Search results for: natural gas liquid

Authors: Vanessa G. P. Severino, Eliangela Cristina Candida Costa, Nubia Alves Mariano Teixeira Pires Gomides, Lucilia Kato, Afif Felix Monteiro, Maria Anita Lemos Vasconcelos Ambrosio, Carlos Henrique Gomes Martins

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One of the biomes present in Brazil is known as Cerrado, which is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins and Minas Gerais. Many species of plants are characterized as endemic and they have therapeutic value for a large part of the population, especially to the rural communities. Given that, the southeastern region of the state of Goiás contains about 21 rural communities, which present a form of organization based on the use of natural resources available. One of these rural communities is named of Coqueiros, where the knowledge about the medicinal plants was very important to this research. Thus, this study focuses on the ethnobotanical survey of this community on the use of Kielmeyera coriacea to treat diseases. From the 37 members interviewed, 76% indicated this species for the treatment of intestinal infection, leukemia, anemia, gastritis, gum pain, toothache, cavity, arthritis, arthrosis, healing, vermifuge, rheumatism, antibiotic, skin problems, mycoses and all kinds of infections. The medicinal properties attributed during the interviews were framed in the body system (disease categories), adapted from ICD 10; thus, 20 indications of use were obtained, among five body systems. Therefore, the root of this species was select to chemical and biological (antioxidant and antimicrobial) studies. From the liquid-liquid extraction of ethanolic extract of root (EER), the hexane (FH), ethyl acetate (FAE), and hydro alcoholic (FHA) fractions were obtained. The chemical profile study of these fractions was performed by LC-MS, identifying major compounds such as δ-tocotrienol, prenylated acylphoroglucinol, 2-hydroxy-1-methoxyxanthone and quercitrin. EER, FH, FAE and FHA were submitted to biological tests. FHA presented the best antioxidant action (EC50 201.53 μg mL-1). EER inhibited the bacterial growth of Streptococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, microorganisms associated with rheumatism, at Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of 6.25 μg mL-1. In addition, the FH-10 subfraction, obtained from FH fractionation, presented MIC of 1.56 μg mL-1 against S. pneumoniae; EER also inhibited the fungus Candida glabrata (MIC 7.81 μg mL- 1). The FAE-4.7.3 fraction, from the fractionation of FAE, presented MIC of 200 μg mL-1 against Lactobacillus casei, which is one of the causes of caries and oral infections. By the correlation of the chemical and biological data, it is possible to note that the FAE-4.7.3 and FH-10 are constituted 4-hydroxy-2,3-methylenedioxy xanthone, 3-hydroxy-1,2-dimethoxy xanthone, lupeol, prenylated acylphoroglucinol and quercitrin, which could be associated with the biological potential found. Therefore, this study provides an important basis for further investigations regarding the compounds present in the active fractions of K. coriacea, which will permit the establishment of a correlation between ethnobotanical survey and bioactivity.

Keywords: biological activity, ethnobotanical survey, Kielmeyera coriacea Mart., LC-MS profile

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Authors: Rizqi W. Romadhon, Nur Arifan

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Halal Tourism is a part of tourism industry which is based on Islamic Principle and addressed to the Muslim tourist. The potency of halal tourism is very broad to be developed, because the growth of Muslim populations is rapidly increasing. Indonesia is one of the biggest countries with Majority of its population is Muslim, therefore human resources and natural resources have very good potential to be part of the Halal tourism industry. But the fact is Indonesia can not optimize the potential of human resources and natural resources as well as neighboring countries carried out. This paper will discuss the reasons of the importance of developing Halal tourism, and the factors influencing the success of developing halal tourism in Indonesia, and also the optimization strategies which can be adopted by the government so that the Halal tourism industry in Indonesia has a sustainable competitive advantage. The existence of this research is expected to government, tourism agents and others can optimize the potency of Indonesia’s Human resources and natural resources for developing Halal tourism industry in Indonesia.

Keywords: halal tourism, Islamic principle, optimization, sustainable competitive advantage

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Authors: Emin Z. Mahmud

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This paper presents the observations from a series of shaking-table tests done on a 1:1 scaled confined masonry wall model, with opening for a door – specimens CMDuS (confined masonry wall with opening for a door before strengthening) and CMDS (confined masonry wall with opening for a door after strengthening). Frequency and stiffness changes before and after GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic) wall strengthening are analyzed. Definition of dynamic properties of the models was the first step of the experimental testing, which enabled acquiring important information about the achieved stiffness (natural frequencies) of the model. The natural frequency was defined in the Y direction of the model by applying resonant frequency search tests. It is important to mention that both specimens CMDuS and CMDS are subjected to the same effects. The tests are realized in the laboratory of the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIIS), Skopje. The specimens were examined separately on the shaking table, with uniaxial, in-plane excitation. After testing, samples were strengthened with GFRP and re-tested. The initial frequency of the undamaged model CMDuS is 13.55 Hz, while at the end of the testing, the frequency decreased to 6.38 Hz. This emphasizes the reduction of the initial stiffness of the model due to damage, especially in the masonry and tie-beam to tie-column connection. After strengthening of the damaged wall, the natural frequency increases to 10.89 Hz. This highlights the beneficial effect of the strengthening. After completion of dynamic testing at CMDS, the natural frequency is reduced to 6.66 Hz.

Keywords: behaviour of masonry structures, Eurocode, frequency, masonry, shaking table test, strengthening

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Authors: Funda Ates

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Primary energy sources, such as petroleum, coal and natural gas are principle responsible of world’s energy consumption. However, the rapid worldwide increase in the depletion of these energy sources is remarkable. In addition to this, they have damaging environmentally effect. Renewable energy sources are capable of providing a considerable fraction of World energy demand in this century. Biomass is one of the most abundant and utilized sources of renewable energy in the world. It can be converted into commercial fuels, suitable to substitute for fossil fuels. A high number of biomass types can be converted through thermochemical processes into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of air or oxygen. In this study, barley straw has been investigated as an alternative feedstock to obtain fuels and chemicals via pyrolysis in fixed-bed reactor. The influence of pyrolysis temperature in the range 450–750 °C as well as the catalyst effects on the products was investigated and the obtained results were compared. The results indicated that a maximum oil yield of 20.4% was obtained at a moderate temperature of 550 °C. Oil yield decreased by using catalyst. Pyrolysis oils were examined by using instrumental analysis and GC/MS. Analyses revealed that the pyrolysis oils were chemically very heterogeneous at all temperatures. It was determined that the most abundant compounds composing the bio-oil were phenolics. Catalyst decreased the reaction temperature. Most of the components obtained using a catalyst at moderate temperatures was close to those obtained at high temperatures without using a catalyst. Moreover, the use of a catalyst also decreased the amount of oxygenated compounds produced.

Keywords: Barley straw, pyrolysis, catalyst, phenolics

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Authors: Jessy Rugeyo, William Donner

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This research delves into the resilience of Rwanda's public health infrastructure amidst natural disasters, a critical issue given that the Northern Province alone has witnessed no fewer than 1500 cases of disaster ranging from floods and landslides in the last five years, with more than 200 people killed and thousands of homes destroyed, according to MINEMA. In an era where climate change escalates the frequency and intensity of such disasters, fortifying the resilience of public health systems is paramount. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the existing state of Rwanda's public health infrastructure and its ability to manage such crises. Employing a mix of literature review, case studies, and policy analysis, the study discerns key vulnerabilities and brings to light the intricacies of disaster management in Rwanda. Case studies centered around past natural disasters in Rwanda provide critical insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the existing disaster response mechanisms. A thorough critique of related disaster management and public health infrastructure policies reveals areas of commendable practice, along with gaps calling for policy enhancements. Findings guide the proposition of targeted strategies to bolster the resilience of Rwanda's public health infrastructure. This research serves as a significant contribution to the domains of disaster studies and public health, offering valuable insights for policymakers, public health and disaster management professionals in Rwanda and similar contexts. It presents actionable recommendations for improvement, underscoring the potential for enhancing Rwanda's disaster management capacity. By advocating for the strengthening of public health infrastructure resilience, the research highlights the potential for improved public health outcomes following natural disasters, thereby showcasing significant implications for public health and disaster management in the country, particularly in the face of a changing climate.

Keywords: public health infrastructure, disaster resilience, natural disaster, disaster management, emergency preparedness, health policy

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Authors: Zhen Cheng, Xinyu Dai, Shujian Huang, Jiajun Chen

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Recently, explanatory natural language inference has attracted much attention for the interpretability of logic relationship prediction, which is also known as explanation generation for Natural Language Inference (NLI). Existing explanation generators based on discriminative Encoder-Decoder architecture have achieved noticeable results. However, we find that these discriminative generators usually generate explanations with correct evidence but incorrect logic semantic. It is due to that logic information is implicitly encoded in the premise-hypothesis pairs and difficult to model. Actually, logic information identically exists between premise-hypothesis pair and explanation. And it is easy to extract logic information that is explicitly contained in the target explanation. Hence we assume that there exists a latent space of logic information while generating explanations. Specifically, we propose a generative model called Variational Explanation Generator (VariationalEG) with a latent variable to model this space. Training with the guide of explicit logic information in target explanations, latent variable in VariationalEG could capture the implicit logic information in premise-hypothesis pairs effectively. Additionally, to tackle the problem of posterior collapse while training VariaztionalEG, we propose a simple yet effective approach called Logic Supervision on the latent variable to force it to encode logic information. Experiments on explanation generation benchmark—explanation-Stanford Natural Language Inference (e-SNLI) demonstrate that the proposed VariationalEG achieves significant improvement compared to previous studies and yields a state-of-the-art result. Furthermore, we perform the analysis of generated explanations to demonstrate the effect of the latent variable.

Keywords: natural language inference, explanation generation, variational auto-encoder, generative model

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Authors: Jain Jyoti, Jain Shorab, Sinha Shishir

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In the field of material engineering, composites are in great concern for their nonbiodegradability and their cost. In order to reduce its cost and weight, plant derived fibers witnessed miraculous triumph. Plant fibers can be of different types like seed fibers, blast fibers, leaf fibers, etc. Composites can be reinforced with exclusively one type of natural fiber or also can be combined with two or more different types of natural or synthetic fibers to boost up their specific properties. Among all natural fibers, wheat straw, bagasse, kenaf, pineapple leaf, banana, coir, ramie, flax, etc. pineapple leaf fibers have very good mechanical properties. Being hydrophilic in nature, pineapple leaf fibers have very less affinity towards all types of polymer matrixes like HDPE, LDPE, PET, epoxy, etc. Surface treatments like alkaline treatment in different concentrations were conducted to improve its adhesion and compatibility towards hydrophobic polymer matrix i.e. epoxy resin. Pineapple leaf fiber epoxy composites have been prepared using hand layup method. Effect of fiber loading and surface treatments have been studied for different mechanical properties i.e. tensile strength, flexural strength and impact properties of pineapple leaf fiber composites. Analysis of fiber morphology has also been studied using FTIR, XRD. Scanning electron microscopy has also been used to study and compare the morphology of untreated and treated fibers. Also, the fracture surface has been reviewed comparing the reported literature of other eminent researchers of this field.

Keywords: composite, mechanical, natural fiber, pineapple leaf fiber

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Authors: M. Masroor Akhtar Khan, Moin Uddin, Lalit Varshney

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Recently, there has been a rapidly expanding interest in finding applications of natural polymers in view of value addition to agriculture. It is now being realized that radiation processing of natural polysaccharides can be beneficially utilized either to improve the existing methodologies used for processing the natural polymers or to impart value addition to agriculture by converting them into more useful form. Gamma-ray irradiation is employed to degrade and lower the molecular weight of some of the natural polysaccharides like alginates, chitosan and carrageenan into small sized oligomers. When these oligomers are applied to plants as foliar sprays, they elicit various kinds of biological and physiological activities, including promotion of plant growth, seed germination, shoot elongation, root growth, flower production, suppression of heavy metal stress, etc. Furthermore, application of these oligomers can shorten the harvesting period of various crops and help in reducing the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers. In recent years, the oligomers of sodium alginate obtained by irradiating the latter with gamma-rays at 520 kGy dose are being employed. It was noticed that the oligomers derived from the natural polysaccharides could induce growth, photosynthetic efficiency, enzyme activities and most importantly the production of secondary metabolite in the plants like Artemisia annua, Beta vulgaris, Catharanthus roseus, Chrysopogon zizanioides, Cymbopogon flexuosus, Eucalyptus citriodora, Foeniculum vulgare, Geranium sp., Mentha arvensis, Mentha citrata, Mentha piperita, Mentha virdis, Papaver somniferum and Trigonella foenum-graecum. As a result of the application of these oligomers, the yield and/or contents of the active constituents of the aforesaid plants were significantly enhanced. The productivity, as well as quality of medicinal and aromatic plants, may be ameliorated by this novel technique in an economical way as a very little quantity of these irradiated (depolymerised) polysaccharides is needed. Further, this is a very safe technique, as we did not expose the plants directly to radiation. The radiation was used to depolymerize the polysaccharides into oligomers.

Keywords: essential oil, medicinal and aromatic plants, plant production, radiation processed polysaccharides, active constituents

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Authors: Aytakin Huseynli

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The paper reports findings of the study which examined under-five mortality rate among resource-rich countries. Typically when countries obtain wealth citizens gain increased wellbeing. Societies with new wealth create equal opportunities for everyone including vulnerable groups. But scholars claim that this is not the case for developing resource-rich countries and natural resources become the curse for them rather than the blessing. Spillovers from natural resource curse affect the social wellbeing of vulnerable people negatively. They get excluded from the mainstream society, and their situation becomes tangible. In order to test this hypothesis, the study compared under-5 mortality rate among resource-rich countries by using independent sample one-way ANOVA. The data on under-five mortality rate came from the World Bank. The natural resources for this study are oil, gas and minerals. The list of 67 resource-rich countries was taken from Natural Resource Governance Institute. The sample size was categorized and 4 groups were created such as low, low-middle, upper middle and high-income countries based on income classification of the World Bank. Results revealed that there was a significant difference in the scores for low, middle, upper-middle and high-income countries in under-five mortality rate (F(3(29.01)=33.70, p=.000). To find out the difference among income groups, the Games-Howell test was performed and it was found that infant mortality was an issue for low, middle and upper middle countries but not for high-income countries. Results of this study are in agreement with previous research on resource curse and negative effects of resource-based development. Policy implications of the study for social workers, policy makers, academicians and social development specialists are to raise and discuss issues of marginalization and exclusion of vulnerable groups in developing resource-rich countries and suggest interventions for avoiding them.

Keywords: children, natural resource, extractive industries, resource-based development, vulnerable groups

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Authors: Jaime E. Munoz, Jose C. Arcos, Oscar E. Bautista, Ivan E. Campos

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The influence of slippage phenomenon over the destabilization and atomization mechanisms induced via surface acoustic waves on a Newtonian, millimeter-sized, drop deposited on a hydrophilic substrate is studied theoretically. By implementing the Navier-slip model and a lubrication-type approach into the equations which govern the dynamic response of a drop exposed to acoustic stress, a highly nonlinear evolution equation for the air-liquid interface is derived in terms of the acoustic capillary number and the slip coefficient. By numerically solving such an evolution equation, the Spatio-temporal deformation of the drop's free surface is obtained; in this context, atomization of the initial drop into micron-sized droplets is predicted at our numerical model once the acoustically-driven capillary waves reach a critical value: the instability length. Our results show slippage phenomenon at systems with partial and complete wetting favors the formation of capillary waves at the free surface, which traduces in a major volume of liquid being atomized in comparison to the no-slip case for a given time interval. In consequence, slippage at the wall possesses the capability to affect and improve the atomization rate for a drop exposed to a high-frequency acoustic field.

Keywords: capillary instability, lubrication theory, navier-slip condition, SAW atomization

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Authors: Sankhanil Das, Arunava Dasgupta, Keya Mitra

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This paper investigates the relationship between natural ecological systems and modern urban morphology. Over years, ecological conditions represented by natural resources such as natural landforms, systems of water, urban geography and land covers have been a significant driving factor of how settlements have formed, expanded and functioned. These have played a pivotal role in formation of the community character and the cultural identity of the urban spaces, and have steered cultural behavior within these settings. Such cultural behaviors have been instrumental in transforming mere spaces to places with meaning and symbolism. The natural process of city formation is principally founded upon the idea of balance and harmony, mostly in a subconscious manner. Reimaging such processes of natural evolution, this paper systematically builds a development model that generates a balance between environment and development, with specific focus on the Urban-Rural fringe areas in the Temple Town of Puri, in Eastern India. Puri represents a unique cross section of ecological landscape, cultural practices and religious symbolism with a very rich history and a vibrant heritage. While the city centre gets more and more crowded by tourists and pilgrims to accommodate related businesses, the original residents of Puri relocate to move towards the urban peripheral areas for better living conditions, gradually converting agricultural lands into non agricultural uses. This rapid spread into the rural hinterland is devoid of any connection with the rich cultural identity of Puri. These past four decades of ‘development’ has been at the cost of 810 Hectares of ecological Lake systems in the region. Invaluable ecological resources at urban rural edges are often viewed as hindrances to development and conceptualized as taking away from the image of the city. This paper attempts to understand the language of development over years on existing natural resources through topo-analysis and proposes a sustainable approach of development using different planning tools, with ecological resources as the pivotal factor of development.

Keywords: livability, sustainable development, urbanization, urban-rural edge

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Authors: Karim Kheloufi, El Hachemi Amara

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In the present study, a three-dimensional transient numerical model was developed to study the temperature field and cutting kerf shape during laser fusion cutting. The finite volume model has been constructed, based on the Navier–Stokes equations and energy conservation equation for the description of momentum and heat transport phenomena, and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method for free surface tracking. The Fresnel absorption model is used to handle the absorption of the incident wave by the surface of the liquid metal and the enthalpy-porosity technique is employed to account for the latent heat during melting and solidification of the material. To model the physical phenomena occurring at the liquid film/gas interface, including momentum/heat transfer, a new approach is proposed which consists of treating friction force, pressure force applied by the gas jet and the heat absorbed by the cutting front surface as source terms incorporated into the governing equations. All these physics are coupled and solved simultaneously in Fluent CFD®. The main objective of using a transient phase change model in the current case is to simulate the dynamics and geometry of a growing laser-cutting generated kerf until it becomes fully developed. The model is used to investigate the effect of some process parameters on temperature fields and the formed kerf geometry.

Keywords: laser cutting, numerical simulation, heat transfer, fluid flow

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Authors: A. Pattulee, I. Lawan, N. Boonnao, R. Gholami, P. Rimdusit, S. Rimdusit

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Varied types and content of ultrafine vulcanized powdered natural rubbers (UFPNR) as toughening fillers of polybenzoxazine composite are investigated in this work. Four types of UFPNR were prepared by graft polymerization of acrylonitrile monomer (AN), styrene monomer (ST), styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (ST/AN), and styrene-methyl methacrylate copolymer (ST/MMA) onto deproteinized natural rubber (DPNR). The solid UFPNR powders with different types of grafting were finally obtained by electron beam vulcanization and a spray-drying technique. Additionally, effects of various UFPNR contents (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 wt%) on toughness of polybenzoxazine composites were studied. It was observed that the UFPNR grafted with the styrene-methyl methacrylate copolymer (UFPNR-g-(PS-co-PMMA)) exhibited the most effective toughening agent for polybenzoxazine, whereas the rubber powder content of 25 wt% was found to be the optimal filler loading in enhancing the toughness of the resulting composite. The experimental results revealed an increase of 86% in toughness and 56% in impact strength at the above UFPNR-g- (PS-co-PMMA powdered rubber content. Interestingly, the utilization of the UFPNR-g-(PS-co-PMMA as toughening agent was found to increase thermal stability (degradation temperature at 5wt.% (Td5) and glass transition temperature (Tg) of the composite i.e. an increase of 8°C and 6 °C has been observed for the Td5 and Tg, respectively.

Keywords: natural rubber, ultrafine fully vulcanized powder rubber, polybenzoxazine, polymer composite, toughening

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Authors: M. Wasy Akhtar

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Multi-modal film boiling simulations are carried out on adaptive octree grids. The liquid-vapor interface is captured using the volume-of-fluid framework adjusted to account for exchanges of mass, momentum, and energy across the interface. Surface tension effects are included using a volumetric source term in the momentum equations. The phase change calculations are conducted based on the exact location and orientation of the interface; however, the source terms are calculated using the mixture variables to be consistent with the one field formulation used to represent the entire fluid domain. The numerical model on octree representation of the computational grid is first verified using test cases including advection tests in severely deforming velocity fields, gravity-based instabilities and bubble growth in uniformly superheated liquid under zero gravity. The model is then used to simulate both single and multi-modal film boiling simulations. The octree grid is dynamically adapted in order to maintain the highest grid resolution on the instability fronts using markers of interface location, volume fraction, and thermal gradients. The method thus provides an efficient platform to simulate fluid instabilities with or without phase change in the presence of body forces like gravity or shear layer instabilities.

Keywords: boiling flows, dynamic octree grids, heat transfer, interface capturing, phase change

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Authors: Majid Eslami

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Functionally graded materials (FGMs) exhibit heterogeneous microstructures in which the composition and properties gently change in specified directions. The common type of FGMs consist of a metal in which ceramic particles are distributed with a graded concentration. There are many processing routes for FGMs. An important group of these methods is casting techniques (gravity or centrifugal). However, the main problem of casting molten metal slurry with dispersed ceramic particles is a destructive chemical reaction between these two phases which deteriorates the properties of the materials. In order to overcome this problem, in the present investigation a suspension of 6061 aluminum and alumina powders in a liquid polymer was used as the starting material and subjected to centrifugal force for making FGMs. The size rang of these powders was 45-63 and 106-125 μm. The volume percent of alumina in the Al/Al2O3 powder mixture was in the range of 5 to 20%. PMMA (Plexiglas) in different concentrations (20-50 g/lit) was dissolved in toluene and used as the suspension liquid. The glass mold contaning the suspension of Al/Al2O3 powders in the mentioned liquid was rotated at 1700 rpm for different times (4-40 min) while the arm length was kept constant (10 cm) for all the experiments. After curing the polymer, burning out the binder, cold pressing and sintering , cylindrical samples (φ=22 mm h=20 mm) were produced. The density of samples before and after sintering was quantified by Archimedes method. The results indicated that by using the same sized alumina and aluminum powders particles, FGM sample can be produced by rotation times exceeding 7 min. However, by using coarse alumina and fine alumina powders the sample exhibits step concentration. On the other hand, using fine alumina and coarse alumina results in a relatively uniform concentration of Al2O3 along the sample height. These results are attributed to the effects of size and density of different powders on the centrifugal force induced on the powders during rotation. The PMMA concentration and the vol.% of alumina in the suspension did not have any considerable effect on the distribution of alumina particles in the samples. The hardness profiles along the height of samples were affected by both the alumina vol.% and porosity content. The presence of alumina particles increased the hardness while increased porosity reduced the hardness. Therefore, the hardness values did not show the expected gradient in same sample. The sintering resulted in decreased porosity for all the samples investigated.

Keywords: FGM, powder metallurgy, centrifugal method, polymeric suspension

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Authors: Zafar Iqbal, Sana Irshad Khan

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Organic extract from newly isolated plant growth promoting fungus (PGPF) Penicillium sp EU0013 was subjected to bioassays including anti fungal (disc diffusion) cytotoxicity (brine shrimp lethality), herbicidal (Lemna minor) and nematicidal activities. Metabolite profile of the extract was also assessed using HPLC analysis with the aim to identify bioactive natural products in the extract as new drug candidate(s). The extract showed anti fungal potential against tested fungal pathogens. Growth of the Wilt pathogen Fusarium oxyosproum was inhibited up to 63% when compared to negative reference. Activity against brine shrimps was weak and mortality up to 10% was observed at concentration of 200 µg. mL-1. The extract exhibited no toxicity against Lemna minor frond at 200 µg. mL-1. Nematicidal activity was observed very potent against root knot nematode and LC50 value was calculated as 52.5 ug. mL-1 using probit analysis. Methodically assessment of metabolites profile by HPLC showed the presence of kojic acid (Rt 1.4 min) and aflatoxin B1 (Rt 5.9 min) in the mycellial extract as compared with standards. The major unidentified metabolite was eluted at Rt 8.6 along with other minor peaks. The observed high toxicity against root knot nematode was attributed to the unidentified compounds that make fungal extract worthy of further exploration for isolation and structural characterization studies for development of future commercial nematicidal compound(s).

Keywords: penicillium, nematicidal activity, metabolites, HPLC

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Authors: Salahaldein Alsadey, Issa Amaish

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Recycled aggregates (RA) have the potential to compromise concrete performance, contributing to issues such as reduced strength and increased susceptibility to cracking. This study investigates the impact of sisal fiber (SF) on the mechanical properties of concrete, with the objective of utilizing sisal fibers as a reinforcing element in concrete compositions containing natural aggregate and varying percentages (25%, 50%, and 75%) of coarse recycled aggregate replacement. The investigation aims to discern the positive and negative effects on compressive and flexural strength, thereby assessing the viability of sisal fiber-reinforced recycled concrete in comparison to conventional concrete composed of natural aggregate without sisal fiber. Test results revealed that concrete samples incorporating sisal fiber exhibited elevated compressive and flexural strength. Comparative analysis of these strength values was conducted with reference to samples devoid of sisal fiber.

Keywords: sustainable construction, construction materials, recycled aggregate, sisal fibers, compressive strength, flexural strength, eco-friendly concrete, natural fiber composites, recycled materials, construction waste management

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Authors: Szu-Hua Wang

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Urban areas contain abundant potential biochemical storages and renewable and non-renewable flows. Urban natural environments for breeding natural assets and urban economic development for maintaining urban functions can be analyzed form the concept of ecological economic system. Land use change and ecosystem services change are resulting from the interactions between human activities and environments factually. Land use change due to human activities is the major cause of climate change, leading to serious impacts on urban ecosystem services, including provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services. However, it lacks discussion on the interactions among urban land use change, ecosystem services change, and extreme precipitation events. Energy synthesis can use the same measure standard unit, solar energy, for different energy resources (e.g. sunlight, water, fossil fuels, minerals, etc.) and analyze contributions of various natural environmental resources on human economic systems. Therefore, this research adopts the concept of ecological, economic systems and energy synthesis for analyzing dynamic spatial impacts of land use change on ecosystem services, using the Taipei area as a case study. The analysis results show that changes in land use in the Taipei area, especially the conversion of natural lands and agricultural lands to urban lands, affect the ecosystem services negatively. These negative effects become more significant during the extreme precipitation events.

Keywords: urban ecological economic system, extreme precipitation events, ecosystem services, energy

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Authors: Houria Rezala, Jose Luis Valverde, Amaya Romero, Alessandra Molinari, Andrea Maldotti

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A pillared montmorillonite containing iron doped titania (Fe/Ti-PILC) has been prepared from a natural clay. This material has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption, temperature programmed desorption of ammonia, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, atomic absorption, and diffuse reflectance UV-VIS spectroscopy. The layer structure of Fe/Ti-PILC resulted to be ordered with an insertion of pillars, which caused a slight increase in the basal spacing of the clay. Its specific surface area was about three times larger than that of the parent Na-montmorillonite due principally to the creation of a remarkable microporous network. The doped material was a robust photocatalyst able to oxidize liquid alkyl aromatics to the corresponding carbonylic derivatives, using O2 as the oxidizing species, at mild pressure and temperature conditions. Accumulation of valuable carbonylic derivatives was possible since their over-oxidation to carbon dioxide was negligible. Fe/Ti-PILC was able to discriminate between toluene and cyclohexane in favor of the aromatic compound with an efficiency that is about three times higher than that of titanium pillared clays (Ti-PILC). It is likely that the addition of iron favored the formation of new acid sites able to interact with the aromatic substrate. Iron doping caused a significant TiO2 visible light-induced activity (wavelength > 400 nm) with only minor negative effects on its performance under UV-light irradiation (wavelength > 290 nm).

Keywords: alkyl aromatics oxidation, heterogeneous photocatalysis, iron doping, pillared clays

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Authors: Brayan Daniel Riascos Arteaga, Carlos Costa Perez

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Landfill leachate has an important fraction of humic substances, mainly humic acids (HAs), which often represent more than half value of COD, specially in liquids proceeded from composting processes of organic fraction of solid wastes. We propose in this article a new method of pH sensitive flocculation for COD and colour reduction in landfill leachate based on the chemical properties of HAs. Landfill leachate with a high content of humic acids can be efficiently treated by pH sensitive flocculation at pH 2.0, reducing COD value in 86.1% and colour in 84.7%. Mechanism of pH sensitive flocculation is based in protonation first of phenolic groups and later of carboxylic acid groups in the HAs molecules, resulting in a reduction of Zeta potential value. For pH over neutrality, carboxylic acid and phenolic groups are ionized and Zeta potential increases in absolute value, maintaining HAs in suspension as colloids and conducting flocculation to be obstructed. Ionized anionic groups (carboxylates) can interact electrostatically with cations abundant in leachate (site binding) aiding to maintain HAs in suspension. Simulation of this situation and ideal visualization of Zeta potential behavior is described in the paper and aggregation of molecules by H-bonds is proposed as the main step in separation of HAs from leachate and reduction of COD value in this complex liquid. CHNS analysis, FT-IR spectrometry and UV–VIS spectrophotometry show chemical elements content in the range of natural and commercial HAs, clear aromaticity and carboxylic acids and phenolic groups presence in the precipitate from landfill leachate

Keywords: landfill leachate, humic acids, COD, chemical treatment, flocculation

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Authors: Dinara F. Gaynutdinova, Vladimir Ya Modorsky, Nikolay A. Shevelev

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The problem under research is that of unpredictable modes occurring in two-stage centrifugal hydraulic pump as a result of hydraulic processes caused by vibrations of structural components. Numerical, analytical and experimental approaches are considered. A hypothesis was developed that the problem of unpredictable pressure decrease at the second stage of centrifugal pumps is caused by cavitation effects occurring upon vibration. The problem has been studied experimentally and theoretically as of today. The theoretical study was conducted numerically and analytically. Hydroelastic processes in dynamic “liquid – deformed structure” system were numerically modelled and analysed. Using ANSYS CFX program engineering analysis complex and computing capacity of a supercomputer the cavitation parameters were established to depend on vibration parameters. An influence domain of amplitudes and vibration frequencies on concentration of cavitation bubbles was formulated. The obtained numerical solution was verified using CFM program package developed in PNRPU. The package is based on a differential equation system in hyperbolic and elliptic partial derivatives. The system is solved by using one of finite-difference method options – the particle-in-cell method. The method defines the problem solution algorithm. The obtained numerical solution was verified analytically by model problem calculations with the use of known analytical solutions of in-pipe piston movement and cantilever rod end face impact. An infrastructure consisting of an experimental fast hydro-dynamic processes research installation and a supercomputer connected by a high-speed network, was created to verify the obtained numerical solutions. Physical experiments included measurement, record, processing and analysis of data for fast processes research by using National Instrument signals measurement system and Lab View software. The model chamber end face oscillated during physical experiments and, thus, loaded the hydraulic volume. The loading frequency varied from 0 to 5 kHz. The length of the operating chamber varied from 0.4 to 1.0 m. Additional loads weighed from 2 to 10 kg. The liquid column varied from 0.4 to 1 m high. Liquid pressure history was registered. The experiment showed dependence of forced system oscillation amplitude on loading frequency at various values: operating chamber geometrical dimensions, liquid column height and structure weight. Maximum pressure oscillation (in the basic variant) amplitudes were discovered at loading frequencies of approximately 1,5 kHz. These results match the analytical and numerical solutions in ANSYS and CFM.

Keywords: computing experiment, hydroelasticity, physical experiment, vibration

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Authors: Dang HuynhMinhTam, Kuang-Cong Lu, Yi-Hung Chen, Zhung-Yu Lin, Cheng-Siang Cheng

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Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology become a predominant technique to mitigate carbon dioxide and achieve net-zero emissions goals. This research targets to continuously capture the low concentration CO₂ from the tail gas of the regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) in the high technology industry. A rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor is investigated to capture the efficiency of CO₂ using a mixture of NaOH/Na₂CO₃ solutions to simulate the real absorbed solution. On a lab scale, semi-batch experiments of continuous gas flow and circulating absorbent solution are conducted to find the optimal parameters and are then examined in a continuous operation. In the semi-batch tests, the carbon capture efficiency and pH variation in the conditions of a low concentration CO₂ (about 1.13 vol%), the NaOH concentration of 1 wt% or 2 wt% mixed with 14 wt% Na₂CO₃, the rotating speed (600, 900, 1200 rpm), the gas-liquid ratio (100, 200, and 400), and the temperature of absorbent solution of 40 ºC are studied. The CO₂ capture efficiency significantly increases with higher rotating speed and smaller gas-liquid ratio, respectively, while the difference between the NaOH concentration of 1 wt% and 2 wt% is relatively small. The maximum capture efficiency is close to 80% in the conditions of the NaOH concentration of 1 wt%, the G/L ratio of 100, and the rotating speed of 1200 rpm within the first 5 minutes. Furthermore, the continuous operation based on similar conditions also demonstrates the steady efficiency of the carbon capture of around 80%.

Keywords: carbon dioxide capture, regenerative thermal oxidizer, rotating packed bed, sodium hydroxide

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Authors: Andrei Nosov

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This paper discusses the development directions of dialogue systems within the digitalisation of the railway industry, where technologies based on conversational AI are already potentially applied or will be applied. Conversational AI is one of the popular natural language processing (NLP) tasks, as it has great prospects for real-world applications today. At the same time, it is a challenging task as it involves many areas of NLP based on complex computations and deep insights from linguistics and psychology. In this review, we focus on dialogue systems and their implementation in the railway domain. We comprehensively review the state-of-the-art research results on dialogue systems and analyse them from three perspectives: type of problem to be solved, type of model, and type of system. In particular, from the perspective of the type of tasks to be solved, we discuss characteristics and applications. This will help to understand how to prioritise tasks. In terms of the type of models, we give an overview that will allow researchers to become familiar with how to apply them in dialogue systems. By analysing the types of dialogue systems, we propose an unconventional approach in contrast to colleagues who traditionally contrast goal-oriented dialogue systems with open-domain systems. Our view focuses on considering retrieval and generative approaches. Furthermore, the work comprehensively presents evaluation methods and datasets for dialogue systems in the railway domain to pave the way for future research. Finally, some possible directions for future research are identified based on recent research results.

Keywords: digitalisation, railway, dialogue systems, conversational AI, natural language processing, natural language understanding, natural language generation

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Authors: Debora C. Mendes, Matthias Eckert, Claudia S. Moço, Helio Martins, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves, Miguel Oliveira, Jose P. Da Silva

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Disposal of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) in embankments in the periphery of cities causes both environmental and social problems. To achieve the management of C&DW, a detailed analysis of the properties of these materials should be done. In this work we report a comparative study of the physical, chemical and environmental properties of natural and C&DW aggregates from 25 different origins. Assays were performed according to European Standards. Analysis of heavy metals and organic compounds, namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were performed. Finally, properties of concrete prepared with C&DW aggregates are reported. Physical analyses of C&DW aggregates indicated lower quality properties than natural aggregates, particularly for concrete preparation and unbound layers of road pavements. Chemical properties showed that most samples (80%) meet the values required by European regulations for concrete and unbound layers of road pavements. Analyses of heavy metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Mo and Zn in the C&DW leachates showed levels below the limits established by the Council Decision of 19 December 2002. Identification and quantification of PCBs and PAHs indicated that few samples shows the presence of these compounds. The measured levels of PCBs and PAHs are also below the limits. Other compounds identified in the C&DW leachates include phthalates and diphenylmethanol. The characterized C&DW aggregates show lower quality properties than natural aggregates but most samples showed to be environmentally safe. A continuous monitoring of the presence of heavy metals and organic compounds should be made to trial safe C&DW aggregates. C&DW aggregates provide a good economic and environmental alternative to natural aggregates.

Keywords: concrete preparation, construction and demolition waste, heavy metals, organic pollutants

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Authors: Hocini Yousra, Medjnoun Amal, Khiatine Mohamed, Bahar Ramdane

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The development of the regions of southern Algeria require the construction of numerous road, rail, and airport infrastructures. However, this development is very expensive given the very severe climatic conditions, the difficulty of reusing local materials, and the unavailability of water on the project sites; these regions are characterized by an arid or semi-arid climate, which means that water sources are very limited. The climatic conditions and the scarcity of water make soil compaction work very difficult and excessively expensive. These constraints related to the supply of water for irrigation of these construction sites make it necessary to examine the solution of compaction with low water content. This work studies the possibility of improving the compaction with a low water content of the soils of southern Algeria and this by using natural or recycled ecological materials. Local soils are first subjected to a series of laboratory characterization tests, then mixed with varying amounts of natural additives. The new materials are, in turn, subjected to road tests.

Keywords: compaction, low water content, sand, natural materials

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Authors: Yanhua Zhao, Yu Gou, Shu Feng, Dongdong Li, Chuanmin Tao

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The natural history of HBV infection could experience immune tolerant (IT), immune clearance (IC), HBeAg-negative inactive/quienscent carrier (ENQ), and HBeAg-negative hepatitis (ENH). As current biomarkers for discriminating these four phases have some weaknesses, additional serological indicators are needed. Hepatits B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) encoded with precore/core gene contains denatured HBeAg, HBV core antigen (HBcAg) and a 22KDa precore protein (p22cr), which was demonstrated to have a close association with natural history of hepatitis B infection, but no specific cutoff values and diagnostic parameters to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy. This study aimed to clarify the distribution of HBcrAg levels and evaluate its diagnostic performance during the natural history of infection from a Western Chinese perspective. 294 samples collected from treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in different phases (IT=64; IC=72; ENQ=100, and ENH=58). We detected the HBcrAg values and analyzed the relationship between HBcrAg and HBV DNA. HBsAg and other clinical parameters were quantitatively tested. HBcrAg levels of four phases were 9.30 log U/mL, 8.80 log U/mL, 3.00 log U/mL, and 5.10 logU/mL, respectively (p < 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that the area under curves (AUCs) of HBcrAg and quantitative HBsAg at cutoff values of 9.25 log U/mL and 4.355 log IU/mL for distinguishing IT from IC phases were 0.704 and 0.694, with sensitivity 76.39% and 59.72%, specificity 53.13% and 79.69%, respectively. AUCs of HBcrAg and quantitative HBsAg at cutoff values of 4.15 log U/mlmL and 2.395 log IU/mlmL for discriminating between ENQ and ENH phases were 0.931 and 0.653, with sensitivity 87.93% and 84%, specificity 91.38% and 39%, respectively. Therefore, HBcrAg levels varied significantly among four natural phases of HBV infection. It had higher predictive performance than quantitative HBsAg for distinguishing between ENQ-patients and ENH-patients and similar performance with HBsAg for the discrimination between IT and IC phases, which indicated that HBcrAg could be a potential serological marker for CHB.

Keywords: chronic hepatitis B, hepatitis B core-related antigen, hepatitis B surface antigens, hepatitis B virus

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Authors: Cholpassorn Sitthiwarongchai

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The purposes of this paper were to search for the uniqueness of community products from Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkram Province, Thailand and to create a proper brand for the community products. Four important questions were asked to identify the uniqueness of the community products. The first question: What is the brand of coconut sugar that community wants to imply? The answer was 100 percent authentic coconut sugar. The second question: What is the nature of this product? The answer was that it is a natural product without any harmful chemical. The third question is: Who are the target customers? The answer was that homemakers and tourists are target customers. The fourth question: What is the brand guarantee to customers? The answer was that the brand guarantees that the product is 100 percent natural process with a high quality and it is a community production. The findings revealed that in terms of product, customers rated quality and package as the two most important factors. In terms of price, customers rated lower price and a visible label as the two most important factors. In terms of place, customer rated layout and the cleanliness of the place as the two most important factors. In terms of promotion, customer rated public relations and brochure at the store as the most important factors. From the group discussion, the local community agreed that the brand for the community coconut sugar of Salapi community should be a picture of a green coconut tree and yellow color background. This brand implies the strength of community and authentic of the high quality natural product.

Keywords: coconut sugar, community brand, Samut Songkram, natural product

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Authors: Katharigatta N. Venugopala, Fernando Albericio, Bander E. Al-Dhubiab, T. Govender

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Recent years have witnessed a renaissance in the field of peptides that are obtained from various natural sources such as many bacteria, fungi, plants, seaweeds, vertebrates, invertebrates and have been reported for various pharmacological properties such as anti-TB, anticancer, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, antibacterial, antifungal, and antidiabetic, activities. In view of the pharmacological significance of natural peptides, serious research efforts of many scientific groups and pharmaceutical companies have consequently focused on them to explore the possibility of developing their potential analogues as therapeutic agents. Solid phase and solution phase peptide synthesis are the two methodologies currently available for the synthesis of natural or synthetic linear or cyclic depsi-peptides. From a synthetic point of view, there is no doubt that the solid-phase methodology gained added advantages over solution phase methodology in terms of simplicity, purity of the compound and the speed with which peptides can be synthesised. In the present study total synthesis, purification and structural elucidation of analogues of natural anti-TB cyclic depsi-peptides such as depsidomycin, massetolides and viscosin has been attempted by solid phase method using standard Fmoc protocols and finally off resin cyclization in solution phase method. In case of depsidomycin, synthesis of linear peptide on solid phase could not be achieved because of two turn inducing amino acids in the peptide sequence, but total synthesis was achieved by convergent solid phase peptide synthesis followed by cyclization in solution phase method. The title compounds obtained were in good yields and characterized by NMR and HRMS. Anti-TB results revealed that the potential title compound exhibited promising activity at 4 µg/mL against H37Rv and 16 µg/mL against MDR strains of tuberculosis.

Keywords: total synthesis, cyclic depsi-peptides, anti-TB activity, tuberculosis

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Authors: Allmin Susaiyah, Aki Härmä, Milan Petković

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Automatic generation of insights from data using insight mining systems (IMS) is useful in many applications, such as personal health tracking, patient monitoring, and business process management. Existing IMS face challenges in controlling insight extraction, scaling to large databases, and generalising to unseen domains. In this work, we propose a hybrid approach consisting of rule-based and neural components for generating insights from data while overcoming the aforementioned challenges. Firstly, a rule-based data 2CNL component is used to extract statistically significant insights from data and represent them in a controlled natural language (CNL). Secondly, a BERTSum-based CNL2NL component is used to convert these CNLs into natural language texts. We improve the model using task-specific and domain-specific fine-tuning. Our approach has been evaluated using statistical techniques and standard evaluation metrics. We overcame the aforementioned challenges and observed significant improvement with domain-specific fine-tuning.

Keywords: data mining, insight mining, natural language generation, pre-trained language models

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Authors: Szu-Hua Wang, Yi-Wen Chen

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Urban ecosystems are complex coupled human-environment systems. They contain abundant natural resources for producing natural assets and attract urban assets to consume natural resources for urban development. Urban ecosystems provide several ecosystem services, including provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services. Rapid global climate change makes urban ecosystems and their ecosystem services encountering various natural disasters. Lots of natural disasters have occurred around the world under the constant changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the past two decades. In Taiwan, hydrological disasters have been paid more attention due to the potential high sensitivity of Taiwan’s cities to climate change, and it impacts. However, climate change not only causes extreme weather events directly but also affects the interactions among human, ecosystem services and their dynamic feedback processes indirectly. Therefore, this study adopts a systematic method, solar energy synthesis, based on the concept of the eco-energy analysis. The Taipei area, the most densely populated area in Taiwan, is selected as the study area. The changes of ecosystem services between 2015 and Typhoon Soudelor have been compared in order to investigate the impacts of extreme precipitation events on ecosystem services. The results show that the forest areas are the largest contributions of energy to ecosystem services in the Taipei area generally. Different soil textures of different subsystem have various upper limits of water contents or substances. The major contribution of ecosystem services of the study area is natural hazard regulation provided by the surface water resources areas. During the period of Typhoon Soudelor, the freshwater supply in the forest areas had become the main contribution. Erosion control services were the main ecosystem service affected by Typhoon Soudelor. The second and third main ecosystem services were hydrologic regulation and food supply. Due to the interactions among ecosystem services, fresh water supply, water purification, and waste treatment had been affected severely.

Keywords: ecosystem, extreme precipitation events, ecosystem services, solar energy synthesis

Procedia PDF Downloads 151