sensitive ion channels or pumps. Although a fiber-optic cable with an external light source, either a laser or LED mechanically connected to the end of the fiber-optic cable has widely been used for illumination on neural tissue, a new approach to use micro LEDs (µLEDs) has recently been demonstrated. The LEDs can be placed directly either on the cortical surface or within the deep brain using a penetrating depth probe. Accordingly, this method would not need a permanent opening in the skull if the LEDs are integrated with miniature electrical power source and wireless communication. In addition, multiple color generation from single µLED cell would enable to excite and/or inhibit neurons in localized regions. Here, we demonstrate flexible and color tunable µLEDs for the optogenetic device applications. The flexible and color tunable LEDs was fabricated using multifaceted gallium nitride (GaN) nanorod arrays with GaN nanorods grown on InxGa1−xN/GaN single quantum well structures (SQW) anisotropically formed on the nanorod tips and sidewalls. For various electroluminescence (EL) colors, current injection paths were controlled through a continuous p-GaN layer depending on the applied bias voltage. The electric current was injected through different thickness and composition, thus changing the color of light from red to blue that the LED emits. We believe that the flexible and color tunable µLEDs enable us to control activities of the neuron by emitting various colors from the single µLED cell.

Keywords: light emitting diode, optogenetics, graphene, flexible optoelectronics

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Authors: Ajith Kumar S., Sankaran Namboothiri, Sankrish J., SarathKumar S., S. Anil Lal

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A numerical analysis of flow over a heated circular cylinder is done in this paper. The governing equations, Navier-Stokes, and energy equation within the Boussinesq approximation along with continuity equation are solved using hybrid FEM-FVM technique. The density gradient created due to the heating of the cylinder will induce buoyancy force, opposite to the direction of action of acceleration due to gravity, g. In the present work, the flow direction and the direction of buoyancy force are taken as same (vertical flow configuration), so that the buoyancy force accelerates the mean flow past the cylinder. The relative dominance of the buoyancy force over the inertia force is characterized by the Richardson number (Ri), which is one of the parameter that governs the flow dynamics and heat transfer in this analysis. It is well known that above a certain value of Reynolds number, Re (ratio of inertia force over the viscous forces), the unsteady Von Karman vortices can be seen shedding behind the cylinder. The shedding wake patterns could be seriously altered by heating/cooling the cylinder. The non-dimensional shedding frequency called the Strouhal number is found to be increasing as Ri increases. The aerodynamic force coefficients CL and CD are observed to change its value. In the present vertical configuration of flow over the cylinder, as Ri increases, shedding frequency gets increased and suddenly drops down to zero at a critical value of Richardson number. The unsteady vortices turn to steady standing recirculation bubbles behind the cylinder after this critical Richardson number. This phenomenon is well known in literature as "Breakdown of the Karman Vortex Street". It is interesting to see the flow structures on further increase in the Richardson number. On further heating of the cylinder surface, the size of the recirculation bubble decreases without loosing its symmetry about the horizontal axis passing through the center of the cylinder. The separation angle is found to be decreasing with Ri. Finally, we observed a second critical Richardson number, after which the the flow will be attached to the cylinder surface without any wake behind it. The flow structures will be symmetrical not only about the horizontal axis, but also with the vertical axis passing through the center of the cylinder. At this stage, there will be a "single plume" emanating from the rear stagnation point of the cylinder. We also observed the transition of the plume is a strong function of the Richardson number.

Keywords: drag reduction, flow over circular cylinder, flow control, mixed convection flow, vortex shedding, vortex breakdown

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Authors: Cathal Ffrench, Ryan Barrett, Mike Quayle

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It is accepted in social psychology that categorization leads to ingroup favoritism, without further thought given to the processes that may co-occur or even precede categorization. These categorizations move away from the conceptualization of the self as a unique social being toward an increasingly collective identity. Subsequently, many individuals derive much of their self-evaluations from these collective identities. The seminal literature on this topic argues that it is primarily categorization that evokes instances of ingroup favoritism. Apropos to these theories, we argue that categorization acts to enhance and further intergroup processes rather than defining them. More accurately, we propose categorization aids initial ingroup contact and this first contact is predictive of subsequent favoritism on individual and collective levels. This analysis focuses on Virtual Interaction APPLication (VIAPPL) based studies, a software interface that builds on the flaws of the original minimal group studies. The VIAPPL allows the exchange of tokens in an intra and inter-group manner. This token exchange is how we classified the first contact. The study involves binary longitudinal analysis to better understand the subsequent exchanges of individuals based on who they first interacted with. Studies were selected on the criteria of evidence of explicit first interactions and two-group designs. Our findings paint a compelling picture in support of a motivated contact hypothesis, which suggests that an individual’s first motivated contact toward another has strong predictive capabilities for future behavior. This contact can lead to habit formation and specific favoritism towards individuals where contact has been established. This has important implications for understanding how group conflict occurs, and how intra-group individual bias can develop.

Keywords: categorization, group dynamics, initial contact, minimal social networks, momentary contact

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Authors: Jean Ross

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Rural nursing is not an identified professional identity in the UK, unlike the USA, Canada, and Australia which recognizes rural nursing as a specialty scope of practice. In New Zealand rural nursing is an underrepresented aspect of nursing practice, is misunderstood and does not fit easily within the wider nursing profession and policies governing practice. This study situated within the New Zealand context adds to the international studies’ aligned with rural nursing practice. The study addresses a gap in the literature by striving to identify and strengthen the awareness of and increase rural nurses’ understanding and articulation of their changing and adapting identity and furthermore an opportunity to appreciate their contribution to the delivery of rural health care. In addition, this study adds to the growing global rural nursing knowledge and theoretical base. This research is a continuation of the author’s academic involvement and ongoing relationships with the rural nursing sector, national policy analysts and health care planners since the 1990s. These relationships have led to awareness, that despite rural nurses’ efforts to explain the particular nuances which make up their practice, there has been little recognition by profession to establish rural nursing as a specialty. The research explored why nurses’ who practiced in the rural Otago region of New Zealand, between the 1990s and early 2000s moved away from the traditional identity as a district, practice or public health nurse and looked towards a more appropriate identity which reflected their emerging practice. This qualitative research situated within the interpretive paradigm embeds this retrospective study within the discipline of nursing and engages with the concepts of place and governmentality. National key informant and Otago regional rural nurse interviews generated data and were analyzed using thematic analysis. Stemming from the analyses, an analytical diagrammatic matrix was developed demonstrating rural nursing as a ‘place–based practice’ governed both from within and beyond location presenting how the nurse aligns the self in the rural community as a meaningful provider of health care. Promoting this matrix may encourage a focal discussion point within the international spectrum of nursing and likewise between rural and non-rural nurses which it is hoped will generate further debate in relation to the different nuances aligned with rural nursing practice. Further, insights from this paper may capture key aspects and issues related to identity formation in respect to rural nurses, from the UK, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and Australia.

Keywords: matrix, place, nursing, rural

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Authors: Abdelrahman Elsehsah

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Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) dynamics in Riyadh over a decade were comprehensively analyzed using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. By harnessing the Landsat 8 Image collection and night-time light image collection from May to August for the years 2013 and 2023, we were able to generate insightful datasets capturing the changing landscape of the region. Our approach involved a Random Forest (RF) classification model that consistently displayed commendable precision scores above 92% for both years. A notable discovery from the study was the pronounced urban expansion, particularly around Riyadh city. Within a mere ten-year span, urbanization surged noticeably, affecting the broader ecological environment of the region. Interestingly, the northeastern part of Riyadh emerged as a focal point of this growth, signaling rapid urban growth of urban sprawl and development. A comparison between the two years indicates a 21.51% increase in built-up areas, revealing the transformative pace of urban sprawl. Contrastingly, vegetation cover patterns presented a more nuanced picture. While our initial hypothesis predicted a decline in vegetation, the actual findings depicted both vegetation reduction in certain pockets and new growth in others, resulting in an overall 25.89% increase. This intricate pattern might be attributed to shifting agricultural practices, afforestation efforts, or even satellite image timings not aligning with seasonal vegetation growth. The bare soil, predominant in the desert landscape of Riyadh, saw a marginal reduction of 0.37% over the decade, challenging our initial expectations. Urban and agricultural advancements in Saudi Arabia appear to have slightly reduced the expanse of barren terrains. This study, underpinned by a rigorous methodological framework, reveals the multifaceted land cover changes in Riyadh in response to urban development and environmental factors. The precise, data-driven insights provided by our analysis serve as invaluable tools for understanding urban growth trajectories, guiding urban planning, policy formulation, and sustainable development endeavors in the region.

Keywords: remote sensing, KSA, ArcGIS, spatio-temporal

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Authors: Anwar ul Haq

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Muhammad Iqbal was arguably the most significant South Asian Islamic philosopher of the last two centuries. While he is the most revered philosopher of the region, particularly in Pakistan, he is probably the least studied philosopher outside the region. The paper offers a philosophical reconstruction of Iqbal’s view of human agency; it has three sections. Section 1 focuses on Iqbal’s starting point of reflection in practical philosophy (inspired by Kant): our consciousness of ourselves as free agents. The paper brings out Iqbal’s continuity with Kant but also his divergence, in particular his non-Kantian view that we possess a non-sensory intuition of ourselves as free personal causes. It also offer an argument on Iqbal’s behalf for this claim, which is meant as a defense against a Kantian objection to the possibility of intuition of freedom and a skeptic’s challenge to the possibility of freedom in general. Remaining part of the paper offers a reconstruction of Iqbal’s two preconditions of the possibility of free agency. Section 2 discusses the first precondition, namely, the unity of consciousness involved in thought (this is a precondition of agency whether or not it is free). The unity has two aspects, a quantitative (or numerical) aspect and a qualitative (or rational) one. Section 2 offers a defense of these two aspects of the unity of consciousness presupposed by agency by focusing, with Iqbal, on the case of inference.Section 3 discusses a second precondition of the possibility of free agency, that thought and will must be identical in a free agent. Iqbal offers this condition in relief against Bergson’s view. Bergson (on Iqbal’s reading of him) argues that freedom of the will is possible only if the will’s ends are entirely its own and are wholly undetermined by anything from without, not even by thought. Iqbal observes that Bergson’s position ends in an insurmountable dualism of will and thought. Bergson’s view, Iqbal argues in particular, rests on an untenable conception of what an end consists in. An end, correctly understood, is framed by a thinking faculty, the intellect, and not by an extra-rational faculty. The present section outlines Iqbal’s argument for this claim, which rests on the premise that ends possess a certain unity which is intrinsic to particular ends and holds together different ends, and this unity is none other than the quantitative and qualitative unity of a thinking consciousness but in its practical application. Having secured the rational origin of ends, Iqbal argues that a free will must be identical with thought, or else it will be determined from without and won’t be free on that account. Freedom of the self is not a freedom from thought but a freedom in thought: it involves the ability to live a thoughtful life.

Keywords: iqbal, freedom, will, self

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Authors: Neşe Alkan

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Purpose: The point that applied/clinical psychology, which is the practice and research discipline of the mental health field, has reached today can be summarized as the necessity of handling the psychological well-being of people from multiple perspectives and the goal of moving it to a higher level. Clients' subjective assessment of their own condition and wellbeing is an integral part of evidence-based interventions. There is a need for tools through which clients can evaluate the effectiveness of the psychotherapy/intervention performed with them and their contribution to the wellbeing and wellbeing of this process in a valid and reliable manner. The aim of this research is to meet this need, to test the reliability and validity of the index in Turkish, and explore its usability in the practices of both researchers and psychotherapists. Method: A total of 213 adults aged between 18-54, 69.5% working and 29.5% university students, were included in the study. Along with their demographic information, the participants were administered a set of scales: wellbeing, life satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, shopping addiction, and loneliness, namely via an online platform. The construct validity of the wellbeing scale was tested with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent and discriminant validity were tested with two-way full and partial correlation analyses and, measurement invariance was tested with one-way analysis of variance. Results: Factor analyzes showed that the scale consisted of six dimensions as it is in its original structure. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be Cronbach α = .82. Two-way correlation analyzes revealed that the wellbeing scale total score was positively correlated with general life satisfaction (r = .62) and spiritual satisfaction (r = .29), as expected. It was negatively correlated with loneliness (r = -.51) and shopping addiction (r = -.15). While the scale score did not vary by gender, previous illness, or nicotine addiction, it was found that the total wellbeing scale scores of the participants who had used antidepressant medication during the past year were lower than those who did not use antidepressant medication (F(1,204) = 7.713, p = .005). Conclusion: It has been concluded that the 12-item wellbeing scale consisting of six dimensions can be used in research and health sciences practices as a valid and reliable measurement tool. Further research which examines the reliability and validity of the scale in different widely used languages such as Spanish and Chinese is recommended.

Keywords: wellbeing, intervention effectiveness, reliability and validity, effectiveness

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Authors: Goodness Onwuka, Khaled Abou-El-Hossein

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The increase in the demand for precision optics, coupled with the absence of much research output in the ultra high precision grinding of precision optics as compared to the ultrahigh precision diamond turning of optical metals has fostered the need for more research in the ultra high precision grinding of an optical lens. Furthermore, the increase in the stringent demands for nanometric surface finishes through lapping, polishing and grinding processes necessary for the use of borosilicate-crown glass in the automotive and optics industries has created the demand to effectively monitor the surface roughness during the production process. Acoustic emission phenomenon has been proven as useful monitoring technique in several manufacturing processes ranging from monitoring of bearing production to tool wear estimation. This paper introduces a rare and unique approach with the application of acoustic emission technique to monitor the surface roughness of borosilicate-crown glass during an ultra high precision grinding process. This research was carried out on a 4-axes Nanoform 250 ultrahigh precision lathe machine using an ultra high precision grinding spindle to machine the flat surface of the borosilicate-crown glass with the tip of the grinding wheel. A careful selection of parameters and design of experiment was implemented using Box-Behnken method to vary the wheel speed, feed rate and depth of cut at three levels with a 3-center point design. Furthermore, the average surface roughness was measured using Taylor Hobson PGI Dimension XL optical profilometer, and an acoustic emission data acquisition device from National Instruments was utilized to acquire the signals while the data acquisition codes were designed with National Instrument LabVIEW software for acquisition at a sampling rate of 2 million samples per second. The results show that the raw and root mean square amplitude values of the acoustic signals increased with a corresponding increase in the measured average surface roughness values for the different parameter combinations. Therefore, this research concludes that acoustic emission monitoring technique is a potential technique for monitoring the surface roughness in the ultra high precision grinding of borosilicate-crown glass.

Keywords: acoustic emission, borosilicate-crown glass, surface roughness, ultra high precision grinding

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Authors: I. Belyamani, M. K. Hassan, J. U. Otaigbe, W. R. Fielding, K. A. Mauritz, J. S. Wiggins, W. L. Jarrett

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We have investigated the flame-retardant efficiency of special new phosphate glass (P-glass) compositions having different glass transition temperatures (Tg) on the processing conditions of polyamide 6,6 (PA6,6) and the final hybrid flame retardancy (FR). We have showed that the low Tg P glass composition (i.e., ILT 1) is a promising flame retardant for PA6,6 at a concentration of up to 15 wt. % compared to intermediate (IIT 3) and high (IHT 1) Tg P glasses. Cone calorimetry data showed that the ILT 1 decreased both the peak heat release rate and the total heat amount released from the PA6,6/ILT 1 hybrids, resulting in an efficient formation of a glassy char layer. These intriguing findings prompted to address several questions concerning the mechanism of action of the different P glasses studied. The general mechanism of action of phosphorous based FR additives occurs during the combustion stage by enhancing the morphology of the char and the thermal shielding effect. However, the present work shows that P glass based FR additives act during melt processing of PA6,6/P glass hybrids. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that the Tg of PA6,6/ILT 1 was significantly shifted to a lower Tg (~65 oC) and another transition appeared at high temperature (~ 166 oC), thus indicating a strong interaction between PA6,6 and ILT 1. This was supported by a drop in the melting point and crystallinity of the PA6,6/ILT 1 hybrid material as detected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The dielectric spectroscopic investigation of the networks’ molecular level structural variations (i.e. hybrids chain motion, Tg and sub-Tg relaxations) agreed very well with the DMA and DSC findings; it was found that the three different P glass compositions did not show any effect on the PA6,6 sub-Tg relaxations (related to the NH2 and OH chain end groups motions). Nevertheless, contrary to IIT 3 and IHT 1 based hybrids, the PA6,6/ILT 1 hybrid material showed an evidence of splitting the PA6,6 Tg relaxations into two peaks. Finally, the CPMAS 31P-NMR data confirmed the miscibility between ILT 1 and PA6,6 at the molecular level, as a much larger enhancement in cross-polarization for the PA6,6/15%ILT 1 hybrids was observed. It can be concluded that compounding low Tg P-glass (i.e. ILT 1) with PA6,6 facilitates hydrolytic chain scission of the PA6,6 macromolecules through a potential chemical interaction between phosphate and the alpha-Carbon of the amide bonds of the PA6,6, leading to better flame retardant properties.

Keywords: broadband dielectric spectroscopy, composites, flame retardant, polyamide, phosphate glass, sustainable

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Authors: Abu S. Mustafa, Mohammad W. Khan, Faraz Shaheed Khan, Nazima Habibi

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Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of worldwide prevalence. There are at least four species and several strains of Brucella that cause human disease. Brucella genomes have very limited variation across strains, which hinder strain identification using classical molecular techniques, including PCR and 16 S rDNA sequencing. The aim of this study was to perform whole genome sequencing of clinical isolates of Brucella and perform bioinformatics and comparative genomics analyses to determine the existence of genetic differences across the isolates of a single Brucella species and strain. The draft sequence data were generated from 15 clinical isolates of Brucella melitensis (biovar 2 strain 63/9) using MiSeq next generation sequencing platform. The generated reads were used for further assembly and analysis. All the analysis was performed using Bioinformatics work station (8 core i7 processor, 8GB RAM with Bio-Linux operating system). FastQC was used to determine the quality of reads and low quality reads were trimmed or eliminated using Fastx_trimmer. Assembly was done by using Velvet and ABySS softwares. The ordering of assembled contigs was performed by Mauve. An online server RAST was employed to annotate the contigs assembly. Annotated genomes were compared using Mauve and ACT tools. The QC score for DNA sequence data, generated by MiSeq, was higher than 30 for 80% of reads with more than 100x coverage, which suggested that data could be utilized for further analysis. However when analyzed by FastQC, quality of four reads was not good enough for creating a complete genome draft so remaining 11 samples were used for further analysis. The comparative genome analyses showed that despite sharing same gene sets, single nucleotide polymorphisms and insertions/deletions existed across different genomes, which provided a variable extent of diversity to these bacteria. In conclusion, the next generation sequencing, bioinformatics, and comparative genome analysis can be utilized to find variations (point mutations, insertions and deletions) across different genomes of Brucella within a single strain. This information could be useful in surveillance and epidemiological studies supported by Kuwait University Research Sector grants MI04/15 and SRUL02/13.

Keywords: brucella, bioinformatics, comparative genomics, whole genome sequencing

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Authors: Bulcha Belay Etana, Benny Malengier, Janarthanan Krishnamoorthy, Timothy Kwa, Lieva Vanlangenhove

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Electromyography measures the electrical activity of muscles using surface electrodes or needle electrodes to monitor various disease conditions. Recent developments in the signal acquisition of electromyograms using textile electrodes facilitate wearable devices, enabling patients to monitor and control their health status outside of healthcare facilities. Here, we have developed and tested wearable textile electrodes to acquire electromyography signals from patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and incorporated a feedback-control system to relieve muscle cramping through thermal stimulus. In brief, the textile electrodes made of stainless steel was knitted into a textile fabric as a sleeve, and their electrical characteristic, such as signal-to-noise ratio, was compared with traditional electrodes. To relieve muscle cramping, a heating element made of stainless-steel conductive yarn sewn onto a cotton fabric, coupled with a vibration system, was developed. The system integrated a microcontroller and a Myoware muscle sensor to activate the heating element as well as the vibration motor when cramping occurred. At the same time, the element gets deactivated when the muscle cramping subsides. An optimum therapeutic temperature of 35.5°C is regulated and maintained continuously by a heating device. The textile electrode exhibited a signal-to-noise ratio of 6.38dB, comparable to that of the traditional electrode’s value of 7.05 dB. For a given 9 V power supply, the rise time for the developed heating element was about 6 minutes to reach an optimum temperature.

Keywords: smart textile system, wearable electronic textile, electromyography, heating textile, vibration therapy, Parkinson’s disease

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Authors: Tatiana Ivushkina

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The paper is aimed at studying the use of literary words of foreign origin in modern fiction from a sociolinguistic point of view, which presupposes establishing correlation between this category of words in a speech portrayal or narrative and a social status of the speaker, verifying that it bears social implications and serves as a social marker or index of socially privileged identity in the British literature of the 21-st century. To this end, there were selected literary words of foreign origin in context (60 contexts) and subjected to careful examination. The study is carried out on two novels by Jeffrey Archer – Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and A Prisoner of Birth – who, being a graduate from Oxford, represents socially privileged classes himself and gives a wide depiction of characters with different social backgrounds and statuses. The analysis of the novels enabled us to categorize the selected words into four relevant groups. The first represented by terms (commodity, debenture, recuperation, syringe, luminescence, umpire, etc.) serves to unambiguously indicate education, occupation, a field of knowledge in which a character is involved or a situation of communication. The second group is formed of words used in conjunction with their Germanic counterparts (perspiration – sweat, padre – priest, convivial – friendly) to contrast social position of the characters: literary words serving as social indices of upper class speakers whereas their synonyms of Germanic origin characterize middle or lower class speech portrayals. The third class of words comprises socially marked words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives), or U-words (the term first coined by Allan Ross and Nancy Mitford), the status acquired in the course of social history development (elegant, excellent, sophistication, authoritative, preposterous, etc.). The fourth includes words used in a humorous or ironic meaning to convey the narrator’s attitude to the characters or situation itself (ministrations, histrionic, etc.). Words of this group are perceived as 'alien', stylistically distant as they create incongruity between style and subject matter. Social implication of the selected words is enhanced by French words and phrases often accompanying them.

Keywords: British literature of the XXI century, literary words of foreign origin, social context, social meaning

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Authors: Nada Mohamed, Abdel Aziz Mohamed

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Climate change in coastal areas is a global issue that can be felt on local scale and will be around for decades and centuries to come to an end; it also has critical risks on the city’s economy, communities, and the natural environment. One of these changes that cause a huge risk on coastal cities is the sea level rise (SLR). SLR is a result of scarcity and reduction in global environmental system. The main cause of climate change and global warming is the countries with high development index (HDI) as Japan and Germany while the medium and low HDI countries as Egypt does not have enough awareness and advanced tactics to adapt with this changes that destroy urban areas and cause loss in land and economy. This is why Climate Resilience is one of the UN sustainable development goals 2030, which is calling for actions to strengthen climate change resilience through mitigation and adaptation. For many reasons, adaptation has received less attention than mitigation and it is only recently that adaptation has become a focal global point of attention. This adaption can be achieved through some actions such as upgrading the use and the design of the land, adjusting business and activities of people, and increasing community understanding of climate risks. To reach the adaption goals, and we have to apply a strategic pathway to Climate Resilience, which is the Urban Bioregionalism Paradigm. Resiliency has been framed as persistence, adaptation, and transformation. Climate Resilience decision support system includes a visualization platform where ecological, social, and economic information can be viewed alongside with specific geographies that's why Urban Bioregionalism is a socio-ecological system which is defined as a paradigm that has potential to help move social attitudes toward environmental understanding and deepen human-environment connections within ecological development. The research aim is to achieve an adaptive integrated urban development model throughout the analyses of tactics and strategies that can be used to adapt urban areas and coastal communities to the challenges of climate changes especially SLR and also simulation model using advanced technological software for a coastal city corridor to elaborates the suitable strategy to apply.

Keywords: climate resilience, sea level rise, SLR, coastal resilience, adaptive development simulation

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Authors: Bujar Ismaili, Bahti Ismajli, Venhar Ismaili, Skender Ramadani

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In Kosovo, the problem with the electricity supply is huge and does not meet the demands of consumers. Older thermal power plants, which are regarded as big environmental polluters, produce most of the energy. Our experiment is based on the production of electricity using the closed method that does not affect environmental pollution by using waste as fuel that is considered to pollute the environment. The experiment was carried out in the village of Godanc, municipality of Shtime - Kosovo. In the experiment, a production line based on the production of electricity and central heating was designed at the same time. The results are the benefits of electricity as well as the release of temperature for heating with minimal expenses and with the release of 0% gases into the atmosphere. During this experiment, coal, plastic, waste from wood processing, and agricultural wastes were used as raw materials. The method utilized in the experiment allows for the release of gas through pipes and filters during the top-to-bottom combustion of the raw material in the boiler, followed by the method of gas filtration from waste wood processing (sawdust). During this process, the final product is obtained - gas, which passes through the carburetor, which enables the gas combustion process and puts into operation the internal combustion machine and the generator and produces electricity that does not release gases into the atmosphere. The obtained results show that the system provides energy stability without environmental pollution from toxic substances and waste, as well as with low production costs. From the final results, it follows that: in the case of using coal fuel, we have benefited from more electricity and higher temperature release, followed by plastic waste, which also gave good results. The results obtained during these experiments prove that the current problems of lack of electricity and heating can be met at a lower cost and have a clean environment and waste management.

Keywords: energy, heating, atmosphere, waste, gasification

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Authors: Migael van Zyl, Stefanie Visser, Awelani Phaswana

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The electricity landscape in South Africa is characterized by frequent occurrences of loadshedding, a measure implemented by Eskom to manage electricity generation shortages by curtailing demand. Loadshedding, classified into stages ranging from 1 to 8 based on severity, involves the systematic rotation of power cuts across municipalities according to predefined schedules. However, this practice introduces distortions in recorded electricity demand, posing challenges to accurate forecasting essential for budgeting, network planning, and generation scheduling. Addressing this challenge requires the development of a methodology to quantify the impact of loadshedding and integrate it back into metered electricity demand data. Fortunately, comprehensive records of loadshedding impacts are maintained in a database, enabling the alignment of Loadshedding effects with hourly demand data. This adjustment ensures that forecasts accurately reflect true demand patterns, independent of loadshedding's influence, thereby enhancing the reliability of electricity supply management in South Africa. This paper presents a methodology for determining the hourly impact of load scheduling and subsequently adjusting historical demand data to account for it. Furthermore, two forecasting models are developed: one utilizing the original dataset and the other using the adjusted data. A comparative analysis is conducted to evaluate forecast accuracy improvements resulting from the adjustment process. By implementing this methodology, stakeholders can make more informed decisions regarding electricity infrastructure investments, resource allocation, and operational planning, contributing to the overall stability and efficiency of South Africa's electricity supply system.

Keywords: electricity demand forecasting, load shedding, demand side management, data science

Procedia PDF Downloads 56