Search results for: green power market

Authors: Amaal Ali Al-Gamde

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The Syrian revolution is a major issue in the Middle East, which draws in world powers and receives a great focus in international mass media since 2011. The heavy global reliance on cyber news and digital sources plays a key role in conveying a sense of bias to a wide range of online readers. Thus, based on the assumption that media discourse possesses ideological implications, this study investigates the representation of Syrian revolution in online media. The paper explores the discursive constructions of anti and pro-government powers in Syrian revolution in 1000,000-word corpus of Fars online reports (an Iranian news agency), issued between 2013 and 2015. Taking a corpus assisted discourse analysis approach, the analysis investigates three types of lexicosemantic relations, the semantic macrostructures within which the two social actors are framed, the lexical collocations characterizing the news discourse and the discourse prosodies they tell about the two sides of the conflict. The study utilizes computer-based approaches, sketch engine and AntConc software to minimize the bias of the subjective analysis. The analysis moves from the insights of lexical frequencies and keyness scores to examine themes and the collocational patterns. The findings reveal the Fars agency’s ideological mode of representations in reporting events of Syrian revolution in two ways. The first is by stereotyping the opposition groups under the umbrella of terrorism, using words such as (law breakers, foreign-backed groups, militant groups, terrorists) to legitimize the atrocities of security forces against protesters and enhance horror among civilians. The second is through emphasizing the power of the government and depicting it as the defender of the Arab land by foregrounding the discourse of international conspiracy against Syria. The paper concludes discussing the potential importance of triangulating corpus linguistic tools with critical discourse analysis to elucidate more about discourses and reality.

Keywords: discourse prosody, ideology, keyness, semantic macrostructure

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Authors: E. A. Krasikov

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As a main barrier against radioactivity outlet reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is a key component in terms of NPP safety. Therefore, present-day demands in RPV reliability enhance have to be met by all possible actions for RPV in-service embrittlement mitigation. Annealing treatment is known to be the effective measure to restore the RPV metal properties deteriorated by neutron irradiation. There are two approaches to annealing. The first one is so-called ‘dry’ high temperature (~475°C) annealing. It allows obtaining practically complete recovery, but requires the removal of the reactor core and internals. External heat source (furnace) is required to carry out RPV heat treatment. The alternative approach is to anneal RPV at a maximum coolant temperature which can be obtained using the reactor core or primary circuit pumps while operating within the RPV design limits. This low temperature «wet» annealing, although it cannot be expected to produce complete recovery, is more attractive from the practical point of view especially in cases when the removal of the internals is impossible. The first RPV «wet» annealing was done using nuclear heat (US Army SM-1A reactor). The second one was done by means of primary pumps heat (Belgian BR-3 reactor). As a rule, there is no recovery effect up to annealing and irradiation temperature difference of 70°C. It is known, however, that along with radiation embrittlement neutron irradiation may mitigate the radiation damage in metals. Therefore, we have tried to test the possibility to use the effect of radiation-induced ductilization in ‘wet’ annealing technology by means of nuclear heat utilization as heat and neutron irradiation sources at once. In support of the above-mentioned conception the 3-year duration reactor experiment on 15Cr3NiMoV type steel with preliminary irradiation at operating PWR at 270°C and following extra irradiation (87 h at 330°C) at IR-8 test reactor was fulfilled. In fact, embrittlement was partly suppressed up to value equivalent to 1,5 fold neutron fluence decrease. The degree of recovery in case of radiation enhanced annealing is equal to 27% whereas furnace annealing results in zero effect under existing conditions. Mechanism of the radiation-induced damage mitigation is proposed. It is hoped that «wet » annealing technology will help provide a better management of the RPV degradation as a factor affecting the lifetime of nuclear power plants which, together with associated management methods, will help facilitate safe and economic long-term operation of PWRs.

Keywords: controlling, embrittlement, radiation, steel, wet annealing

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Authors: Songul Aktas, Turkan Pasinlioglu, Kiymet Yesilcicek Calik

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Introduction: Emphatic approach during labor increases both quality of care and birth satisfaction of mothers. Besides; maternal satisfaction statements and expressions about midwives who assist labor contribute to a positive birth perception and wish to give vaginal delivery again. Aim: The study aimed at investigating the effect of empathy training given to midwives on mothers’ satisfaction with midwives and their birth perception. Material/Method: This experimental study was undertaken between February 2013 and January 2014 at a public hospital in Trabzon Province. The population of the study was composed of mothers who gave vaginal delivery and the sample was composed of 222 mothers determined with power analyzes. Ethical approval and written informed consents were obtained. Mothers who were assisted by midwives during 1st, 2nd and 3rd phases of delivery and first two postpartum hours were included. Empathy training given to midwives included didactic narration, creative drama, psychodrama techniques and lasted 32 hours. The data were collected before the empathy training (BET), right after empathy training (RAET) and 8 weeks later after birth (8WLAB). Mothers were homogenous in terms of socio-demographic, obstetric characteristics. Data were collected with a questionnaire and were analyzed with Chi-square tests. Findings: Rate of mother’s satisfaction with midwives was 36.5% in BET, 81.1% in RAET and 75.7% in 8WLAB. Key mother’s satisfaction with midwives were as follows: 27.6% of mothers told that midwives were “smiling-kind” in BET, 39.6% of them in RAET and 33.7% of them in 8WLAB; 31% of mothers told that midwives were “understanding” in BET, 38.2% of them in RAET and 33.7% of them in 8WLAB; 15.7% of mothers told that midwives were “reassuring” in BET, 44.9% of them in RAET and 39.3% of them in 8WLAB;19.5% of mothers told that midwives were “encouraging and motivating” in BET, 39.8% of them in RAET and 19.8% of mothers told that midwives were “informative” in BET, 45.6% of them in RAET and 35.1% of them in 8WLAB (p<0.05). Key mother’s dissatisfaction with midwives were as follows: 55.3% of mothers told that midwives were “poorly-informed” in BET, 17% of them in RAET and 27.7% of them in 8WLAB; 56.9% of mothers told that midwives were “poorly-listening” in BET, 17.6% of them in RAET and 25.5% of them in 8WLAB; 53.2% of mothers told that midwives were “judgmental-embarrassing” in BET, 17% of them in RAET and 29.8% of them in 8WLAB; 56.2% of mothers told that midwives had “fierce facial expressions” in BET, 15.6% of them in RAET and 28.1% of them in 8WLAB. Rates of mothers’ perception that labor was “easy” were 8.1% in BET, 21.6% in RAET and 13.5% in 8WLAB and rates of mothers’ perception that labor was “very difficult and tiring” were 41.9% in BET, 5.4% in RAET and 13.5% in 8WLAB (p<0.05). Conclusion: The effect of empathy training given to midwives upon statements that described mothers’ satisfaction with midwives and their birth perception was positive. Note: This study was financially funded by TUBİTAK project with number 113S672.

Keywords: empathy training, labor perception, mother’s satisfaction with midwife, vaginal delivery

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Authors: Jessica Kate Simonds

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The last successful hijacking perpetrated by Somali pirates in 2012 represented a critical turning point for the identity and brand of Indian Ocean (IO) insecurity, coined in this paper as the era of the post-piratical. This paper explores the broadening of the PMSC business model to account and contribute to the design of a new IO security environment that prioritises foreign and insurgency drone activity and Houthi rebel operations as the main threat to merchant shipping in the post-2012 era. This study is situated within a longer history of analysing maritime insecurity and also contributes a bespoke conceptual framework that understands the sea as a space that is produced and reproduced relative to existing and emerging threats to merchant shipping based on bespoke models of information sharing and intelligence acquisition. This paper also makes a prominent empirical contribution by drawing on a post-positivist methodology, data drawn from original semi-structured interviews with senior maritime insurers and active merchant seafarers that is triangulated with industry-produced guidance such as the BMP series as primary data sources. Each set is analysed through qualitative discourse and content analysis and supported by the quantitative data sets provided by the IMB Piracy Reporting center and intelligence networks. This analysis reveals that mechanisms such as the IGP&I Maritime Security Committee and intelligence divisions of PMSC’s have driven the exchanges of knowledge between land and sea and thus the reproduction of the maritime security environment through new regulations and guidance to account dones, rebels and bombs as the key challenges in the IO, beyond piracy. A contribution of this paper is the argument that experts who may not be in the highest-profile jobs are the architects of maritime insecurity based on their detailed knowledge and connections to vessels in transit. This paper shares the original insights of those who have served in critical decision making spaces to demonstrate that the development and refinement of industry produced deterrence guidance that has been accredited to the mitigation of piracy, have shaped new editions such as BMP 5 that now serve to frame a new security environment that prioritises the mitigation of risks from drones and WBEID’s from both state and insurgency risk groups. By highlighting the experiences and perspectives of key players on both land and at sea, the key finding of this paper is outlining that as pirates experienced a financial boom by profiteering from their bespoke business model during the peak of successful hijackings, the private security market encountered a similar level of financial success and guaranteed risk environment in which to prospect business. Thus, the reproduction of the Indian Ocean as a maritime security environment reflects a new found purpose for PMSC’s as part of the broader conglomerate of maritime insurers, regulators, shipowners and managers who continue to redirect the security consciousness and IO brand of insecurity.

Keywords: maritime security, private security, risk intelligence, political geography, international relations, political economy, maritime law, security studies

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Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan

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This abstract focuses on the advancements in mathematical modeling and optimization techniques that play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and performance of these systems. In this era of rapidly evolving technology, mathematical modeling and optimization offer powerful tools to tackle the complex challenges faced by control, signal processing, and energy systems. This abstract presents the latest research and developments in mathematical methodologies, encompassing areas such as control theory, system identification, signal processing algorithms, and energy optimization. The abstract highlights the interdisciplinary nature of mathematical modeling and optimization, showcasing their applications in a wide range of domains, including power systems, communication networks, industrial automation, and renewable energy. It explores key mathematical techniques, such as linear and nonlinear programming, convex optimization, stochastic modeling, and numerical algorithms, that enable the design, analysis, and optimization of complex control and signal processing systems. Furthermore, the abstract emphasizes the importance of addressing real-world challenges in control, signal processing, and energy systems through innovative mathematical approaches. It discusses the integration of mathematical models with data-driven approaches, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to enhance system performance, adaptability, and decision-making capabilities. The abstract also underscores the significance of bridging the gap between theoretical advancements and practical applications. It recognizes the need for practical implementation of mathematical models and optimization algorithms in real-world systems, considering factors such as scalability, computational efficiency, and robustness. In summary, this abstract showcases the advancements in mathematical modeling and optimization techniques for control, signal processing, and energy systems. It highlights the interdisciplinary nature of these techniques, their applications across various domains, and their potential to address real-world challenges. The abstract emphasizes the importance of practical implementation and integration with emerging technologies to drive innovation and improve the performance of control, signal processing, and energy.

Keywords: mathematical modeling, optimization, control systems, signal processing, energy systems, interdisciplinary applications, system identification, numerical algorithms

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Authors: Paolo Sassi, Jorge Freiria, Gabriel Usera

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In this work, a finite volume fluid flow solver is coupled with a discrete element method module for the simulation of the dynamics of free and elastic bodies in interaction with the fluid and between themselves. The open source fluid flow solver, caffa3d.MBRi, includes the capability to work with nested overlapping grids in order to easily refine the grid in the region where the bodies are moving. To do so, it is necessary to implement a recognition function able to identify the specific mesh block in which the device is moving in. The set of overlapping finer grids might be displaced along with the set of bodies being simulated. The interaction between the bodies and the fluid is computed through a two-way coupling. The velocity field of the fluid is first interpolated to determine the drag force on each object. After solving the objects displacements, subject to the elastic bonding among them, the force is applied back onto the fluid through a Gaussian smoothing considering the cells near the position of each object. The fishnet is represented as lumped masses connected by elastic lines. The internal forces are derived from the elasticity of these lines, and the external forces are due to drag, gravity, buoyancy and the load acting on each element of the system. When solving the ordinary differential equations system, that represents the motion of the elastic and flexible bodies, it was found that the Runge Kutta solver of fourth order is the best tool in terms of performance, but requires a finer grid than the fluid solver to make the system converge, which demands greater computing power. The coupled solver is demonstrated by simulating the interaction between the fluid, an elastic fishnet and a set of free bodies being captured by the net as they are dragged by the fluid. The deformation of the net, as well as the wake produced in the fluid stream are well captured by the method, without requiring the fluid solver mesh to adapt for the evolving geometry. Application of the same strategy to the simulation of elastic structures subject to the action of wind is also possible with the method presented, and one such application is currently under development.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, discrete element method, fishnets, nested overlapping grids

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Authors: Rossy G. Olan Villegas, Gerardo Acosta Garcia, Aurea Bernardino Nicanor, Leopoldo Gonzalez Cruz, Humberto Ramirez Medina

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Capsicum annuum is a crop of agricultural and economic importance in Mexico and other countries. The fruit (pepper) contains bioactive components such as carotenoids, phenolic compounds and capsaicinoids that improve health. However, pepper cultivation is affected by biotic and abiotic factors that decrease yield. Some phytohormones like gibberellins and auxins induce the formation and development of fruit in several plants. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the exogenous application of phytohormones like gibberellic acid and indolbutyric acid on fruit development of jalapeno pepper plants, the protein profile of plant tissues, the accumulation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity in the pericarp and seeds. For that, plants were sprinkled with these phytohormones. The fruit collection for the control, indolbutyric acid and gibberellic acid treatments was 7 peppers per plant; however, for the treatment that combines indolbutyric acid and gibberellic acid, a fruit with the shortest length (1.52 ± 1.00 cm) and weight (0.41 ± 1.0 g) was collected compared to fruits of plants grown under other treatments. The length (4,179 ± 0,130 cm) and weight of the fruit (8,949 ± 0.583 g) increased in plants treated with indolbutyric acid, but these characteristics decreased with the application of GA3 (length of 3,349 ± 0.127 cm and a weight 4,429 ± 0.144 g). The content of carotenes and phenolic compounds increased in plants treated with GA3 (1,733 ± 0.092 and 1,449 ± 0.009 mg / g, respectively) or indolbutyric acid (1,164 ± 0.042 and 0.970 ± 0.003 mg / g). However, this effect was not observed in plants treated with both phytohormones (0.238 ± 0.021 and 0.218 ± 0.004 mg / g). Capsaicin content was higher in all treatments; but it was more noticeable in plants treated with both phytohormones, the value being 0.913 ± 0.001 mg / g (three times greater in amount). The antioxidant activity was measured by 3 different assays, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), antioxidant power of ferric reduction (FRAP) and 2,2'-Azinobis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid ( ABTS) to find the minimum inhibitory concentration of the reducing radical (IC50 and EC50). Significant differences were observed from the application of the phytohormone, being the fruits treated with gibberellins, which had a greater accumulation of bioactive compounds. Our results suggest that the application of phytohormones modifies the development of fruit and its content of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: auxins, capsaicinoids, carotenoids, gibberellins

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Authors: Madalena Corte-real, João Pedro Nunes, Bernardo Fernandes, Ana Jorge Correira

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This presentation looks, from a sociological perspective, at neighboring practices in the inner city of Lisbon. The capital of Portugal, with half a million inhabitants, inserted in a metropolitan area with almost 2,9 million people, has been in the international spotlight seen as an interesting city to live in and to invest in, especially in the real estate market. This promotion emerged in the context of the financial crisis, where local authorities aimed to make Lisbon a more competitive city, calling for visitors and financial and human capital. Especially in the last decade, Portugal’s capital has been experiencing a significant increase in terms of migration from creative and entrepreneurial exiles to economic and political expats. In this context, the territory under analysis, in particular, is a mixed-used area undergoing rapid transformations in recent years marked by the presence of newcomers and non-nationals as well as social and cultural heterogeneity. It is next to one of the main arteries, considered the most multicultural part of the city, and presented in the press as one of the coolest neighborhoods in Europe. In view of these aspects, this research aims to address key-topics in current urban research: anonymity often related to big cities, socio-spatial attachment to the neighborhood, and the effects of diversity in the everyday relations of residents and shopkeepers. This case-study intends to look at particularities in local regimes differently affected by growing mobility. Against a backdrop of unidimensional generalizations and a tendency to refer to central countries and global cities, it aims to discuss national and local specificities. In methodological terms, the project comprises essentially a qualitative approach that consists of direct observation techniques and ethnographic methods as well semi-structured interviews to residents and local stakeholders whose narratives are subject to content analysis. The paper starts with a characterization of the broader context of the city of Lisbon, followed by territorial specificities regarding socio-spatial development, namely the city’s and the inner-areas morphology as well as the population’s socioeconomic profile. Following the residents and stakeholders’ narratives and practices it will assess the perception and behaviors regarding the representation of the area, relationships and experiences, routines, and sociability. Results point to a significant presence of neighborhood relations and different forms of support, in particular, among the different groups – e.g., old long-time residents, middle-class families, global creative class, and communities of economic migrants. Fieldwork reveals low levels of place-attachment although some residents refer, presently, high levels of satisfaction. Engagement with living space, this case-study suggests, reveals the social construction and lived the experience of neighboring by different groups, but also the way different and contrasting visions and desires are articulated to the profound urban, cultural and political changes that permeate the area.

Keywords: diversity, lisbon, neighboring and neighborhood, place-attachment

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Authors: Haobin Zheng, Xiang Zhang, Yong Shen, Hongxin Zou

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The research focuses on mode-locked fiber lasers with a non-linear amplifying loop mirror (NALM). Although these lasers have shown potential, they still have limitations in terms of low repetition rate. The self-starting of mode-locking in NALM is influenced by the cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect, which has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of this study is two-fold. First, to overcome the difficulties associated with increasing the repetition rate in mode-locked fiber lasers with NALM. Second, to analyze the influence of XPM on self-starting of mode-locking. The power distributions of two counterpropagating beams in the NALM and the differential non-linear phase shift (NPS) accumulations are calculated. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of NPS accumulation. The differential NPSs for continuous wave (CW) light and pulses in the fiber loop are compared to understand the inverse saturable absorption (ISA) mechanism during pulse formation in NALM. The study reveals a difference in differential NPSs between CW light and pulses in the fiber loop in NALM. This difference leads to an ISA mechanism, which has not been extensively studied in artificial saturable absorbers. The ISA in NALM provides an explanation for experimentally observed phenomena, such as active mode-locking initiation through tapping the fiber or fine-tuning light polarization. These findings have important implications for optimizing the design of NALM and reducing the self-starting threshold of high-repetition-rate mode-locked fiber lasers. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of NALM mode-locked fiber lasers by exploring the ISA mechanism and its impact on self-starting of mode-locking. The research fills a gap in the existing knowledge regarding the XPM effect in NALM and its role in pulse formation. This study provides insights into the ISA mechanism in NALM mode-locked fiber lasers and its role in selfstarting of mode-locking. The findings contribute to the optimization of NALM design and the reduction of self-starting threshold, which are essential for achieving high-repetition-rate operation in fiber lasers. Further research in this area can lead to advancements in the field of mode-locked fiber lasers with NALM.

Keywords: inverse saturable absorption, NALM, mode-locking, non-linear phase shift

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Authors: Aastha Paliwal, H. N. Chanakya, S. Dasappa

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Lignocellulose, as an alternate feedstock for biogas production, has been an active area of research. However, lignocellulose poses a lot of operational difficulties- widespread variation in the structural organization of lignocellulosic matrix, amenability to degradation, low bulk density, to name a few. Amongst these, the low bulk density of the lignocellulosic feedstock is crucial to the process operation and optimization. Low bulk densities render the feedstock floating in conventional liquid/wet digesters. Low bulk densities also restrict the maximum achievable organic loading rate in the reactor, decreasing the power density of the reactor. However, during digestion, lignocellulose undergoes very high compaction (up to 26 times feeding density). This first reduces the achievable OLR (because of low feeding density) and compaction during digestion, then renders the reactor space underutilized and also imposes significant mass transfer limitations. The objective of this paper was to understand the effects of compacting lignocellulose on mass transfer and the influence of loss of different components on the bulk density and hence structural integrity of the digesting lignocellulosic feedstock. 10 different lignocellulosic feedstocks (monocots and dicots) were digested anaerobically in a fed-batch, leach bed reactor -solid-state stratified bed reactor (SSBR). Percolation rates of the recycled bio-digester liquid (BDL) were also measured during the reactor run period to understand the implication of compaction on mass transfer. After 95 ds, in a destructive sampling, lignocellulosic feedstocks digested at different SRT were investigated to quantitate the weekly changes in bulk density and lignocellulosic composition. Further, percolation rate data was also compared to bulk density data. Results from the study indicate loss of hemicellulose (r²=0.76), hot water extractives (r²=0.68), and oxalate extractives (r²=0.64) had dominant influence on changing the structural integrity of the studied lignocellulose during anaerobic digestion. Further, feeding bulk density of the lignocellulose can be maintained between 300-400kg/m³ to achieve higher OLR, and bulk density of 440-500kg/m³ incurs significant mass transfer limitation for high compacting beds of dicots.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, bulk density, feed compaction, lignocellulose, lignocellulosic matrix, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, extractives, mass transfer

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Authors: Rahul Saraswat

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More recently, a focus has been given to replacing machined stainless steel metal flow fields with inexpensive wire mesh current collectors. The flow fields are based on simple woven wire mesh screens of various stainless steels, which are sandwiched between a thin metal plate of the same material to create a bipolar plate/flow field configuration for use in a stack. Major advantages of using stainless steel wire screens include the elimination of expensive raw materials as well as machining and/or other special fabrication costs. The objective of the project is to improve the performance of the passive direct methanol fuel cell without increasing the cost of the cell and to make it as compact and light as possible. From the literature survey, it was found that very little is done in this direction, and the following methodology was used. 1. The passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) can be made more compact, lighter, and less costly by changing the material used in its construction. 2. Controlling the fuel diffusion rate through the cell improves the performance of the cell. A passive liquid feed direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was fabricated using a given MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly) and tested for different current collector structures. Mesh current collectors of different mesh densities along with different support structures, were used, and the performance was found to be better. Methanol concentration was also varied. Optimisation of mesh size, support structure, and fuel concentration was achieved. Cost analysis was also performed hereby. From the performance analysis study of DMFC, we can conclude with the following points: Area specific resistance (ASR) of wire mesh current collectors is lower than the ASR of stainless steel current collectors. Also, the power produced by wire mesh current collectors is always more than that produced by stainless steel current collectors. 1. Low or moderate methanol concentrations should be used for better and stable DMFC performance. 2. Wiremesh is a good substitute for stainless steel for current collector plates of passive DMFC because of its lower cost (by about 27 %), flexibility, and light in weight characteristics of wire mesh.

Keywords: direct methanol fuel cell, membrane electrode assembly, mesh, mesh size, methanol concentration, support structure

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Authors: Mateusz Wielopolski, Asia Guerreschi

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Circular Economy, as the counterargument to the ‘make-take-dispose’ linear model, is an approach that includes a variety of schools of thought looking at environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This, in turn, leads to a variety of strategies and often confusion when it comes to choosing the right one to make a circular transition as effective as possible. Due to the close interplay of circular product design, business model and social responsibility, companies often struggle to develop strategies that comply with all three triple-bottom-line criteria. Hence, to transition to circularity effectively, product design approaches must become more inclusive. In a case study conducted with the University of Bayreuth and the ISPO, we correlated aspects of material choice in product design, labeling and technological innovation with customer preferences and education about specific material and technology features. The study revealed those attributes of the consumers’ environmental awareness that directly translate into an increase of purchase power - primarily connected with individual preferences regarding sports activity and technical knowledge. Based on this outcome, we constituted a product development approach that incorporates the consumers’ individual preferences towards sustainable product features as well as their awareness about materials and technology. It allows deploying targeted customer education campaigns to raise the willingness to pay for sustainability. Next, we implemented the customer preference and education analysis into a circularity assessment tool that takes into account inherent company assets as well as subjective parameters like customer awareness. The outcome is a detailed but not cumbersome scoring system, which provides guidance for material and technology choices for circular product design while considering business model and communication strategy to the attentive customers. By including customer knowledge and complying with corresponding labels, companies develop more effective circular design strategies, while simultaneously increasing customers’ trust and loyalty.

Keywords: circularity, sustainability, product design, material choice, education, awareness, willingness to pay

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Authors: Hamide Aydin, Banu Karaman, Ayhan Bozkurt, Umran Kurtan

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Recently, Proton Conducting Gel Polymer Electrolytes (GPEs) have drawn much attention in supercapacitor applications due to their physical and electrochemical characteristics and stability conditions for low temperatures. In this research, PVA-H2SO4-H3BO3 GPE has been used for electric-double layer capacitor (EDLCs) application, in which electrospun free-standing carbon nanofibers are used as electrodes. Introduced PVA-H2SO4-H3BO3 GPE behaves as both separator and the electrolyte in the supercapacitor. Symmetric Swagelok cells including GPEs were assembled via using two electrode arrangements and the electrochemical properties were searched. Electrochemical performance studies demonstrated that PVA-H2SO4-H3BO3 GPE had a maximum specific capacitance (Cs) of 134 F g-1 and showed great capacitance retention (%100) after 1000 charge/discharge cycles. Furthermore, PVA-H2SO4-H3BO3 GPE yielded an energy density of 67 Wh kg-1 with a corresponding power density of 1000 W kg-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1. PVA-H2SO4 based polymer electrolyte was produced according to following procedure; Firstly, 1 g of commercial PVA was dissolved in distilled water at 90°C and stirred until getting transparent solution. This was followed by addition of the diluted H2SO4 (1 g of H2SO4 in a distilled water) to the solution to obtain PVA-H2SO4. PVA-H2SO4-H3BO3 based polymer electrolyte was produced by dissolving H3BO3 in hot distilled water and then inserted into the PVA-H2SO4 solution. The mole fraction was arranged to ¼ of the PVA repeating unit. After the stirring 2 h at RT, gel polymer electrolytes were obtained. The final electrolytes for supercapacitor testing included 20% of water in weight. Several blending combinations of PVA/H2SO4 and H3BO3 were studied to observe the optimized combination in terms of conductivity as well as electrolyte stability. As the amount of boric acid increased in the matrix, excess sulfuric acid was excluded due to cross linking, especially at lower solvent content. This resulted in the reduction of proton conductivity. Therefore, the mole fraction of H3BO3 was chosen as ¼ of PVA repeating unit. Within this optimized limits, the polymer electrolytes showed better conductivities as well as stability.

Keywords: electrical double layer capacitor, energy density, gel polymer electrolyte, ultracapacitor

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Authors: Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, P. C. Sreekumar, K. Krishnamoorthy

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Heat transfer augmentation techniques ultimately results in the reduction of thermal resistance in a conventional heat exchanger by generating higher convective heat transfer coefficient. It also results in reduction of size, increase in heat duty, decrease in approach temperature difference and reduction in pumping power requirements for heat exchangers. Present study deals with compound augmentation technique, which is not widely used. The study deals with the use of Alumina (Al2O3)/water nanofluid and baffled twisted tape inserts in double pipe heat exchanger as compound augmentation technique. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor for the flow through the inner tube of heat exchanger in turbulent flow range (8000Keywords: enhancement, heat transfer coefficient, friction factor, twisted tape, nanofluid

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Authors: Les Moncrieff

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In a world awash with potent opioids flaming an international crisis, the need to explore safe alternatives has never been more urgent. Bio-electrode Therapy is a novel adjunctive treatment method for relieving acute opioid withdrawal symptoms and many types of complex acute and chronic pain (often the underlying cause of opioid dependence). By combining the science of developmental bioelectricity with Traditional Chinese Medicine’s theory of meridians, rapid relief from pain is routinely being achieved in the clinical setting. Human body functions are dependent on electrical factors, and acupuncture points on the body are known to have higher electrical conductivity than surrounding skin tissue. When tiny gold- and silver-plated electrodes are secured to the skin at specific acupuncture points using established Chinese Medicine principles and protocols, an enhanced microcurrent and electrical field are created between the electrodes, influencing the entire meridian and connecting meridians. No external power source or electrical devices are required. Endogenous DC electric fields are an essential fundamental component for development, regeneration, and wound healing. Disruptions in the normal ion-charge in the meridians and circulation of blood will manifest as pain and development of disease. With the application of these simple electrodes (gold acting as cathode and silver as anode) according to protocols, the resulting microcurrent is directed along the selected meridians to target injured or diseased organs and tissues. When injured or diseased cells have been stimulated by the microcurrent and electrical fields, the permeability of the cell membrane is affected, resulting in an immediate relief of pain, a rapid balancing of positive and negative ions (sodium, potassium, etc.) in the cells, the restoration of intracellular fluid levels, replenishment of electrolyte levels, pH balance, removal of toxins, and a re-establishment of homeostasis.

Keywords: bioelectricity, electrodes, electrical fields, acupuncture meridians, complex pain, opioid withdrawal management

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Authors: Yi Yau, Chia-Huei Hsiao

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The elderly society is already a problem of globalization, and Taiwan will enter a super-aged society in 2025. Therefore, how to improve the health of the elderly and reduce the government's social burden is an important issue at present. Exercise is the best medical care, and it is also a healthy activity for people to live a healthy life. Facing the super-aged society in the future, it is necessary to attract them to participate in sports voluntarily through sports promotion so that they can live healthy and independent lives and continue to participate in society to enhance the well-being of the elderly. Experiential marketing and sports participation are closely related. In the past, it was mainly aimed at consumer behavior at the commercial level. At present, there are not many study objects focusing on participant behavior and middle-aged and elderly people. Therefore, this study takes the news emerged sport-Pickleball that has been loved by silver-haired people in recent years as the research sport. It uses questionnaire surveys and intentional sampling methods. The purpose of the group is to understand the middle-aged and elderly people’s experience and behavior patterns of Pickleball, explore the relationship between experiential marketing and participants' intentional behaviors, and predict which aspects of experiential marketing will affect their intentional behaviors. The findings showed that experience marketing is highly positively correlated with behavioral intentions, and experience marketing has a positive predictive power for behavioral intentions. Among them, "ACT" and "SENSE" are predictive variables that effectively predict behavioral intentions. This study proves the feasibility of pickleball for middle-aged and senior sports. It is recommended that in the future curriculum planning, try to simplify the exercise steps, increase the chances of contact with the sphere, and enhance the sensory experience to enhance the sense of success during exercise, and then generate exercise motivation, and ultimately change the exercise mode or habits and promote health.

Keywords: newly emerged sports, middle age and elderly, health promotion, ACT, SENSE

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Atabak Rashidian

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In duplex backhaul wireless communication systems, two separate transmit and receive high-gain antennas are required if an antenna switch is not implemented. Although the switch loss, which is considerable and in the order of 1.5 dB at 60 GHz, is avoided, the large separate antenna systems make the design bulky and not cost-effective. To avoid two large reflectors for such a system, transmit and receive antenna feeds with a common phase center are required. The phase center should coincide with the focal point of the reflector to maximize the efficiency and gain. In this work, we present an ultra-compact design in which stacked patch antennas are used as the feeds for a 12-inch reflector. The transmit antenna is a 1 × 2 array and the receive antenna is a single element located in the middle of the transmit antenna elements. Antenna elements are designed as stacked patches to provide the required impedance bandwidth for four standard channels of WiGigTM applications. The design includes three metallic layers and three dielectric layers, in which the top dielectric layer is a 100 µm-thick protective layer. The top two metallic layers are specified to the main and parasitic patches. The bottom layer is basically ground plane with two circular openings (0.7 mm in diameter) having a center through via which connects the antennas to a single input/output Si-Ge Bi-CMOS transceiver chip. The reflection coefficient of the stacked patch antenna is fully investigated. The -10 dB impedance bandwidth is about 11%. Although the gap between transmit and receive antenna is very small (g = 0.525 mm), the mutual coupling is less than -12 dB over the desired frequency band. The three dimensional radiation patterns of the transmit and receive reflector antennas at 60 GHz is investigated over the impedance bandwidth. About 39 dBi realized gain is achieved. Considering over 15 dBm of output power of the silicon chip in the transmit side, the EIRP should be over 54 dBm, which is good enough for over one kilometer multi Gbps data communications. The performance of the reflector antenna over the bandwidth shows the peak gain is 39 dBi and 40 dBi for the reflector antenna with 2-element and single element feed, respectively. This type of the system design is cost-effective and efficient.

Keywords: Antenna, integrated circuit, millimeter-wave, phase center

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Sudeshna Sengupta

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Women’s work lives weave a complex fabric of myriad work relations and complex structures. Lives, when seen from the lens of work, is a saga of conjugated oppression by intertwined structures that are vertically and horizontally interwoven in a very complex manner. Women interact with multiple institutions through their work. The interactions and interplay of institutions shape their organization of work. They intersperse productive work with reproductive work, unpaid economic activities with unpaid care work, and all kinds of activities with leisure and self-care. The proposed paper intends to understand how women working as home-based workers in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India are organizing their everyday work, and how the organization of work is influenced by the interplay of structures. Situating itself in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, this paper brings out how the gendering of work is playing out in the political, economic and social domain and shaping the work-life within the family, and in the paid workspace. The paper will use a primary data source, which is qualitative in nature. It will comprise 15 qualitative interviews of women home-based workers from the National Capital Region. The research uses a life history approach. The sampling was purposive using snowballing as a method. The dataset is part of the primary data (qualitative) collected for the ongoing Ph.D. work in Gender Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. The home-based workers interviewed were in “non-factory” wage relations based on piece rates with flexible working hours. Their workplaces were their own homes with no spatial divide between living spaces and workspaces. Home-based workers were recognized as a group in the domain of labor economics in the 1980s. When menial work was cheaper than machine work, the capital owners preferred to outsource work as home-based work to women. These production spaces are fragmented and the identity of gender is created within labor processes to favor material accumulation. Both the employers and employees acknowledged the material gain of the capital owner when work was subcontracted to women at home. Simultaneously the market reinforced women’s reproductive role by conforming to patriarchal ideology. The contractors played an important role in implementing localized control on workers and also in finding workers for fragmented, gendered production processes. Their presence helped the employers in bringing together multiple forms of oppression that ranged from creating a structure to flout laws by creating shadow employers. It created an intertwined social and economic structure as well as a workspace where the line between productive and reproductive work gets blurred. The state invisibilized itself either by keeping the sector out of the domain of laws or by not implementing its own laws regulating working conditions or social security. It allowed the local hierarchy to function and define localized working conditions. The productive reproductive continuum reveals a labor control that influenced both the productive and reproductive work of women.

Keywords: informal sector, paid work, women workers, labor processes

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: V. Batishchev, V. Getman

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We study the self-similar fluid flows in the Marangoni layers with the axial symmetry. Such flows are induced by the radial gradients of the temperatures whose distributions along the free boundary obey some power law. The self-similar solutions describe thermo-capillar flows both in the thin layers and in the case of infinite thickness. We consider both positive and negative temperature gradients. In the former case the cooling of free boundary nearby the axis of symmetry gives rise to the rotation of fluid. The rotating flow concentrates itself inside the Marangoni layer while outside of it the fluid does not revolve. In the latter case we observe no rotating flows at all. In the layers of infinite thickness the separation of the rotating flow creates two zones where the flows are directed oppositely. Both the longitudinal velocity and the temperature have exactly one critical point inside the boundary layer. It is worth to note that the profiles are monotonic in the case of non-swirling flows. We describe the flow outside the boundary layer with the use of self-similar solution of the Euler equations. This flow is slow and non-swirling. The introducing of an outer flow gives rise to the branching of swirling flows from the non-swirling ones. There is such the critical velocity of the outer flow that a non-swirling flow exists for supercritical velocities and cannot be extended to the sub-critical velocities. For the positive temperature gradients there are two non-swirling flows. For the negative temperature gradients the non-swirling flow is unique. We determine the critical velocity of the outer flow for which the branching of the swirling flows happens. In the case of a thin layer confined within free boundaries we show that the cooling of the free boundaries near the axis of symmetry leads to the separating of the layer and creates two sub-layers with opposite rotations inside. This makes sharp contrast with the case of infinite thickness. We show that such rotation arises provided the thickness of the layer exceed some critical value. In the case of a thin layer confined within free and rigid boundaries we construct the branching equation and the asymptotic approximation for the secondary swirling flows near the bifurcation point. It turns out that the bifurcation gives rise to one pair of the secondary swirling flows with different directions of swirl.

Keywords: free surface, rotation, fluid flow, bifurcation, boundary layer, Marangoni layer

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Samuel John, S. Sharanya

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Automation has become an important part of our life. It has been used to control home entertainment systems, changing the ambience of rooms for different events etc. One of the main parameters to control in a smart home is the atmospheric comfort. Atmospheric comfort mainly includes temperature and relative humidity. In homes, the desired temperature of different rooms varies from 20 °C to 25 °C and relative humidity is around 50%. However, it varies widely. Hence, automated measurement of these parameters to ensure comfort assumes significance. To achieve this, a fuzzy logic controller using Arduino was developed using MATLAB. Arduino is an open source hardware consisting of a 24 pin ATMEGA chip (atmega328), 14 digital input /output pins and an inbuilt ADC. It runs on 5v and 3.3v power supported by a board voltage regulator. Some of the digital pins in Aruduino provide PWM (pulse width modulation) signals, which can be used in different applications. The Arduino platform provides an integrated development environment, which includes support for c, c++ and java programming languages. In the present work, soft sensor was introduced in this system that can indirectly measure temperature and humidity and can be used for processing several measurements these to ensure comfort. The Sugeno method (output variables are functions or singleton/constant, more suitable for implementing on microcontrollers) was used in the soft sensor in MATLAB and then interfaced to the Arduino, which is again interfaced to the temperature and humidity sensor DHT11. The temperature-humidity sensor DHT11 acts as the sensing element in this system. Further, a capacitive humidity sensor and a thermistor were also used to support the measurement of temperature and relative humidity of the surrounding to provide a digital signal on the data pin. The comfort sensor developed was able to measure temperature and relative humidity correctly. The comfort percentage was calculated and accordingly the temperature in the room was controlled. This system was placed in different rooms of the house to ensure that it modifies the comfort values depending on temperature and relative humidity of the environment. Compared to the existing comfort control sensors, this system was found to provide an accurate comfort percentage. Depending on the comfort percentage, the air conditioners and the coolers in the room were controlled. The main highlight of the project is its cost efficiency.

Keywords: arduino, DHT11, soft sensor, sugeno

Procedia PDF Downloads 293

Authors: Muhammad Alhada Fuadilah Habib, Ayla Karina Budita, Cut Rizka Al Usrah, Mukhammad Fatkhullah, Kanita Khoirun Nisa, Siti Muslihatul Mukaromah

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In this contemporary era, the term of development often emphasised merely on the economic growth aspect. Development of a program often considered as superior by the government, in fact, it often raises various problems. The problems occur because the development policies determined by the government tend to favor private entrepreneurs and impose on the oppression toward the community. The development promised to prosper the community's life, turn out in fact of harming the community, threatening the survival of the community and damaging the ecosystem of nature where the community hangs their life to it. Nowadays many natural resources should be used for the community’s life prosperity. However, the prosperity is conquered by the private entrepreneurs that are regulated through the free market mechanism and wrapped in democratization. This condition actually is a form of neoliberalism that builds new administration order system which is far from the meaning of the word democracy. The government should play more role in protecting community's life and prosperity, but in fact, the government sides with the private entrepreneurs for the sake of the economic benefits regardless of other aspects of the community’s life. This unjustified condition presents a wide range of social movements from the community in response to the neoliberalis policy that actually eliminates the doctrine of community sovereignty. Social movements performed by Yogyakarta south coastal area community, as the focus of the discussion in this paper, is one of the community’s response toward the government policies related to the construction of the ferruginous sand quarry which is tend to favor on private entrepreneurs and highly prejudicing or even threatening the survival of Yogyakarta south coastal area community. The data collection in this study uses qualitative research methods with in-depth interview data collection techniques and purposive informant determination techniques. This method was chosen in order to obtain the insightful data and detailed information to uncover the injustice policies committed by the government-private entrepreneurs toward Yogyakarta south coastal area community. The brief results of this study show that the conflicts between the community and government-private entrepreneurs occurred because of the differences of interests and paradigm of natural resource management. The resistance movements done by the community to fight back the government-private entrepreneurs was conducted by forming an organization called Paguyupan Petani Lahan Pantai Kulon Progo (PPLP-KP). This organization do the resistances through two ways; firstly, quiet action done through various actions such as; refusing against the socialization, performing discussion to deliberate their argument with the government-private entrepreneurs, complaining the problems to the central government, creating banners or billboards which contain the writing of rejection, performing pray rituals to invoke the justice from the God, as well as instill the resistance ideology to their young generation. Secondly, the rough action also is done through various actions such as; doing roadblocks, conducting rallies, as well as doing clash with the government apparatus. In case the resistances done by the community are seen from the pattern. Actually, the resistances are reaction toward the aggression carried out by the government-private entrepreneurs.

Keywords: community resistance, conflict, ferruginous sand quarry construction, social movement

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Sylvain Chardon, Timotéo Payre, Hugo Grardel, Yann Quentel, Mathieu Thomachot, Gérald Aigouy, Frank Claeyssen

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With the increasing digitalization of society, access to data has become vital and strategic for individuals and nations. In this context, the number of satellite constellation projects is growing drastically worldwide and is a next-generation challenge of the New Space industry. So far, existing satellite constellations have been using radio frequencies (RF) for satellite-to-ground communications, inter-satellite communications, and feeder link communication. However, RF has several limitations, such as limited bandwidth and low protection level. To address these limitations, space optical communication will be the new trend, addressing both very high-speed and secured encrypted communication. Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) are key components used in optical communication as well as space imagery and for a large field of functions such as Point Ahead Mechanisms (PAM), Raster Scanning, Beam Steering Mirrors (BSM), Fine Pointing Mechanisms (FPM) and Line of Sight stabilization (LOS). The main challenges of space FSM development for optical communication are to propose both a technology and a supply chain relevant for high quantities New Space approach, which requires secured connectivity for high-speed internet, Earth planet observation and monitoring, and mobility applications. CTEC proposes a mini-FSM technology offering a stroke of +/-6 mrad and a resonant frequency of 1700 Hz, with a mass of 50 gr. This FSM mechanism is a good candidate for giant constellations and all applications on board NanoSats and CubeSats, featuring a very high level of miniaturization and optimized for New Space high quantities cost efficiency. The use of piezo actuators offers a high resonance frequency for optimal control, with almost zero power consumption in step and stay pointing, and with very high-reliability figures > 0,995 demonstrated over years of recurrent manufacturing for Optronics applications at CTEC.

Keywords: fast steering mirror, feeder link, line of sight stabilization, optical communication, pointing ahead mechanism, raster scan

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Akinwale Adeyinka

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Critical natural resources such as clean ground water, fertile topsoil, and biodiversity are diminishing at an exponential rate, orders of magnitude above that at which they can be regenerated. Based on news on world population record, over 6 billion people on earth, and almost a quarter million added each day, the scale of human activity and environmental impact is unprecedented. Soaring human population growth over the past century has created a visible challenge to earth’s life support systems. In addition, the world faces an onslaught of other environmental threats including degenerated global climate change, global warming, intensified acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion and health threatening pollution. Overpopulation and the use of deleterious technologies combine to increase the scale of human activities to a level that underlies these entire problems. These intensifying trends cannot continue indefinitely, hopefully, through increased understanding and valuation of ecosystems and their services, earth’s basic life-support system will be protected for the future.To say the fact, human civilization is now the dominant cause of change in the global environment. Now that our relationship to the earth has change so utterly, we have to see that change and understand its implication. These are actually 2 aspects to the challenges which we should believe. The first is to realize that our power to harm the earth can indeed have global and even permanent effects. Second is to realize that the only way to understand our new role as a co-architect of nature is to see ourselves as part of a complex system that does operate according to the same simple rules of cause and effect we are used to. So understanding the physical/biological dimension of earth system is an important precondition for making sensible policy to protect our environment. Because we believe Sustainable Development Is a matter of reconciling respect for the environment, social equity and economic profitability. Also, we strongly believe that environmental protection is naturally about reducing air and water pollution, but it also includes the improvement of the environmental performance of existing process. That is why we should always have it at the heart of our business that the environmental problem is not our effect on the environment so much as our relationship with the environment. We should always think of being environmental friendly in our operation.

Keywords: Stratospheric ozone depletion ion , Climate Change, global warming, social equity and economic profitability

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Ana L. Sánchez Regla, Igor A. Rivera González, María del Pilar Monserrat Pérez Hernández

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The ability of an organization to identify and get useful information from external sources, assimilate it, transform and apply to generate products or services with added value is called absorptive capacity. Absorptive capabilities contribute to have market opportunities to firms and get a leader position with respect to others competitors. The Bioprocess Development and Research Unit (UDIBI) is a Research and Development (R&D) laboratory that belongs to the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), which is a higher education institute in Mexico. The UDIBI was created with the purpose of carrying out R and D activities for the Transferon®, a biopharmaceutical product developed and patented by IPN. The evolution of competence and scientific and technological platform made UDIBI expand its scope by providing technological services (preclínical studies and bio-compatibility evaluation) to the national pharmaceutical industry and biopharmaceutical industry. The relevance of this study is that those industries are classified as high scientific and technological intensity, and yet, after a review of the state of the art, there is only one study of absorption capabilities in biopharmaceutical industry with a similar scope to this research; in the case of Mexico, there is none. In addition to this, UDIBI belongs to a public university and its operation does not depend on the federal budget, but on the income generated by its external technological services. This fact represents a highly remarkable case in Mexico's public higher education context. This current doctoral research (2015-2019) is contextualized within a case study, its main objective is to identify and analyze the absorptive capabilities that characterise the UDIBI that allows it had become in a one of two third authorized laboratory by the sanitary authority in Mexico for developed bio-comparability studies to bio-pharmaceutical products. The development of this work in the field is divided into two phases. In a first phase, 15 interviews were conducted with the UDIBI personnel, covering management levels, heads of services, project leaders and laboratory personnel. These interviews were structured under a questionnaire, which was designed to integrate open questions and to a lesser extent, others, whose answers would be answered on a Likert-type rating scale. From the information obtained in this phase, a scientific article was made (in review and a proposal of presentation was submitted in different academic forums. A second stage will be made from the conduct of an ethnographic study within this organization under study that will last about 3 months. On the other hand, it is intended to carry out interviews with external actors around the UDIBI (suppliers, advisors, IPN officials, including contact with an academic specialized in absorption capacities to express their comments on this thesis. The inicial findings had shown two lines: i) exist institutional, technological and organizational management elements that encourage and/or limit the creation of absorption capacities in this scientific and technological laboratory and, ii) UDIBI has had created a set of multiple transfer technology of knowledge mechanisms which have had permitted to build a huge base of prior knowledge.

Keywords: absorptive capabilities, biopharmaceutical industry, high research and development intensity industries, knowledge management, transfer of knowledge

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Ching-Wei Liao

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Adaptive beamforming using antenna array of sensors is useful in the process of adaptively detecting and preserving the presence of the desired signal while suppressing the interference and the background noise. For conventional adaptive array beamforming, we require a prior information of either the impinging direction or the waveform of the desired signal to adapt the weights. The adaptive weights of an antenna array beamformer under a steered-beam constraint are calculated by minimizing the output power of the beamformer subject to the constraint that forces the beamformer to make a constant response in the steering direction. Hence, the performance of the beamformer is very sensitive to the accuracy of the steering operation. In the literature, it is well known that the performance of an adaptive beamformer will be deteriorated by any steering angle error encountered in many practical applications, e.g., the wireless communication systems with massive antennas deployed at the base station and user equipment. Hence, developing effective signal processing techniques to deal with the problem due to steering angle error for array beamforming systems has become an important research work. In this paper, we present an effective signal processing technique for constructing an adaptive beamformer against the steering angle error. The proposed array beamformer adaptively estimates the actual direction of the desired signal by using the presumed steering vector and the received array data snapshots. Based on the presumed steering vector and a preset angle range for steering mismatch tolerance, we first create a matrix related to the direction vector of signal sources. Two projection matrices are generated from the matrix. The projection matrix associated with the desired signal information and the received array data are utilized to iteratively estimate the actual direction vector of the desired signal. The estimated direction vector of the desired signal is then used for appropriately finding the quiescent weight vector. The other projection matrix is set to be the signal blocking matrix required for performing adaptive beamforming. Accordingly, the proposed beamformer consists of adaptive quiescent weights and partially adaptive weights. Several computer simulation examples are provided for evaluating and comparing the proposed technique with the existing robust techniques.

Keywords: adaptive beamforming, robustness, signal blocking, steering angle error

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Achim Kampker, Heiner H. Heimes, Mathias Ordung, Christoph Lienemann, Ansgar Hollah, Nemanja Sarovic

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Electric cars with their fast innovation cycles and their disruptive character offer a high degree of freedom regarding innovative design for remanufacturing. Remanufacturing increases not only the resource but also the economic efficiency by a prolonged product life time. The reduced power train wear of electric cars combined with high manufacturing costs for batteries allow new business models and even second life applications. Modular and intermountable designed battery packs enable the replacement of defective or outdated battery cells, allow additional cost savings and a prolongation of life time. This paper discusses opportunities for future remanufacturing value chains of electric cars and their battery components and how to address their potentials with elaborate designs. Based on a brief overview of implemented remanufacturing structures in different industries, opportunities of transferability are evaluated. In addition to an analysis of current and upcoming challenges, promising perspectives for a sustainable electric car circular economy enabled by design for remanufacturing are deduced. Two mathematical models describe the feasibility of pursuing a circular economy of lithium ion batteries and evaluate remanufacturing in terms of sustainability and economic efficiency. Taking into consideration not only labor and material cost but also capital costs for equipment and factory facilities to support the remanufacturing process, cost benefit analysis prognosticate that a remanufacturing battery can be produced more cost-efficiently. The ecological benefits were calculated on a broad database from different research projects which focus on the recycling, the second use and the assembly of lithium ion batteries. The results of this calculations show a significant improvement by remanufacturing in all relevant factors especially in the consumption of resources and greenhouse warming potential. Exemplarily suitable design guidelines for future remanufacturing lithium ion batteries, which consider modularity, interfaces and disassembly, are used to illustrate the findings. For one guideline, potential cost improvements were calculated and upcoming challenges are pointed out.

Keywords: circular economy, electric mobility, lithium ion batteries, remanufacturing

Procedia PDF Downloads 344

Authors: Kelly S. Parkinson, Katherine Y. Teh-White

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Futureye has a bespoke social licence to operate methodology which has successfully secured community approval and commercial return for fisheries which have faced regulatory and financial risk. This unique approach to fisheries management focuses on delivering improved social and environmental outcomes to support the fishing industry make steps towards achieving the United Nations SDGs. An SLO is the community’s implicit consent for a business or project to exist. An SLO must be earned and maintained alongside regulatory licences. In current and new operations, it helps you to anticipate and measure community concerns around your operations – leading to more predictable and sensible policy outcomes that will not jeopardise your commercial returns. Rising societal expectations and increasing activist sophistication mean the international fishing industry needs to resolve community concerns at each stage their supply chain. Futureye applied our tested social licence to operate (SLO) methodology to help Austral Fisheries who was being attacked by activists concerned about the sustainability of Patagonian Toothfish. Austral was Marine Stewardship Council certified, but pirates were making the overall catch unsustainable. Austral wanted to be carbon neutral. SLO provides a lens on the risk that helps industries and companies act before regulatory and political risk escalates. To do this assessment, we have a methodology that assesses the risk that we can then translate into a process to create a strategy. 1) Audience: we understand the drivers of change and the transmission of those drivers across all audience segments. 2) Expectation: we understand the level of social norming of changing expectations. 3) Outrage: we understand the technical and perceptual aspects of risk and the opportunities to mitigate these. 4) Inter-relationships: we understand the political, regulatory, and reputation system so that we can understand the levers of change. 5) Strategy: we understand whether the strategy will achieve a social licence through bringing the internal and external stakeholders on the journey. Futureye’s SLO methodologies helped Austral to understand risks and opportunities to enhance its resilience. Futureye reviewed the issues, assessed outrage and materiality and mapped SLO threats to the company. Austral was introduced to a new way that it could manage activism, climate action, and responsible consumption. As a result of Futureye’s work, Austral worked closely with Sea Shepherd who was campaigning against pirates illegally fishing Patagonian Toothfish as well as international governments. In 2016 Austral launched the world’s first carbon neutral fish which won Austral a thirteen percent premium for tender on the open market. In 2017, Austral received the prestigious Banksia Foundation Sustainability Leadership Award for seafood that is sustainable, healthy and carbon neutral. Austral’s position as a leader in sustainable development has opened doors for retailers all over the world. Futureye’s SLO methodology can identify the societal, political and regulatory risks facing fisheries and position them to proactively address the issues and become an industry leader in sustainability.

Keywords: carbon neutral, fisheries management, risk communication, social licence to operate, sustainable development

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Jennifer Buz, Alvin Spivey

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The most common greenhouse gas emitted through human activities, carbon dioxide (CO2), is naturally consumed by plants during photosynthesis. This process is actively being monetized by companies wishing to offset their carbon dioxide emissions. For example, companies are now able to purchase protections for vegetated land due-to-be clear cut or purchase barren land for reforestation. Therefore, by actively preventing the destruction/decay of plant matter or by introducing more plant matter (reforestation), a company can theoretically offset some of their emissions. One of the biggest issues in the carbon credit market is validating and verifying carbon offsets. There is a need for a system that can accurately and frequently ensure that the areas sold for carbon credits have the vegetation mass (and therefore for carbon offset capability) they claim. Traditional techniques for measuring vegetation mass and determining health are costly and require many person-hours. Orbital Sidekick offers an alternative approach that accurately quantifies carbon mass and assesses vegetation health through satellite hyperspectral imagery, a technique which enables us to remotely identify material composition (including plant species) and condition (e.g., health and growth stage). How much carbon a plant is capable of storing ultimately is tied to many factors, including material density (primarily species-dependent), plant size, and health (trees that are actively decaying are not effectively storing carbon). All of these factors are capable of being observed through satellite hyperspectral imagery. This abstract focuses on speciation. To build a species classification model, we matched pixels in our remote sensing imagery to plants on the ground for which we know the species. To accomplish this, we collaborated with the researchers at the Teakettle Experimental Forest. Our remote sensing data comes from our airborne “Kato” sensor, which flew over the study area and acquired hyperspectral imagery (400-2500 nm, 472 bands) at ~0.5 m/pixel resolution. Coverage of the entire teakettle experimental forest required capturing dozens of individual hyperspectral images. In order to combine these images into a mosaic, we accounted for potential variations of atmospheric conditions throughout the data collection. To do this, we ran an open source atmospheric correction routine called ISOFIT1 (Imaging Spectrometer Optiman FITting), which converted all of our remote sensing data from radiance to reflectance. A database of reflectance spectra for each of the tree species within the study area was acquired using the Teakettle stem map and the geo-referenced hyperspectral images. We found that a wide variety of machine learning classifiers were able to identify the species within our images with high (>95%) accuracy. For the most robust quantification of carbon mass and the best assessment of the health of a vegetated area, speciation is critical. Through the use of high resolution hyperspectral data, ground-truth databases, and complex analytical techniques, we are able to determine the species present within a pixel to a high degree of accuracy. These species identifications will feed directly into our carbon mass model.

Keywords: hyperspectral, satellite, carbon, imagery, python, machine learning, speciation

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: S. S. Kharintsev, E. A. Chernykh, S. K. Saikin, A. I. Fishman, S. G. Kazarian

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Recent advances in improving information storage performance are inseparably linked with circumvention of fundamental constraints such as the supermagnetic limit in heat assisted magnetic recording, charge loss tolerance in solid-state memory and the Abbe’s diffraction limit in optical storage. A substantial breakthrough in the development of nonvolatile storage devices with dimensional scaling has been achieved due to phase-change chalcogenide memory, which nowadays, meets the market needs to the greatest advantage. A further progress is aimed at the development of versatile nonvolatile high-speed memory combining potentials of random access memory and archive storage. The well-established properties of light at the nanoscale empower us to use them for recording optical information with ultrahigh density scaled down to a single molecule, which is the size of a pit. Indeed, diffraction-limited optics is able to record as much information as ~1 Gb/in2. Nonlinear optical effects, for example, two-photon fluorescence recording, allows one to decrease the extent of the pit even more, which results in the recording density up to ~100 Gb/in2. Going beyond the diffraction limit, due to the sub-wavelength confinement of light, pushes the pit size down to a single chromophore, which is, on average, of ~1 nm in length. Thus, the memory capacity can be increased up to the theoretical limit of 1 Pb/in2. Moreover, the field confinement provides faster recording and readout operations due to the enhanced light-matter interaction. This, in turn, leads to the miniaturization of optical devices and the decrease of energy supply down to ~1 μW/cm². Intrinsic features of light such as multimode, mixed polarization and angular momentum in addition to the underlying optical and holographic tools for writing/reading, enriches the storage and encryption of optical information. In particular, the finite extent of the near-field penetration, falling into a range of 50-100 nm, gives the possibility to perform 3D volume (layer-to-layer) recording/readout of optical information. In this study, we demonstrate a comprehensive evidence of isotropic-to-homeotropic phase transition of the azobenzene-functionalized polymer thin film exposed to light and dc electric field using near-field optical microscopy and scanning capacitance microscopy. We unravel a near-field Raman dichroism of a sub-10 nm thick epoxy-based side-chain azo-polymer films with polarization-controlled tip-enhanced Raman scattering. In our study, orientation of azo-chromophores is controlled with a bias voltage gold tip rather than light polarization. Isotropic in-plane and homeotropic out-of-plane arrangement of azo-chromophores in glassy environment can be distinguished with transverse and longitudinal optical near-fields. We demonstrate that both phases are unambiguously visualized by 2D mapping their local dielectric properties with scanning capacity microscopy. The stability of the polar homeotropic phase is strongly sensitive to the thickness of the thin film. We make an analysis of α-transition of the azo-polymer by detecting a temperature-dependent phase jump of an AFM cantilever when passing through the glass temperature. Overall, we anticipate further improvements in optical storage performance, which approaches to a single molecule level.

Keywords: optical memory, azo-dye, near-field, tip-enhanced Raman scattering

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Amin Asgarian, Ghyslaine McClure

Abstract:

Experiences in the past earthquakes have clearly demonstrated the necessity of seismic design and assessment of Non-Structural Components (NSCs) particularly in post-disaster structures such as hospitals, power plants, etc. as they have to be permanently functional and operational. Meeting this objective is contingent upon having proper seismic performance of both structural and non-structural components. Proper seismic design, analysis, and assessment of NSCs can be attained through generation of Floor Design Spectrum (FDS) in a similar fashion as target spectrum for structural components. This paper presents the developed methodology to generate FDS directly from corresponding Uniform Hazard Spectrum (UHS) (i.e. design spectra for structural components). The methodology is based on the experimental and numerical analysis of a database of 27 real Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings which are located in Montreal, Canada. The buildings were tested by Ambient Vibration Measurements (AVM) and their dynamic properties have been extracted and used as part of the approach. Database comprises 12 low-rises, 10 medium-rises, and 5 high-rises and they are mostly designated as post-disaster\emergency shelters by the city of Montreal. The buildings are subjected to 20 compatible seismic records to UHS of Montreal and Floor Response Spectra (FRS) are developed for every floors in two horizontal direction considering four different damping ratios of NSCs (i.e. 2, 5, 10, and 20 % viscous damping). Generated FRS (approximately 132’000 curves) are statistically studied and the methodology is proposed to generate the FDS directly from corresponding UHS. The approach is capable of generating the FDS for any selection of floor level and damping ratio of NSCs. It captures the effect of: dynamic interaction between primary (structural) and secondary (NSCs) systems, higher and torsional modes of primary structure. These are important improvements of this approach compared to conventional methods and code recommendations. Application of the proposed approach are represented here through two real case-study buildings: one low-rise building and one medium-rise. The proposed approach can be used as practical and robust tool for seismic assessment and design of NSCs especially in existing post-disaster structures.

Keywords: earthquake engineering, operational and functional components, operational modal analysis, seismic assessment and design

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