Search results for: physico–chemical parameters

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

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

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Medhat Gad

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Wastewater treatment became a big issue in this decade due to shortage of water resources, growth of population and modern live requirements. Reuse of treated wastewater in industrial and agriculture sectors has a big demand to substitute the shortage of clean water supply as well as to save the eco system from dangerous pollutants in insufficient treated wastewater In last decades, most of wastewater treatment plants are built using primary or secondary biological treatment technology which almost does not provide enough treatment and removal of phosphorus and nitrogen. those plants which built ten to 15 years ago also now suffering from overflow which decrease the treatment efficiency of the plant. Discharging treated wastewater which contains phosphorus and nitrogen to water reservoirs and irrigation canals destroy ecosystem and aquatic life. Using chemical material to enhance treatment efficiency for domestic wastewater but it leads to huge amount of sludge which cost a lot of money. To enhance wastewater treatment, we used INNPT nano material which consists of calcium, aluminum and iron oxides and compounds plus silica, sodium and magnesium. INNPT nano material used with a dose of 100 mg/l to upgrade SBR treatment plant in Cairo Egypt -which has three treatment tanks each with a capacity of 2500 cubic meters per day - to tertiary treatment level by removing Phosphorus, Nitrogen and increase dissolved oxygen in final effluent. The results showed that the treatment retention time decreased from 9 hours in SBR system to one hour using INNPT nano material with improvement in effluent quality while increasing plant capacity to 20 k cubic meters per day. Nitrogen removal efficiency achieved 77%, while phosphorus removal efficiency achieved 90% and COD removal efficiency was 93% which all comply with tertiary treatment limits according to Egyptian law.

Keywords: INNPT technology, nanomaterial, tertiary wastewater treatment, capacity extending

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Hamed K. Esfahani, Bithin Datta

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Transport of reactive chemical contaminant species in groundwater aquifers is a complex and highly non-linear physical and geochemical process especially for real life scenarios. Simulating this transport process involves solving complex nonlinear equations and generally requires huge computational time for a given aquifer study area. Development of optimal remediation strategies in aquifers may require repeated solution of such complex numerical simulation models. To overcome this computational limitation and improve the computational feasibility of large number of repeated simulations, Genetic Programming based trained surrogate models are developed to approximately simulate such complex transport processes. Transport process of acid mine drainage, a hazardous pollutant is first simulated using a numerical simulated model: HYDROGEOCHEM 5.0 for a contaminated aquifer in a historic mine site. Simulation model solution results for an illustrative contaminated aquifer site is then approximated by training and testing a Genetic Programming (GP) based surrogate model. Performance evaluation of the ensemble GP models as surrogate models for the reactive species transport in groundwater demonstrates the feasibility of its use and the associated computational advantages. The results show the efficiency and feasibility of using ensemble GP surrogate models as approximate simulators of complex hydrogeologic and geochemical processes in a contaminated groundwater aquifer incorporating uncertainties in historic mine site.

Keywords: geochemical transport simulation, acid mine drainage, surrogate models, ensemble genetic programming, contaminated aquifers, mine sites

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: María Laura Guevara Campos

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The increasing number of vending machines makes it easy for people to find them more frequently in stores, universities, workplaces, and even hospitals. These machines usually offer products with high contents of sugar and fat, which, if consumed regularly, can result in serious health threats, as overweight and obesity. Additionally, the energy consumption of these machines tends to be high, which has an impact on the environment as well. In order to promote the consumption of healthy food, a vending machine was designed to give the customer the opportunity to choose between a customized fruit salad and a customized fruit juice, both of them prepared instantly with the ingredients selected by the customer. The main parameters considered to design the machine were: the storage of the preferred fruits in a salad and/or in a juice according to a survey, the size of the machine, the use of ecologic recipients, and the overall energy consumption. The methodology used for the design was the one proposed by the German Association of Engineers for mechatronics systems, which breaks the design process in several stages, from the elaboration of a list of requirements through the establishment of the working principles and the design concepts to the final design of the machine, which was done in a 3D modelling software. Finally, with the design of this machine, the aim is to contribute to the development and implementation of healthier vending machines that offer freshly-made products, which is not being widely attended at present.

Keywords: design, design methodology, mechatronics systems, vending machines

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Nihat Dipova, Bulent Cangir

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This article presents the results of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for Antalya (SW Turkey). South west of Turkey is characterized by large earthquakes resulting from the continental collision between the African, Arabian and Eurasian plates and crustal faults. Earthquakes around the study area are grouped into two; crustal earthquakes (D=0-50 km) and subduction zone earthquakes (50-140 km). Maximum observed magnitude of subduction earthquakes is Mw=6.0. Maximum magnitude of crustal earthquakes is Mw=6.6. Sources for crustal earthquakes are faults which are related with Isparta Angle and Cyprus Arc tectonic structures. A new earthquake catalogue for Antalya, with unified moment magnitude scale has been prepared and seismicity of the area around Antalya city has been evaluated by defining ‘a’ and ‘b’ parameters of the Gutenberg-Richter recurrence relationship. The Standard Cornell-McGuire method has been used for hazard computation utilizing CRISIS2007 software. Attenuation relationships proposed by Chiou and Youngs (2008) has been used for 0-50 km earthquakes and Youngs et. al (1997) for deep subduction earthquakes. Finally, Seismic hazard map for peak horizontal acceleration on a uniform site condition of firm rock (average shear wave velocity of about 1130 m/s) at a hazard level of 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years has been prepared.

Keywords: Antalya, peak ground acceleration, seismic hazard assessment, subduction

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Authors: A. M. Wahab, E. Rustighi

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Elastomeric dielectric material has recently become a new alternative for actuator technology. The characteristics of dielectric elastomers placed between two electrodes to withstand large strain when electrodes are charged has attracted the attention of many researcher to study this material for actuator technology. Thus, in the past few years Danfoss Ventures A/S has established their own dielectric electro-active polymer (DEAP), which was called PolyPower. The main objective of this work was to investigate the dynamic characteristics for vibration control of a PolyPower actuator folded in ‘pull’ configuration. A range of experiments was carried out on the folded actuator including passive (without electrical load) and active (with electrical load) testing. For both categories static and dynamic testing have been done to determine the behavior of folded DEAP actuator. Voltage-Strain experiments show that the DEAP folded actuator is a non-linear system. It is also shown that the voltage supplied has no effect on the natural frequency. Finally, varying AC voltage with different amplitude and frequency shows the parameters that influence the performance of DEAP folded actuator. As a result, the actuator performance dominated by the frequency dependence of the elastic response and was less influenced by dielectric properties.

Keywords: dielectric electro-active polymer, pull actuator, static, dynamic, electromechanical

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Authors: N. R. N. Idris, S. Baharom

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A meta-analysis may be performed using aggregate data (AD) or an individual patient data (IPD). In practice, studies may be available at both IPD and AD level. In this situation, both the IPD and AD should be utilised in order to maximize the available information. Statistical advantages of combining the studies from different level have not been fully explored. This study aims to quantify the statistical benefits of including available IPD when conducting a conventional summary-level meta-analysis. Simulated meta-analysis were used to assess the influence of the levels of data on overall meta-analysis estimates based on IPD-only, AD-only and the combination of IPD and AD (mixed data, MD), under different study scenario. The percentage relative bias (PRB), root mean-square-error (RMSE) and coverage probability were used to assess the efficiency of the overall estimates. The results demonstrate that available IPD should always be included in a conventional meta-analysis using summary level data as they would significantly increased the accuracy of the estimates. On the other hand, if more than 80% of the available data are at IPD level, including the AD does not provide significant differences in terms of accuracy of the estimates. Additionally, combining the IPD and AD has moderating effects on the biasness of the estimates of the treatment effects as the IPD tends to overestimate the treatment effects, while the AD has the tendency to produce underestimated effect estimates. These results may provide some guide in deciding if significant benefit is gained by pooling the two levels of data when conducting meta-analysis.

Keywords: aggregate data, combined-level data, individual patient data, meta-analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: An Cheng, Hui-Mi Hsu, Sao-Jeng Chao, Wei-Ting Lin

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This study investigated the mechanical properties and durability of concrete produced using recycled fine aggregate (RFA) pre-coated with fly ash, slag, and a polymer solution (PVA). We investigated the physical and microscopic properties of fresh concrete while adjusting several of the fabrication parameters, such as the constituent makeup and thickness of RFA pre-coatings. The study is divided into two parts. The first part involves mortar testing in which the RFA used for coating had a water/cement ratio of 0.5 and fly ash, slag, and PVA viscosity of 5~6cps, 21~26cps, 25~30cps, or 44~50cps. In these tests, 100% of the natural fine aggregate was replaced by RCA. The second part of the study involved the mixing of concrete with 25% FRA, which was respectively coated with fly ash, slag, or PVA at a viscosity of 44~50cps. In these tests, the water/cement ratio was either .4 or 0.6. The major findings in this study are summarized as follows: Coating RFA coated with fly ash and PVA was shown to increase flow in the fresh concrete; however, the coating of FRA with slag resulted in a slight decrease in flow. Coating FRA with slag was shown to improve the compressive and splitting strength to a greater degree than that achieved by coating FRA with fly ash and PVA. The mechanical properties of concrete mixed with slag were shown to increase with the thickness of the coating. Coating FRA with slag was also shown to enhance the durability of the concrete, regardless of the water/cement ratio.

Keywords: recycled fine aggregates, pre-coated, fly ash, slag, pre-coated thickness

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Authors: Abid Ali Abid

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One-dimensional (1-D) particle-in-cell (PIC) electrostatic simulations are carried out to investigate the electrostatic waves, whose constituents are hot, cold and beam electrons in the background of motionless positive ions. In fact, the electrostatic modes excited are electron acoustic waves, beam driven waves as well as Langmuir waves. It is assessed that the relevant plasma parameters, for example, hot electron temperature, beam electron drift speed, and the electron beam density significantly modify the electrostatics wave's profiles. In the nonlinear stage, the wave-particle interaction becomes more evident and the waves have obtained its saturation level. Consequently, electrons become trapped in the waves and trapping vortices are clearly formed. Because of this trapping vortices and mixing of the electrons in phase space, finally, lead to electrons thermalization. It is observed that for the high-density value of the beam-electron, the solitary waves having a bipolar form of the electric field. These solitons are the nonlinear Brenstein-Greene and Kruskal wave mode that attributes the trapping of electrons potential well of phase-space hole. These examinations revealed that electrostatic waves have been exited in beam-plasma model and producing waves having broad-frequency ranges, which may clarify the broadband electrostatic noise (BEN) spectrum studied in the auroral zone.

Keywords: electron acoustic waves, trapping of cold electron, Langmuir waves, particle-in cell simulation

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Authors: Mawloud Mosbah, Bachir Boucheham

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We present here the results for a comparative study of some techniques, available in the literature, related to the relevance feedback mechanism in the case of a short-term learning. Only one method among those considered here is belonging to the data mining field which is the K-Nearest Neighbours Algorithm (KNN) while the rest of the methods is related purely to the information retrieval field and they fall under the purview of the following three major axes: Shifting query, Feature Weighting and the optimization of the parameters of similarity metric. As a contribution, and in addition to the comparative purpose, we propose a new version of the KNN algorithm referred to as an incremental KNN which is distinct from the original version in the sense that besides the influence of the seeds, the rate of the actual target image is influenced also by the images already rated. The results presented here have been obtained after experiments conducted on the Wang database for one iteration and utilizing colour moments on the RGB space. This compact descriptor, Colour Moments, is adequate for the efficiency purposes needed in the case of interactive systems. The results obtained allow us to claim that the proposed algorithm proves good results; it even outperforms a wide range of techniques available in the literature.

Keywords: CBIR, category search, relevance feedback, query point movement, standard Rocchio’s formula, adaptive shifting query, feature weighting, original KNN, incremental KNN

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Min-Woo Kim, Ok-Kyun Na, Jun-Ho Byun, Jong-Hwan Park, Seung-Hwa Yang, Joon-Hong Park, Young-Chul Park

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This study is focused on the comparative analysis and improvement to grasp the flow characteristic of the Anti-Splash Device located under the P/V Valve and new concept design models using the CFD analysis and Artificial Neural Network. The P/V valve located upper deck to solve the pressure rising and vacuum condition of inner tank of the liquid cargo ships occurred oil outflow accident by transverse and longitudinal sloshing force. Anti-Splash Device is fitted to improve and prevent this problem in the shipbuilding industry. But the oil outflow accidents are still reported by ship owners. Thus, four types of new design model are presented by study. Then, comparative analysis is conducted with new models and existing model. Mostly the key criterion of this problem is flux in the outlet of the Anti-Splash Device. Therefore, the flow and velocity are grasped by transient analysis. And then it decided optimum model and design parameters to develop model. Later, it needs to develop an Anti-Splash Device by Flow Test to get certification and verification using experiment equipment.

Keywords: anti-splash device, P/V valve, sloshing, artificial neural network

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Authors: Jin-Feng Hu

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Over the past decades, the global biodiversity has continued to decline. The threats to the terrestrial plant species have increased under anthropogenic activities and other massive ecological change impacts. The situation is much more serious in China, the third richest countries regarding plant biodiversity in the world. It was not until 1992 that the first volume of the China Plant Red Data Book was published. Nowadays, a significant number of Chinese endemic plants have been threatened (The IUCN Red List). Nevertheless, plant-originated natural products (NPs) have continued to play a crucial role in the drug discovery and development process. The opportunity for identifying new chemical entities for emerging and malignant diseases depends on a diversity of drug-producing species. Several statistical surveys unveiled that the rare and endangered plants (REPs) have proven to be better sources for drug discovery than other botanic sources. The identification of bioactive NPs from REPs reveals the importance of conservation efforts in preventing species diversity loss and addressing human diseases at the same time. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate these fragile REPs. Since 2013, our group has initially launched a special program to systematically identify bioactive/novel NPs from REPs native to China. The selected plant species were generally collected from the remote Mountain areas, and have never been chemically or pharmacologically investigated. Due to the difficult collection of the mass-limited samples of REPs, studies on the secondary metabolites of REPs-associated endophytes would provide a promising alternative potential solution. This presentation details the achievements that related to a series of “Phytochemical and biological studies on rare and endangered plants endemic to China”.

Keywords: bioactive naturally-occrring compounds, rare and endengered plants (REPs), plant endophytes, drug discovery

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Authors: Q. J. Yang

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This paper presents a case study of geotechnical design of bridge foundations and approaches in hilly granite formation in northern New South Wales of Australia. Firstly, the geological formation and existing cut slope conditions which have high risks of rock fall will be described. The bridge has three spans to be constructed using balanced cantilever method with a middle span of 150 m. After concept design option engineering, it was decided to change from pile foundation to pad footing with ground anchor system to optimize the bridge foundation design. The geotechnical design parameters were derived after two staged site investigations. The foundation design was carried out to satisfy both serviceability limit state and ultimate limit state during construction and in operation. It was found that the pad footing design was governed by serviceability limit state design loading cases. The design of bridge foundation also considered presence of weak rock layer intrusion and a layer of “no core” to ensure foundation stability. The precast mass concrete block system was considered for the retaining walls for the bridge approaches to resolve the constructability issue over hilly terrain. The design considered the retaining wall block sliding stability, while the overturning and internal stabilities are satisfied.

Keywords: pad footing, Hilly formation, stability, block works

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Soufiene Ilahi

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Photothermal effect occurs when absorbed light energy that generate a thermal wave that propagate into the sample and surrounding media. Subsequently, the propagation of the vibration of phonons or electrons causes heat transfer. In fact, heat energy is provided by non-radiative recombination process that occurs in semiconductors sample. Three heats sources are identified: surface recombination, bulk recombination and carrier thermalisation. In the last few years, Photothermal Deflection Technique PTD is a nondestructive and accurate technique that prove t ability for electronics properties investigation. In this paper, we have studied the influence of doping on minority carrier lifetime, i.e, nonradiative lifetime, surface and diffusion coefficient. In fact, we have measured the photothermal signal of two sample of GaAs doped with C et Cr.In other hand , we have developed a theoretical model that takes into account of thermal and electronics diffusion equations .In order to extract electronics parameters of GaAs samples, we have fitted the theoretical signal of PTD to the experimental ones. As a results, we have found that nonradiative lifetime is around of 4,3 x 10-8 (±11,24%) and 5 x 10-8 (±14,32%) respectively for GaAs : Si doped and Cr doped. Accordingly, the diffusion coefficient is equal 4,6 *10-4 (± 3,2%) and 5* 10-4 (± 0,14%) foe the Cr, C and Si doped GaAs respectively.

Keywords: nonradiative lifetime, mobility of minority carrier, diffusion length, surface and interface recombination in GaAs

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Authors: Muhammad Suradi, Sugiarto, Abdullah Latip

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Many roadside slope failures occur during the rainy season, particularly in the period of extreme rainfall along Connecting National Road of Salubatu-Mambi, West Sulawesi, Indonesia. These occurrences cause traffic obstacles and endanger people along and around the road. Research collaboration between P2JN (National Road Construction Board) West Sulawesi Province, who authorize to supervise the road condition, and Ujung Pandang State Polytechnic (Applied University) was established to cope with the landslide problem. This research aims to determine factors triggering roadside slope failures and their optimum stabilizing solution. To achieve this objective, site observation and soil investigation were carried out to obtain parameters for analyses of rainfall-induced slope instability and reinforcement design using the SV Flux and SV Slope software. The result of this analysis will be taken into account for the next analysis to get an optimum design of the slope reinforcement. The result indicates some factors such as steep slopes, sandy soils, and unvegetated slope surface mainly contribute to the slope failures during intense rainfall. With respect to the contributing factors as well as construction material and technology, cantilever/butressing retaining wall becomes the optimum solution for the roadside slope reinforcement.

Keywords: roadside slope, failure, rainfall, slope reinforcement, optimum solution

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Souhila Boukli Hacene, Djamila Kherbouche, Abdelhak Chikhaoui

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In this work, we elucidate theoretically the effect of defects and temperature on the performance of the organic bulk heterojunction solar cell (BHJ) P3HT: PCBM. We have studied the influence of their parameters on cell characteristics. For this purpose, we used the effective medium model and the solar cell simulator (SCAPS) to model the characteristics of the solar cell. We also explore the transport of charge carriers in the device. It was assumed that the mixture is lightly p-type doped and that the band gap contains acceptor defects near the HOMO level with a Gaussian distribution of energy states at 100 and 50 meV. We varied defects density between 1012-1017 cm-3, from 1016 cm-3, a total decrease of the photovoltaic characteristics due to the increase of the non-radiative recombination can be noticed. Then we studied the effect of variation of the electron and the hole capture cross-section on the cell’s performance, we noticed that the cell obtains a better efficiency of about 3.6% for an electron capture cross section ≤ 10-15 cm2 and a hole capture cross section ≤ 10-19 cm2. On the other hand, we also varied the temperature between 120K and 400K. We observed that the temperature of the solar cell induces a noticeable effect on its voltage. While the effect of temperature on the solar cell current is negligible.

Keywords: organic solar cell, P3HT:PCBM, defects, temperature, SCAPS

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Authors: Retno A. S. Lestari, Wahyudi B. Sediawan, Siti Syamsiah, Sarto

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Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were isolated and then grown on salak fruit seeds forming a biofilm on the surface. Their performances in sulfide removal were experimentally observed. In doing so, the salak fruit seeds containing biofilm were then used as packing material in a cylinder. Biogas obtained from biological treatment, which contains 27.95 ppm of hydrogen sulfide was flown through the packed bed. The hydrogen sulfide from the biogas was absorbed in the biofilm and then degraded by the microbes in the biofilm. The hydrogen sulfide concentrations at a various axial position and various times were analyzed. A set of simple kinetics model for the rate of the sulfide removal and the bacterial growth was proposed. Since the biofilm is very thin, the sulfide concentration in the Biofilm at a certain axial position is assumed to be uniform. The simultaneous ordinary differential equations obtained were then solved numerically using Runge-Kutta method. The values of the parameters were also obtained by curve-fitting. The accuracy of the model proposed was tested by comparing the calculation results using the model with the experimental data obtained. It turned out that the model proposed can describe the removal of sulfide liquid using bio-filter in the packed bed. The biofilter could remove 89,83 % of the hydrogen sulfide in the feed at 2.5 hr of operation and biogas flow rate of 30 L/hr.

Keywords: sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, salak fruit seeds, biofilm, packing material, biogas

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Svetlana Guryeva, Inna Kornienko, Elena Petersen

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At present, translational medicine is a rapidly developing branch of biomedicine. The main idea of translational medicine is a practical application of fundamental research. One of the possible applications for translational medicine is researching therapies that improve human age-related organism condition. To fill the gap between experiments and clinical practice, it is necessary to create the standardized system for the investigation of different effects on cellular aging models. In this study, primary human fibroblasts derived from patients of different ages were used as a cellular aging model. The senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity, lipofuscin, γ-H2AX, the reactive oxygen species level, and cell death markers (annexin V/propidium iodide) were used as biomarkers of the cell functional state. The effects of damaging exposures (oxidative stress and heat shock), potential positive factors (metformin and acetaminophen), and their combinations were investigated using the described biomarkers. Oxidative stress and heat shock caused the increase in the levels of all biomarkers, and only the cells from young patients partly coped with stress 3 days after the exposures. Metformin improved the state of pretreatment cells from young and old patients. The acetaminophen did not show significant changes in the biomarker levels compare to the action of metformin. This study proved the opportunity to develop a standardized screening system based on biomarkers of the cell functional state to identify potential positive or negative effects of some physical and chemical exposures. Moreover, such a system can be useful for the aims of regenerative medicine to determine the effect of cell pretreatment before transplantation.

Keywords: biomarkers, primary fibroblasts, regenerative medicine, senescence, test system, translational medicine

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Authors: Ayoola, Simeon Oluwatoyin, Omogoriola Hannah Omoloye

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The effects of 17α-Methyltestosterone Hormone on blood composition of the Sex Reversed Sarotherodon melanotheron were investigated. S. melanotheron fry were reared in six (6) plastic tanks for three (3) months, of which three (3) tanks served as treatment tanks while the other three (3) served as the control. The fry were fed with 17α-methyl testosterone enzyme, which functions as a sex reversal hormone. The fry were administered this hormone for 30 days, to ensure complete sex reversal. All the S. melanotheron fry were reared to table size for duration of three (3) months, after which, blood samples were taken from both the control and treatment fishes. The blood parameters showed no significant differences with the same values of White Blood Cell count (WBC) and Total plasma protein for the control and experimental fishes. A total protein value for sex reversed specimens was 3.99g/dL, while urea and creatinine values were 0.2g/dL. Alkaline Phosphatase, Aspartate transaminase and Alanine transaminase for the treatment specimen were 183nm/mg protein/min, 98nm/mg protein/min and 105nm/mg protein/min respectively. A total protein value for control specimens was 2.81g/dL, while urea and creatinine values were 0.2g/dL. Alkaline Phosphatase, Aspartate transaminase and Alanine transaminase for the control species were 174nm/mg protein/min, 93nm/mg protein/min and 106nm/mg protein/min respectively. The safety of MT on S. melanotheron is therefore proved since there is no adverse effect on the fish.

Keywords: 17α-Methyltestosterone, haematology, sex reversal, sarotherodon melanotheron

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Authors: Shane David van Zyl, A. J. Burger

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The global green energy shift has placed significant value on the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives. The study examines the impact on capital expenditure (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), levelized cost, and environmental impact, depending on the relationship between various production capacities of potable water, green hydrogen, and green ammonia. A model-based sensitivity analysis approach was used to determine the relevance of various process parameters in the production of potable water combined with green hydrogen or green ammonia production. The effects of changes on CAPEX, OPEX and levelized costs of the products were determined. Furthermore, a qualitative environmental impact analysis was done to determine the effect on the environment. The findings indicated the individual process unit contribution to the overall CAPEX and OPEX while also determining the major contributors to changes in the levelized costs of products. The results emphasize the difference in costs associated with potable water, green hydrogen, and green ammonia production, indicating the extent to which potable water production costs become insignificant in the complete process, which, therefore, can have a large social benefit through increased potable water production resulting in decreased water scarcity in the south-west African region.

Keywords: CAPEX and OPEX, desalination, green hydrogen and green ammonia, sensitivity analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: Jayanta Pokharel, Gokarna Aryal, Netra Kanaal, Chris Tsokos

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Investment in stocks and shares aims to seek potential gains while weighing the risk of future needs, such as retirement, children's education etc. Analysis of the behavior of the stock market returns and making prediction is important for investors to mitigate risk on investment. Historically, the normal variance models have been used to describe the behavior of stock market returns. However, the returns of the financial assets are actually skewed with higher kurtosis, heavier tails, and a higher center than the normal distribution. The Laplace distribution and its family are natural candidates for modeling stock returns. The Variance-Gamma (VG) distribution is the most sought-after distributions for modeling asset returns and has been extensively discussed in financial literatures. In this paper, it explore the other Laplace family, such as Asymmetric Laplace, Skewed Laplace, Kumaraswamy Laplace (KS) together with Variance-Gamma to model the weekly returns of the S&P 500 Index and it's eleven business sector indices. The method of maximum likelihood is employed to estimate the parameters of the distributions and our empirical inquiry shows that the Kumaraswamy Laplace distribution performs much better for stock returns modeling among the choice of distributions used in this study and in practice, KS can be used as a strong alternative to VG distribution.

Keywords: stock returns, variance-gamma, kumaraswamy laplace, maximum likelihood

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Authors: Swati Gupta, Shagun Sodhani, Dhaval Patel, Biplab Banerjee

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It is generic that news sources publish news in different broad categories. These categories can either be generic such as Business, Sports, etc. or time-specific such as World Cup 2015 and Nepal Earthquake or both. It is up to the news agencies to build the categories. Extracting news categories automatically from numerous online news sources is expected to be helpful in many applications including news source recommendations and time specific news category extraction. To address this issue, existing systems like DMOZ directory and Yahoo directory are mostly considered though they are mostly human annotated and do not consider the time dynamism of categories of news websites. As a remedy, we propose an approach to automatically extract news category URLs from news websites in this paper. News category URL is a link which points to a category in news websites. We use the news category URL as a prior knowledge to develop a news source recommendation system which contains news sources listed in various categories in order of ranking. In addition, we also propose an approach to rank numerous news sources in different categories using various parameters like Traffic Based Website Importance, Social media Analysis and Category Wise Article Freshness. Experimental results on category URLs captured from GDELT project during April 2016 to December 2016 show the adequacy of the proposed method.

Keywords: news category, category network, news sources, ranking

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Authors: Mahmud Gungor, Ali Aydin, Erdal Akyol, Suat Tasdelen

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The understanding of geotechnical characteristics of near-surface material and the effects of the groundwater is very important problem in such as site studies. For showing the relations between seismic data and groundwater we selected about 25 km2 as the study area. It has been presented which is a detailed work of seismic data and groundwater depths of Gokpinar Damp area. Seismic waves velocity (Vp and Vs) are very important parameters showing the soil properties. The seismic records were used the method of the multichannel analysis of surface waves near area of Gokpinar Damp area. Sixty sites in this area have been investigated with survey lines about 60 m in length. MASW (Multichannel analysis of surface wave) method has been used to generate one-dimensional shear wave velocity profile at locations. These shear wave velocities are used to estimate equivalent shear wave velocity in the study area at every 2 and 5 m intervals up to a depth of 45 m. Levels of equivalent shear wave velocity of soil are used the classified of the study area. After the results of the study, it must be considered as components of urban planning and building design of Gokpinar Damp area, Denizli and the application and use of these results should be required and enforced by municipal authorities.

Keywords: seismic data, Gokpinar Damp, urban planning, Denizli

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Florencio D. De Los Reyes, Magdaleno R. Vasquez Jr., Mark Daniel G. De Luna, Peerasak Paoprasert

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The effect of adding silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) obtained from rice husk, and phosphorus and nitrogen based compounds namely 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenantrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and melamine, respectively, on the flammability of polystyrene (PS) was studied using response surface methodology (RSM). The flammability of PS was reduced as the limiting oxygen index (LOI) values increased when the flame retardant additives were added. DOPO exhibited the best retarding property increasing the LOI value of PS by 42.4%. A quadratic model for LOI was obtained from the RSM results, with percent loading of SiNPs, DOPO, and melamine, as independent variables. The observed increase in the LOI value as the percent loading of the flame retardant additives is increased, was attributed both to the main effects and synergistic effects of the parameters, as the LOI response of SiNPs is greatly enhanced by the addition of DOPO and melamine, as shown by the response surface plots. This indicates the potential of producing a cheaper, effective, and non-toxic multi-flame retardant system for the polymeric system via different flame retarding mechanisms.

Keywords: flame retardancy, polystyrene, response surface methodology, rice husk, silica nanoparticle

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Authors: Gulfam Hasan, Ijaz Ashraf, Saleem Ashraf, Muhammad Rafay Muzammil, Salman Asghar, Shafiq-Ur-Rehman Zia

Abstract:

The word “climate change” has become the most popular term when anyone observes any uncertain climate variation in their respective region. Asian countries are more prone to the impact of this phenomenon, and Pakistan is the leading affected country. Last few years, governments all over the world have been trying to cater to this issue for the best entrust of their population, especially agriculture. Now the farmers in Pakistan are fully aware of the term “climate change” and are more concerned about its solutions. On the other hand, developed countries like the USA are setting a benchmark for developing countries in every sphere of life. Based on cultural and other variations, the research was carried out to identify the behavior of farmers regarding the same issue. Cross-sectional survey research was designed for an in-depth study of relevant research questions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in Pakistan, while virtual and face-to-face interviews were conducted in the Indiana State of the USA. The results of the present study and the responses of farmers were very interesting. The common climate change mitigation strategies suggested by farmers of both countries were less use of motor vehicles (replacement with bicycles in the circle of 10 Km), less dependency on chemical fertilizers (increased use of Manure, Bio-fertilizer, Compost), and plantation of the tree. The difference of opinion was in less government interest, lack of farmers’ education, political instability (views of Pakistani farmers), awareness of local communities, self-satisfaction, and economic disparities (views of USA farmers). Based on the given evidence, it was recommended that there is a dire need to address the climate change issue all over the world without discrimination of race, color, region, or religion. Because it will affect not only agriculture but also the real effect will be on HUMANITY.

Keywords: climate change, mitigation strategies, forests, biodiversity

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Authors: Eliza. E. Camaso, Guiller. B. Damian, Miguelito. F. Isip, Ronaldo T. Alberto

Abstract:

Land-cover maps were important for many scientific, ecological and land management purposes and during the last decades, rapid decrease of soil fertility was observed to be due to land use practices such as rice cultivation. High-precision land-cover maps are not yet available in the area which is important in an economy management. To assure   accurate mapping of land cover to provide information, remote sensing is a very suitable tool to carry out this task and automatic land use and cover detection. The study did not only provide high precision land cover maps but it also provides estimates of rice production area that had undergone chemical degradation due to fertility decline. Land-cover were delineated and classified into pre-defined classes to achieve proper detection features. After generation of Land-cover map, of high intensity of rice cultivation, soil fertility degradation assessment in rice production area due to fertility decline was created to assess the impact of soils used in agricultural production. Using Simple spatial analysis functions and ArcGIS, the Land-cover map of Municipality of Quezon in Nueva Ecija, Philippines was overlaid to the fertility decline maps from Land Degradation Assessment Philippines- Bureau of Soils and Water Management (LADA-Philippines-BSWM) to determine the area of rice crops that were most likely where nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc and sulfur deficiencies were induced by high dosage of urea and imbalance N:P fertilization. The result found out that 80.00 % of fallow and 99.81% of rice production area has high soil fertility decline.

Keywords: aerial image, landcover, LiDAR, soil fertility degradation

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Authors: Amani Ashari, Julia Omar, Arif Hashim, Shahrul Hamid

Abstract:

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphism has influence on serum lipids which relates to cardiovascular risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency distribution of APOE alleles among Malaysian Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients with and without coronary artery disease (CAD) and their association with serum lipid profiles. A total of 115 patients were recruited in which 78 patients had Type 2 DM without CAD and 37 patients had Type 2 DM with CAD. The APOE polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The APOE ɛ3 allele was the most common one in both groups. There was no significant association between the APOE genotypes and the CAD status in Type 2 DM using Pearson χ² test. Further analysis indicated there were no significant differences in all lipid parameters between E2, E3 and E4 subgroups in both groups. The study showed that the E4 allele carriers of Type 2 DM with CAD patients had higher LDL-C level and lower HDL-C level compared to the other allele carriers. However, analyses showed these levels were not statistically different. The study also showed that the Type 2 DM with CAD group with E2 allele had higher triglyceride (TG). In conclusion, further study with larger sample size is needed to confirm role of E4 as a marker of CAD among Type 2 DM patients in Malaysian population.

Keywords: Apolipoprotein E, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, lipids

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Authors: Eman M. Eissa, Hany M. Hasanin, Mahmoud Abd-Elhamid, S. M. Muyeen, T. Fernando, H. H. C. Iu

Abstract:

Among all available wind energy conversion systems (WECS), the direct driven permanent magnet synchronous generator integrated with power electronic interfaces is becoming popular due to its capability of extracting optimal energy capture, reduced mechanical stresses, no need to external excitation current, meaning less losses, and more compact size. Simple structure, low maintenance cost; and its decoupling control performance is much less sensitive to the parameter variations of the generator. This paper attempts to present a review of the control and optimization strategies of WECS based on permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and overview the most recent research trends in this field. The main aims of this review include; the generalized overall WECS starting from turbines, generators, and control strategies including converters, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), ending with DC-link control. The optimization methods of the controller parameters necessary to guarantee the operation of the system efficiently and safely, especially when connected to the power grid are also presented.

Keywords: control and optimization techniques, permanent magnet synchronous generator, variable speed wind turbines, wind energy conversion system

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Authors: P. Chambe, B. Canova, A. Balabanian, M. Pele, N. Coeur

Abstract:

To avoid battery assisted tags with limited lifetime batteries, it is proposed here to replace them by energy harvesting systems, able to feed from local environment. This would allow total independence to RFID systems, very interesting for applications where tag removal from its location is not possible. Example is here described for luggage safety in airports, and is easily extendable to similar situation in terms of operation constraints. The idea is to fix RFID tag with energy harvesting system not only to identify luggage but also to supply an embedded microcontroller with a sensor delivering luggage weight making it impossible to add or to remove anything from the luggage during transit phases. The aim is to optimize the harvested energy for such RFID applications, and to study in which limits these applications are theoretically possible. Proposed energy harvester is based on two energy sources: piezoelectricity and electromagnetic waves, so that when the luggage is moving on ground transportation to airline counters, the piezo module supplies the tag and its microcontroller, while the RF module operates during luggage transit thanks to readers located along the way. Tag location on the luggage is analyzed to get best vibrations, as well as harvester better choice for optimizing the energy supply depending on applications and the amount of energy harvested during a period of time. Effects of system parameters (RFID UHF frequencies, limit distance between the tag and the antenna necessary to harvest energy, produced voltage and voltage threshold) are discussed and working conditions for such system are delimited.

Keywords: RFID tag, energy harvesting, piezoelectric, EM waves

Procedia PDF Downloads 452

Authors: Pratibha Goyal, Nupur Mathur, Anuradha Singh

Abstract:

Antibiotic resistance is the worldwide threat to human health in this century. Excessive use of antibiotic after their discovery in 1940 makes certain bacteria to become resistant against antibiotics. Most common antibiotic-resistant bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, E.coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Streptococcus pneumonia. Among all Staphylococcus resistant strain called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is responsible for several lives threatening infection in human commonly found in the hospital environment. Our study aimed to isolate bacteriophage against MRSA from the hospital sewage treatment plant and to analyze its efficiency In Vivo in Swiss albino mice model. Sewage sample for the isolation of bacteriophages was collected from SDMH hospital sewage treatment plant in Jaipur. Bacteriophages isolated by the use of enrichment technique and after characterization, isolated phages used to determine phage treatment efficiency in mice. Mice model used to check the safety and suitability of phage application in human need which in turn directly support the use of natural bacteriophage rather than synthetic chemical to kill pathogens. Results show the plaque formation in-vitro and recovery of MRSA infected mice during the experiment. Favorable lytic efficiency determination of MRSA and Salmonella presents a natural way to treat lethal infections caused by Multidrug-resistant bacteria by using their natural host-pathogen relationship.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, bacteriophages, methicillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus, pathogens, phage therapy, Salmonella typhi

Procedia PDF Downloads 144