Search results for: energy demand simulation

Authors: Emad Amar, Tawfik Khattab, Fatma Zada

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Predicting earthquakes is an important issue in the study of geography. Accurate prediction of earthquakes can help people to take effective measures to minimize the loss of personal and economic damage, such as large casualties, destruction of buildings and broken of traffic, occurred within a few seconds. United States Geological Survey (USGS) science organization provides reliable scientific information of Earthquake Existed throughout history & Preliminary database from the National Center Earthquake Information (NEIC) show some useful factors to predict an earthquake in a seismic area like Aleutian Arc in the U.S. state of Alaska. The main advantage of this prediction method that it does not require any assumption, it makes prediction according to the future evolution of object's time series. The article compares between simulation data result from trained BP and RBF neural network versus actual output result from the system calculations. Therefore, this article focuses on analysis of data relating to real earthquakes. Evaluation results show better accuracy and higher speed by using radial basis functions (RBF) neural network.

Keywords: BP neural network, prediction, RBF neural network, earthquake

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Authors: Nouri Sabrina

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Numerical parametric study is conducted to study the effects of ampoule rotation on the flows and the dopant segregation in Vertical Bridgman (VB) crystal growth. Calculations were performed in unsteady state. The extended darcy model, whıch includes the time derivative and coriolis terms, has been employed in the momentum equation. It is found that the convection, and dopant segregation can be affected significantly by ampoule rotation, and the effect is similar to that by an axial magnetıc field. Ampoule rotation decreases the intensity of convection and stretches the flow cell axıally. When the convectıon is weak, the flow can be suppressed almost completely by moderate ampoule rotation and the dopant segregation becomes diffusion-controlled. For stronger convection, the elongated flow cell by ampoule rotation may bring dopant mixing into the bulk melt reducing axial segregation at the early stage of the growth. However, if the cellular flow cannot be suppressed completely, ampoule rotation may induce larger radial segregation due to poor mixing.

Keywords: rotating vertical solidification, Finite Volume Method, heat and mass transfer, porous medium, phase change

Procedia PDF Downloads 426

Authors: Mourad Bédir, Sami Khomsi, Hakim Gabtni, Hajer Azaiez, Ramzi Gharsalli, Riadh Chebbi

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Eastern Tunisia is a semi-arid area; located in the northern Africa plate; southern Mediterranean side. It is facing water scarcity, overexploitation, and decreasing of water quality of phreatic water table. Water supply and storage will not respond to the demographic and economic growth and demand. In addition, only 5 109 m3 of rainwater from 35 109 m3 per year renewable rain water supply can be retained and remobilized. To remediate this water deficiency, researches had been focused to near new subsurface deep aquifers resources. Among them, Upper Miocene sandstone deposits of Béglia, Saouaf, and Somaa Formations. These sandstones are known for their proven Hydrogeologic and hydrocarbon reservoir characteristics in the Tunisian margin. They represent semi-confined to confined aquifers. This work is based on new integrated approaches of seismic stratigraphy, seismic tectonics, and hydrogeology, to highlight and characterize these reservoirs levels for aquifer exploitation in semi-arid area. As a result, five to six third order sequence deposits had been highlighted. They are composed of multi-layered extended sandstones reservoirs; separated by shales packages. These reservoir deposits represent lowstand and highstand system tracts of these sequences, which represent lowstand and highstand system tracts of these sequences. They constitute important strategic water resources volumes for the region.

Keywords: Tunisia, Hydrogeology, sandstones, basin, seismic, aquifers, modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: F. Bendahma, S. Bentata, S. Cherid, A. Zitouni, S. Terkhi, T. Lantri, Y. Sefir, Z. F. Meghoufel

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We examine the electronic transport properties in Al_xGa_1-xAs/GaAs superlattices. Using the transfer-matrix technique and the exact Airy function formalism, we investigate theoretically the effect of structural parameters on the electronic energy spectra of trimer thickness barrier (TTB). Our numerical calculations showed that the localization length of the states becomes more extended when the disorder is correlated (trimer case). We have also found that the resonant tunneling time (RTT) is of the order of several femtoseconds.

Keywords: electronic transport properties, structural parameters, superlattices, transfer-matrix technique

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Authors: Muhammad Imran, Faheem Khadija, Zahoor Hussain, Raheel Anwar, M. Nawaz Khan, M. Raza Salik

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Amongst citrus species, sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) occupies a dominant position in the orange producing countries in the world. Sweet orange is widely consumed both as fresh fruit as well as juice and its global demand is attributed due to higher vitamin C and antioxidants. Fruit quality is most important for the external appearance and marketability of sweet orange fruit, especially for fresh consumption. There are so many factors affecting fruit quality, tree age is the most important one, but remains unexplored so far. The present study, we investigated the role of tree age on fruit quality of different cultivars of sweet oranges. The difference between fruit quality of 5-year young and 15-year old trees was discussed in the current study. In case of fruit weight, maximum fruit weight (238g) was recorded in 15-year old sweet orange cv. Sallustiana cultivar while minimum fruit weight (142g) was recorded in 5-year young tree of Succari sweet orange fruit. The results of the fruit diameter showed that the maximum fruit diameter (77.142mm) was recorded in 15-year old Sallustiana orange but the minimum fruit diameter (66.046mm) was observed in 5-year young tree of sweet orange cv. Succari. The minimum value of rind thickness (4.142mm) was noted in 15-year old tree of cv. Red blood. On the other hand maximum value of rind thickness was observed in 5-year young tree of cv. Sallustiana. The data regarding total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (TA), TSS/TA, juice content, rind, flavedo thickness, pH and fruit diameter have also been discussed.

Keywords: age, cultivars, fruit, quality, sweet orange (Citrus Sinensis L. Osbeck)

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Authors: Olga S. Volodko, Lidiya A. Kompaniets, Ludmila V. Gavrilova

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The method of empirical orthogonal functions is the method of data analysis with a complex spatial-temporal structure. This method allows us to decompose the data into a finite number of modes determined by empirically finding the eigenfunctions of data correlation matrix. The modes have different scales and can be associated with various physical processes. The empirical orthogonal function method has been widely used for the analysis of hydrophysical characteristics, for example, the analysis of sea surface temperatures in the Western North Atlantic, ocean surface currents in the North Carolina, the study of tropical wave disturbances etc. The method used in this study has been applied to the analysis of temperature and velocity measurements in saline Lake Shira (Southern Siberia, Russia). Shira is a shallow lake with the maximum depth of 25 m. The lake Shira can be considered as a closed water site because of it has one small river providing inflow and but it has no outflows. The main factor that causes the motion of fluid is variable wind flows. In summer the lake is strongly stratified by temperature and saline. Long-term measurements of the temperatures and currents were conducted at several points during summer 2014-2015. The temperature has been measured with an accuracy of 0.1 ºC. The data were analyzed using the empirical orthogonal function method in the real version. The first empirical eigenmode accounts for 70-80 % of the energy and can be interpreted as temperature distribution with a thermocline. A thermocline is a thermal layer where the temperature decreases rapidly from the mixed upper layer of the lake to much colder deep water. The higher order modes can be interpreted as oscillations induced by internal waves. The currents measurements were recorded using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers 600 kHz and 1200 kHz. The data were analyzed using the empirical orthogonal function method in the complex version. The first empirical eigenmode accounts for about 40 % of the energy and corresponds to the Ekman spiral occurring in the case of a stationary homogeneous fluid. Other modes describe the effects associated with the stratification of fluids. The second and next empirical eigenmodes were associated with dynamical modes. These modes were obtained for a simplified model of inhomogeneous three-level fluid at a water site with a flat bottom.

Keywords: Ekman spiral, empirical orthogonal functions, data analysis, stratified fluid, thermocline

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Authors: Jeh-Nan Pan, Chung-I Li

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Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries. Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries.

Keywords: gauge repeatability and reproducibility, multivariate measurement system analysis, precision-to-tolerance ratio, Gauge repeatability

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Authors: Thayse Marques Passos, Brid Quilty, Mary Pryce

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The interest in developing alternative techniques to obtain safe water, free from pathogens and hazardous substances, is growing in recent times. The photodynamic inactivation of microorganisms (PDI) is a promising ecologically-friendly and multi-target approach for water disinfection. It uses visible light as an energy source combined with a photosensitiser (PS) to transfer energy/electrons to a substrate or molecular oxygen generating reactive oxygen species, which cause cidal effects towards cells. PDI has mainly been used in clinical studies and investigations on its application to disinfect water is relatively recent. The majority of studies use planktonic cells. However, in their natural environments, bacteria quite often do not occur as freely suspended cells (planktonic) but in cell aggregates that are either freely floating or attached to surfaces as biofilms. Microbes can form aggregates and biofilms as a strategy to protect them from environmental stress. As aggregates, bacteria have a better metabolic function, they communicate more efficiently, and they are more resistant to biocide compounds than their planktonic forms. Among the bacteria that are able to form aggregates are members of the genus Pseudomonas, they are a very diverse group widely distributed in the environment. Pseudomonas species can form aggregates/biofilms in water and can cause particular problems in water distribution systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of photodynamic inactivation in killing a range of planktonic cells including Escherichia coli DSM 1103, Staphylococcus aureus DSM 799, Shigella sonnei DSM 5570, Salmonella enterica and Pseudomonas putida DSM 6125, and aggregating cells of Pseudomonas fluorescens DSM 50090, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. The experiments were performed in glass Petri dishes, containing the bacterial suspension and the photosensitiser, irradiated with a multi-LED (wavelengths 430nm and 660nm) for different time intervals. The responses of the cells were monitored using the pour plate technique and confocal microscopy. The study showed that bacteria belonging to Pseudomonads group tend to be more tolerant to PDI. While E. coli, S. aureus, S. sonnei and S. enterica required a dosage ranging from 39.47 J/cm2 to 59.21 J/cm2 for a 5 log reduction, Pseudomonads needed a dosage ranging from 78.94 to 118.42 J/cm2, a higher dose being required when the cells aggregated.

Keywords: bacterial aggregation, photoinactivation, Pseudomonads, water disinfection

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Authors: Yael Shai, Dror L. Angel, Dror Zurel, Peleg Astrahan, Maxim Rubin-Blum, Eyal Rahav

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The high demand for oil and its by-products is symptomatic of the 21st century and occasionally leads to oil spills and pollution of coastal waters. Marine oil pollution may originate from a variety of sources -urban runoff, tanker cleaning, drilling activities, and oil spills. These events may release large amounts of highly toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other pollutants to coastal water, thereby threatening local marine life. Here, we investigated the effects of crude oil on the temporal dynamics of phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria in Israeli coastal waters. To this end, we added crude oil (500 µm thick layer, with and without additional nutrients; NO₃ and PO₄) to mesocosms (1m³ bags) containing oligotrophic surface coastal water collected near Haifa during summer and winter. Changes in phytoplankton biomass, activity and diversity were monitored daily for 5-6 days. Our results demonstrate that crude oil addition resulted in a pronounced decrease in phytoplankton biomass and production rates, while heterotrophic bacterial production increased significantly. Importantly, a few days post addition we found that the oil-degrading bacteria, Oleibacter sp. and Oleispira sp. appeared in the mesocosms and that the addition of nutrients (along with the crude oil) further increased this trend. This suggests that oil-degrading bacteria may be NO₃ and PO₄ limited in Israeli coastal waters. The results of this study should enable us to establish improved science-based environmental policy with respect to handling crude oil pollution in this region.

Keywords: heterotrophic bacteria, nutrients, mesocosm, oil pollution, oligotrophic, phytoplankton

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Authors: Yassa Nacera, Badji Abderrezak, Saidoune Abdelmalek, Houassine Hamza

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Several kinds of faults can occur in a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) systems: bearing faults, electrically short/open faults, eccentricity faults, and demagnetization faults. Demagnetization fault means that the strengths of permanent magnets (PM) in PMSM decrease, and it causes low output torque, which is undesirable for EVs. The fault is caused by physical damage, high-temperature stress, inverse magnetic field, and aging. Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is a conventional motor fault detection method based on the extraction of signal features from stator current. a simulation model of the PMSM under partial demagnetization and uniform demagnetization fault was established, and different degrees of demagnetization fault were simulated. The harmonic analyses using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) show that the fault diagnosis method based on the harmonic wave analysis is only suitable for partial demagnetization fault of the PMSM and does not apply to uniform demagnetization fault of the PMSM.

Keywords: permanent magnet, diagnosis, demagnetization, modelling

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Authors: Mohamed Aymen Slim, Afef Abdelkrim, Mohamed Benrejeb

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The handwriting is a physical demonstration of a complex cognitive process learnt by man since his childhood. People with disabilities or suffering from various neurological diseases are facing so many difficulties resulting from problems located at the muscle stimuli (EMG) or signals from the brain (EEG) and which arise at the stage of writing. The handwriting velocity of the same writer or different writers varies according to different criteria: age, attitude, mood, writing surface, etc. Therefore, it is interesting to reconstruct an experimental basis records taking, as primary reference, the writing speed for different writers which would allow studying the global system during handwriting process. This paper deals with a new approach of the handwriting system modeling based on the velocity criterion through the concepts of artificial neural networks, precisely the Radial Basis Functions (RBF) neural networks. The obtained simulation results show a satisfactory agreement between responses of the developed neural model and the experimental data for various letters and forms then the efficiency of the proposed approaches.

Keywords: Electro Myo Graphic (EMG) signals, experimental approach, handwriting process, Radial Basis Functions (RBF) neural networks, velocity modeling

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Authors: Jun Gil Ahn, Jong Tae Kim

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In this paper, we study the sensor fusion structure on the multipoint control unit (MCU). Sensor fusion using Kalman filter for 9-axis sensors is considered. The 9-axis inertial sensor is the combination of 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis magnetometer. We implement the sensor fusion structure among the sensor hubs in MCU and measure the execution time, power consumptions, and total energy. Experiments with real data from 9-axis sensor in 20Mhz show that the average power consumptions are 44mW and 48mW on Cortx-M0 and Cortex-M3 MCU, respectively. Execution times are 613.03 us and 305.6 us respectively.

Keywords: 9-axis sensor, Kalman filter, MCU, sensor fusion

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Authors: Dilesh Mogre, Jitendra Toravi, Saurabh Joshi, Prutha Deshpande, Aishwarya Kura

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In earlier days of technology, it was not possible to understand the nature of complex biomedical problems and were only left to clinical postulations. With advancement in science today, we have tools like Finite Element Modelling and simulation to solve complex biomedical problems. This paper presents how ANSYS WORKBENCH can be used to study deformation of pneumatized sphenoid bone caused by increased intracranial pressure. Intracranial pressure refers to the pressure inside the skull. The increase in the pressure above the normal range of 15mmhg can lead to serious conditions due to developed stresses and deformation. One of the areas where the deformation is suspected to occur is Sphenoid Bone. Moreover, the varying degree of pneumatization increases the complexity of the conditions. It is necessary to study deformation patterns on pneumatized sphenoid bone model at elevated intracranial pressure. Finite Element Analysis plays a major role in developing and analyzing model and give quantitative results.

Keywords: intracranial pressure, pneumatized sphenoid bone, deformation, finite element analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Pedro M. Velasco, Cecilia C. Alday, Oscar C. Avello, Ximena T. Faundez, Luis M. Velasco

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Anaerobic digestion (AD) plants of food waste (FW) produced by agro-industry, have been widely developed from last decade to nowadays, because of the advantages over aerobic active sludge systems. Despite several bioreactor configurations and operation modes have been successfully improved and implemented at industrial scale in a wide range of applications, effluent behavior, after AD, does not commonly meet requirements for direct disposal into the environment without further treatments. In addition, literature has rarely shown AD of food waste at psychrophilic range. This temperature range may be of interest for making AD plant operation easier and increasing the stability of digestion. In spite of literature shows several methods for post-treatment, such as the use of microalgae, these have not been cultivated on effluents from AD at psychrophilic range. Hence, with the aim of showing the potential use of AD of FW at the psychrophilic range (25ºC) and the viability of microalgae post-treatment, single batch reactors have been used for methane potential tests at laboratory scale. Afterwards, digestates, derived from this AD of FW sludge, were diluted with fresh water at different ratios (1:0, 1:1; 1:4) and used as culture media for photoautotrophic microalgae. Several parameters, such as pH, biogas production, and chemical oxygen demand, were measured periodically over several months. Results show that methane potential is 150 ml g-1 per volatile solid with up to 57.7 % of methane content. Moreover, microalgae has been successfully cultivated on all tested effluents and in case of 1:1 and 1:4 rates, the resulting effluents meet the quality levels required for irrigation water.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, biogas, food waste, microalgae, psychrophilic range

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Authors: Faiza Babur Khan, Sohail Asghar

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With an emergence of distributed environment, cloud computing is proving to be the most stimulating computing paradigm shift in computer technology, resulting in spectacular expansion in IT industry. Many companies have augmented their technical infrastructure by adopting cloud resource sharing architecture. Cloud computing has opened doors to unlimited opportunities from application to platform availability, expandable storage and provision of computing environment. However, from a security viewpoint, an added risk level is introduced from clouds, weakening the protection mechanisms, and hardening the availability of privacy, data security and on demand service. Issues of trust, confidentiality, and integrity are elevated due to multitenant resource sharing architecture of cloud. Trust or reliability of cloud refers to its capability of providing the needed services precisely and unfailingly. Confidentiality is the ability of the architecture to ensure authorization of the relevant party to access its private data. It also guarantees integrity to protect the data from being fabricated by an unauthorized user. So in order to assure provision of secured cloud, a roadmap or model is obligatory to analyze a security problem, design mitigation strategies, and evaluate solutions. The aim of the paper is twofold; first to enlighten the factors which make cloud security critical along with alleviation strategies and secondly to propose an intrusion detection model that identifies the attackers in a preventive way using machine learning Random Forest classifier with an accuracy of 99.8%. This model uses less number of features. A comparison with other classifiers is also presented.

Keywords: cloud security, threats, machine learning, random forest, classification

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Authors: Serin Darwish, Hakim Saibi, Amir Gabr

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is situated within an arid zone where the climate is arid and the recharge of the groundwater is very low. Groundwater is the primary source of water in the United Arab Emirates. However, rapid expansion, population growth, agriculture, and industrial activities have negatively affected these limited water resources. The shortage of water resources has become a serious concern due to the over-pumping of groundwater to meet demand. In addition to the deficit of groundwater, the UAE has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world. In this study, a combination of time-lapse measurements of microgravity and depth to groundwater level in selected wells in Al Ain city was used to estimate the variations in groundwater storage. Al-Ain is the second largest city in Abu Dhabi Emirates and the third largest city in the UAE. The groundwater in this region has been overexploited. Relative gravity measurements were acquired using the Scintrex CG-6 Autograv. This latest generation gravimeter from Scintrex Ltd provides fast, precise gravity measurements and automated corrections for temperature, tide, instrument tilt and rejection of data noise. The CG-6 gravimeter has a resolution of 0.1μGal. The purpose of this study is to measure the groundwater storage changes in the shallow aquifers based on the application of microgravity method. The gravity method is a nondestructive technique that allows collection of data at almost any location over the aquifer. Preliminary results indicate a possible relationship between microgravity and water levels, but more work needs to be done to confirm this. The results will help to develop the relationship between monthly microgravity changes with hydrological and hydrogeological changes of shallow phreatic. The study will be useful in water management considerations and additional future investigations.

Keywords: Al-Ain, arid region, groundwater, microgravity

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Authors: Doo Ki Lee, Kumaresh Selvakumar, Man Young Kim

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Catalytic combustion is an environmentally friendly technique to combust fuels in gas turbines. In this paper, the behavior of surface reaction rate on catalytic combustion is studied with respect to the heterogeneous oxidation of methane-air mixture in a catalytic reactor. Plug flow reactor (PFR), the simplified single catalytic channel assists in investigating the catalytic combustion phenomenon over the Pt catalyst by promoting the desired chemical reactions. The numerical simulation with multi-step elementary surface reactions is governed by the availability of free surface sites onto the catalytic surface and thereby, the catalytic combustion characteristics are demonstrated by examining the rate of the reaction for lean fuel mixture. Further, two different surface reaction mechanisms are adopted and compared for surface reaction rates to indicate the controlling heterogeneous reaction for better fuel conversion. The performance of platinum catalyst under heterogeneous reaction is analyzed under the same temperature condition, where the catalyst with the higher kinetic rate of reaction would have a maximum catalytic activity for enhanced methane catalytic combustion.

Keywords: catalytic combustion, heterogeneous reaction, plug flow reactor, surface reaction rate

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Authors: L. S. Supian, Mohd Syuhaimi Ab-Rahman, Norhana Arsad

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Experimental study has been done to study the performance on polymer optical fiber splitter characterization when different bending radii are applied on splitters with different fiber cores. The splitters with different cores pair are attached successively to splitter platform of ellipse-shape geometrical blocks of several bending radii. A force is exerted upon the blocks thus the splitter in order to encourage the splitting of energy between the two fibers. The aim of this study is to investigate which fiber core pair gives the optimum performance that goes with each bending radius in order to develop an effective splitter.

Keywords: splitter, macro-bending, cores, geometrical blocks

Procedia PDF Downloads 663

Authors: Fahad Javed, Tasneem Akhter, Maria Zafar, Adnan Shafique

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Evaluation and quantification of techniques is critical element of research and development of technology. Simulations and models play an important role in providing the tools for such assessments. When we look at technologies which impact or is dependent on an average Joe consumer then modeling the socio-economic and psychological aspects of the consumer also gain an importance. For feed in tariff for home consumers which is being deployed for average consumer may force many consumers to be adapters of the technology. Understanding how consumers will adapt this technologies thus hold as much significance as evaluating how the techniques would work in consumer agnostic scenarios. In this paper we first build the case for simulators which accommodate socio-economic realities of the consumers to evaluate smart grid technologies, provide a glossary of data that can aid in this effort and present an abstract model to capture and simulate consumers' adaptation and behavioral response to smart grid technologies. We provide a case study to express the power of such simulators.

Keywords: smart grids, simulation, socio-economic parameters, feed in tariff (FiT), forecasting

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Authors: A. Qayyum, G. Bilal, H. M. Waheed

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The objectives of the study were to determine phenotypic variations in Hairy goats for quantitative and qualitative traits and to analyze the relationship between different body measurements and body weight in Hairy goats. Data were collected from the Barani Livestock Production Research Institute (BLPRI) at Kherimurat, Attock and potential farmers who were raising hairy goats in the Potohar region. Twelve (12) phenotypic parameters were measured on 99 adult Hairy goat (18 male and 81 female). Four qualitative and 8 quantitative traits were investigated. Qualitative traits were visually observed and expressed as percentages. Descriptive analysis was done on quantitative variables. All hairy goats had predominately black body coat color (72%), whereas white (11%) and brown (11%) body coat color were also observed. Both the pigmented (45.5%) and non-pigmented (54.5%) type of body skin were observed in the goat breed. Horns were present in the majority (91%) of animals. Most of the animals (83%) had straight facial head profiles. Analysis was performed in SAS On-Demand for Academics using PROC mixed model procedure. Overall means ± SD of body weight (BW), body length (BL), height at wither (HAW), ear length (EL), head length (HL), heart girth (HG), tail length (TL) and MC (muzzle circumference) were 41.44 ± 12.21 kg, 66.40 ± 7.87 cm, 75.17 ± 7.83 cm, 22.99 ± 6.75 cm, 15.07 ± 3.44 cm, 76.54 ± 8.80 cm, 18.28 ± 4.18 cm, and 26.24 ± 5.192 cm, respectively. Sex had a significant effect on BL and HG (P < 0.05), whereas BW, HAW, EL, HL, TL, and MC were not significantly affected (P > 0.05). The herd had a significant effect on BW, BL, HAW, HL, HG, and TL (P < 0.05) except EL and MC (P > 0.05). Hairy goats appear to have the potential for selection as mutton breeds in the Potohar region of Punjab. The findings of the present study would help in the characterization and conservation of hairy goats using genetic and genomic tools in the future.

Keywords: body weight, Hairy goat, type traits Punjab, Pakistan

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Authors: Yi Ming Zhang, Zhan Xi Wang, Hang Chen, Gang Wang

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Manual polishing has problems such as high labor intensity, low production efficiency and difficulty in guaranteeing the consistency of polishing quality. It is more and more necessary to replace manual polishing with robot polishing. Polishing force directly affects the quality of polishing, so accurate tracking and control of polishing force is one of the most important conditions for improving the accuracy of robot polishing. The traditional force control strategy is difficult to adapt to the strong coupling of force control and position control during the robot polishing process. Therefore, based on the analysis of force-based impedance control and position-based impedance control, this paper proposed a new type of adaptive controller. Based on force feedback control of active compliance control, the controller can adaptively estimate the stiffness and position of the external environment and eliminate the steady-state force error produced by traditional impedance control. The simulation results of the model shows that the adaptive controller has good adaptability to changing environmental positions and environmental stiffness, and can accurately track and control polishing force.

Keywords: robot polishing, force feedback, impedance control, adaptive control

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Authors: Megersa Dugasa Fite

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This paper analyses regulatory and supervisory issues in the Ethiopian micro finance sector, which caters to the needs of those who have been excluded from the formal financial sector. Micro-finance has received increased importance in development because of its grand goal to give credits to the poor to raise their economic and social well-being and improve the quality of lives. The micro-finance at present has been moving towards a credit-plus period through covering savings and insurance functions. It thus helps in reducing the rate of financial exclusion and social segregation, alleviating poverty and, consequently, stimulating development. The Ethiopian micro finance policy has been generally positive and developmental but major regulatory and supervisory limitations such as the absolute prohibition of NGOs to participate in micro credit functions, higher risks for depositors of micro-finance institutions, lack of credit information services with research and development, the unmet demand, and risks of market failures due to over-regulation are disappointing. Therefore, to remove the limited reach and high degree of problems typical in the informal means of financial intermediation plus to deal with the failure of formal banks to provide basic financial services to a significant portion of the country’s population, more needs to be done on micro finance. Certain key regulatory and supervisory revisions hence need to be taken to strengthen the Ethiopian micro finance sector so that it can practically provide majority poor access to a range of high quality financial services that help them work their way out of poverty and the incapacity it imposes.

Keywords: micro-finance, micro-finance regulation and supervision, micro-finance institutions, financial access, social segregation, poverty alleviation, development, Ethiopia

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Authors: Liew Hui Fang, Syed Idris Syed Hassan, Mohd Fareq Abd. Malek, Yufridin Wahab, Norshafinash Saudin

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The paper implementation new approach method applied into transforming lumped element circuit into microstrip line form for Butterworth low pass filter which is operating at LC band. The filter’s lumped element circuits and microstrip line form were first designed and simulated using Advanced Design Software (ADS) to obtain the best filter characteristic based on S-parameter and implemented on FR4 substrate for order N=3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9. The importance of a new approach of transforming method as a correction factor has been considered into designed microstrip line. From ADS simulation results proved that the response of microstrip line circuit of Butterworth low pass filter with fringing correction factor has an excellent agreement with its lumped circuit. This shows that the new approach of transforming lumped element circuit into microstrip line is able to solve the conventional design of complexity size of circuit of Butterworth low pass filter (LPF) into microstrip line.

Keywords: Butterworth low pass filter, number of order, microstrip line, microwave filter, maximally flat

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Authors: R. Vigneswaran, S. Thilakanathan

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Variable time-stepping algorithms for solving dynamical systems performed poorly for long time computations which pass close to a fixed point. To overcome this difficulty, several authors considered phase space error controls for numerical simulation of dynamical systems. In one generalized phase space error control, a step-size selection scheme was proposed, which allows this error control to be incorporated into the standard adaptive algorithm as an extra constraint at negligible extra computational cost. For this generalized error control, it was already analyzed the forward Euler method applied to the linear system whose coefficient matrix has real and negative eigenvalues. In this paper, this result was extended to the linear system whose coefficient matrix has complex eigenvalues with negative real parts. Some theoretical results were obtained and numerical experiments were carried out to support the theoretical results.

Keywords: adaptivity, fixed point, long time simulations, stability, linear system

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Authors: O. H. Gebril, N. A. Meguid

Abstract:

Background: Iron had been a focus of interest recently as a main exaggerating factor for oxidative stresses in the central nervous system and a link to various neurological disorders is suspected. Many studies with various techniques showed evidence of disturbed iron-related proteins in the cell in human and animal models of neurodegenerative disorders. Also, linkage to significant pathological changes had been evidenced e.g. apoptosis and cell signaling. On the other hand, the role of iron in neurodevelopmental disorders is still unclear. With increasing prevalence of autism worldwide, some changes in iron parameters and its stores were documented in many studies. This study includes Haemochromatosis HFE gene polymorphisms (p.H63D and p.C282Y) and ferroportin gene (SLC40A1) Q248H polymorphism in autism and control children. Materials and Methods: Whole genome DNA was extracted; p.H63D and p.C282Y genotyping was studied using specific sequence amplification followed by restriction enzyme digestion on a sample of autism patients (25 cases) and twenty controls. Results: The p.H63D is seen more than the C282Y among both autism and control samples, with no significant association of p.H63D or p.C282Y polymorphism and autism was revealed. Also, no association with Q248H polymorphism was evidenced. Conclusion: The study results do not prove the role of cellular iron genes polymorphisms as risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders, and in turn highlights the specificity of cellular iron related pathways in neurodegeneration. These results demand further gene expression studies to elucidate the main pathophysiological pathways that are disturbed in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords: iron, neurodevelopmental, oxidative stress, haemohromatosis, ferroportin, genes

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Authors: Ali Osman Suiçmez, Emrah Deniz

Abstract:

In this study, control experiments were made on a freeze drying system of which were built a prototype. In experiments, apple slices in different geometrical shapes were dried and drying curves were gained. Then, the shapes which were the fastest for drying were determined. Twenty samples for each apple shapes were put in the prototype and dried. After the experiments, the humidity ratio of the samples and water activity values of the samples have been obtained. Obtained results show that the prototype is working and by comparing the results the shape which dried fastest was determined.

Keywords: freeze drying, vacuum, energy consumption, drying process, apple

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: Debananda Mohapatra, Subramanya Badrayyana, Smrutiranjan Parida

Abstract:

Carbon nano-onions (CNOs) are the spherical graphitic nanostructures composed of concentric shells of graphitic carbon can be hypothesized as the intermediate state between fullerenes and graphite. These are very important members in fullerene family also known as the multi-shelled fullerenes can be envisioned as promising supercapacitor electrode with high energy & power density as they provide easy access to ions at electrode-electrolyte interface due to their curvature. There is still very sparse report concerning on CNOs as electrode despite having an excellent electrodechemical performance record due to their unavailability and lack of convenient methods for their high yield preparation and purification. Keeping all these current pressing issues in mind, we present a facile scalable and straightforward flame synthesis method of pure and highly dispersible CNOs without contaminated by any other forms of carbon; hence, a post processing purification procedure is not necessary. To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first time; we developed an extremely simple, light weight, novel inexpensive, flexible free standing pristine CNOs electrode without using any binder element. Locally available daily used cotton wipe has been used for fabrication of such an ideal electrode by ‘dipping and drying’ process providing outstanding stretchability and mechanical flexibility with strong adhesion between CNOs and porous wipe. The specific capacitance 102 F/g, energy density 3.5 Wh/kg and power density 1224 W/kg at 20 mV/s scan rate are the highest values that ever recorded and reported so far in symmetrical two electrode cell configuration with 1M Na2SO4 electrolyte; indicating a very good synthesis conditions employed with optimum pore size in agreement with electrolyte ion size. This free standing CNOs electrode also showed an excellent cyclic performance and stability retaining 95% original capacity after 5000 charge –discharge cycles. Furthermore, this unique method not only affords binder free - freestanding electrode but also provide a general way of fabricating such multifunctional promising CNOs based nanocomposites for their potential device applications in flexible solar cells and lithium-ion batteries.

Keywords: binder-free, flame synthesis, flexible, carbon nano onion

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Authors: Pu Ying-Chih, Yang Yin-Ju, Hang Jian-Yi, Jang Guang-Way

Abstract:

Organic-Inorganic hybrid materials consisting of graded distributions of inorganic nano particles in organic polymer matrices were successfully prepared by the sol-gel process. Optical and surface properties of the resulting nano composites can be manipulated by changing their compositions and nano particle distribution gradients. Applications of gradient nano composite materials include sealants for LED packaging and screen lenses for smartphones. Optical transparency, prism coupler, TEM, SEM, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (EDX), Izod impact strength, conductivity, pencil hardness, and thermogravimetric characterizations of the nano composites were performed and the results will be presented.

Keywords: Gradient, Hybrid, Nanocomposite, Organic-Inorganic

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Authors: Dong-Hyun Ha, Young-Min Ko, Chang-Bin Ha, Hyoung-Kyu Song

Abstract:

In Heterogeneous network (HetNet) can provide high quality of a service in a wireless communication system by composition of small cell networks. The composition of small cell networks improves cell coverage and capacity to the mobile users.Recently, various techniques using small cell networks have been researched in the wireless communication system. In this paper, the cooperative scheme obtaining high reliability is proposed in the small cell networks. The proposed scheme suggests a cooperative small cell system and the new signal transmission technique in the proposed system model. The new signal transmission technique applies a cyclic delay diversity (CDD) scheme based on the multiple input multiple output-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system to obtain improved performance. The improved performance of the proposed scheme is confirmed by the simulation results.

Keywords: adaptive transmission, cooperative communication, diversity gain, OFDM

Procedia PDF Downloads 496

Authors: Lili Yang, Jirui Gong, Qinpu Luo, Min Liu, Bo Yang, Zihe Zhang

Abstract:

Anthropogenic activities have increased nitrogen (N) inputs to grassland ecosystems. Knowledge of the impact of N addition on litter decomposition is critical to understand ecosystem carbon cycling and their responses to global climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of N addition and litter types on litter decomposition of a semi-arid temperate grassland during growing and non-growing seasons in Inner Mongolia, northern China, and to identify the relation between litter decomposition and C: N: P stoichiometry in the litter-soil continuum. Six levels of N addition were conducted: CK, N1 (0 g Nm−2 yr−1), N2 (2 g Nm−2 yr−1), N3 (5 g Nm−2 yr−1), N4 (10 g Nm−2 yr−1) and N5 (25 g Nm−2 yr−1). Litter decomposition rates and nutrient release differed greatly among N addition gradients and litter types. N addition promoted litter decomposition of S. grandis, but exhibited no significant influence on L. chinensis litter, indicating that the S. grandis litter decomposition was more sensitive to N addition than L. chinensis. The critical threshold for N addition to promote mixed litter decomposition was 10 -25g Nm−2 yr−1. N addition altered the balance of C: N: P stoichiometry between litter, soil and microbial biomass. During decomposition progress, the L. chinensis litter N: P was higher in N2-N4 plots compared to CK, while the S. grandis litter C: N was lower in N3 and N4 plots, indicating that litter N or P content doesn’t satisfy microbial decomposers with the increasing of N addition. As a result, S. grandis litter exhibited net N immobilization, while L. chinensis litter net P immobilization. Mixed litter C: N: P stoichiometry satisfied the demand of microbial decomposers, showed net mineralization during the decomposition process. With the increasing N deposition in the future, mixed litter would potentially promote C and nutrient cycling in grassland ecosystem by increasing litter decomposition and nutrient release.

Keywords: C: N: P stoichiometry, litter decomposition, nitrogen addition, nutrient release

Procedia PDF Downloads 478