Search results for: sensitive earth fault

Authors: Shilpa Sahoo, Michel Louge, Anthony Reeves, Olivier Desjardins, Susan Daniel, Sadik Omowunmi

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The microgravity on the International Space Station (ISS) was exploited to study the imbibition of water into a network of hydrophilic cylindrical capillaries on time and length scales long enough to observe details hitherto inaccessible under Earth gravity. When a drop touches a porous medium, it spreads as if laid on a composite surface. The surface first behaves as a hydrophobic material, as liquid must penetrate pores filled with air. When contact is established, some of the liquid is drawn into pores by a capillarity that is resisted by viscous forces growing with length of the imbibed region. This process always begins with an inertial regime that is complicated by possible contact pinning. To study imbibition on Earth, time and distance must be shrunk to mitigate gravity-induced distortion. These small scales make it impossible to observe the inertial and pinning processes in detail. Instead, in the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut Luca Parmitano slowly extruded water spheres until they touched any of nine capillary plates. The 12mm diameter droplets were large enough for high-speed GX1050C video cameras on top and side to visualize details near individual capillaries, and long enough to observe dynamics of the entire imbibition process. To investigate the role of contact pinning, a text matrix was produced which consisted nine kinds of porous capillary plates made of gold-coated brass treated with Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAM) that fixed advancing and receding contact angles to known values. In the ISS, long-term microgravity allowed unambiguous observations of the role of contact line pinning during the inertial phase of imbibition. The high-speed videos of spreading and imbibition on the porous plates were analyzed using computer vision software to calculate the radius of the droplet contact patch with the plate and height of the droplet vs time. These observations are compared with numerical simulations and with data that we obtained at the ESA ZARM free-fall tower in Bremen with a unique mechanism producing relatively large water spheres and similarity in the results were observed. The data obtained from the ISS can be used as a benchmark for further numerical simulations in the field.

Keywords: droplet imbibition, hydrophilic surface, inertial phase, porous medium

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Authors: Alka Jakhar, Harmanpreet Kaur Sandhu, Samaresh Das

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The Terahertz (THz) technology-based devices are heightening at an alarming rate on account of the wide range of applications in imaging, security, communication, and spectroscopic field. The various available room operational THz detectors, including Golay cell, pyroelectric detector, field-effect transistors, and photoconductive antennas, have some limitations such as narrow-band response, slow response speed, transit time limits, and complex fabrication process. There is an urgent demand to explore new materials and device structures to accomplish efficient THz detection systems. Recently, TMDs including topological semimetals and topological insulators such as PtSe₂, MoTe₂, WSe₂, and PtTe₂ provide novel feasibility for photonic and optical devices. The peculiar properties of these materials, such as Dirac cone, fermions presence, nonlinear optical response, high conductivity, and ambient stability, make them worthy for the development of the THz devices. Here, the platinum telluride (PtTe₂) based devices have been demonstrated for THz detection in the frequency range of 0.1-1 THz. The PtTe₂ is synthesized by direct selenization of the sputtered platinum film on the high-resistivity silicon substrate by using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The Raman spectra, XRD, and XPS spectra confirm the formation of the thin PtTe₂ film. The PtTe₂ channel length is 5µm and it is connected with a bow-tie antenna for strong THz electric field confinement in the channel. The characterization of the devices has been carried out in a wide frequency range from 0.1-1 THz. The induced THz photocurrent is measured by using lock-in-amplifier after preamplifier. The maximum responsivity is achieved up to 1 A/W under self-biased mode. Further, this responsivity has been increased by applying biasing voltage. This photo response corresponds to low energy THz photons is mainly due to the photo galvanic effect in PtTe₂. The DC current is induced along the PtTe₂ channel, which is directly proportional to the amplitude of the incident THz electric field. Thus, these new topological semimetal materials provide new pathways for sensitive detection and sensing applications in the THz domain.

Keywords: terahertz, detector, responsivity, topological-semimetals

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Authors: Allaw Kamel, Bazzi Hasan

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Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is among the most significant sources which threaten the global environmental health. Solid Waste Management has been an important environmental problem in developing countries because of the difficulties in finding sustainable solutions for solid wastes. Therefore, more efforts are needed to be implemented to overcome this problem. Lebanon has suffered a severe solid waste management problem in 2015, and a new landfill site was proposed to solve the existing problem. The study aims to identify and locate the most suitable area to construct a landfill taking into consideration the sustainable development to overcome the present situation and protect the future demands. Throughout the article, a landfill site selection methodology was discussed using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Several environmental, economic and social factors were taken as criterion for selection of a landfill. Soil, geology, and LUC (Land Use and Land Cover) indices with the Sustainable Development Index were main inputs to create the final map of Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) for landfill site. Different factors were determined to define each index. Input data of each factor was managed, visualized and analyzed using GIS. GIS was used as an important tool to identify suitable areas for landfill. Spatial Analysis (SA), Analysis and Management GIS tools were implemented to produce input maps capable of identifying suitable areas related to each index. Weight has been assigned to each factor in the same index, and the main weights were assigned to each index used. The combination of the different indices map generates the final output map of ESA. The output map was reclassified into three suitability classes of low, moderate, and high suitability. Results showed different locations suitable for the construction of a landfill. Results also reflected the importance of GIS and MCDA in helping decision makers finding a solution of solid wastes by a sanitary landfill.

Keywords: sustainable development, landfill, municipal solid waste (MSW), geographic information system (GIS), multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA), environmentally sensitive area (ESA)

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Authors: Amal E. Ahmed, Levent Trabzon

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Due to the low concentration of the analytes in biological samples, the use of Biological Microelectromechanical System (Bio-MEMS) biosensors for biomolecules detection results in a minuscule output signal that is not good enough for practical applications. In response to this, a need has arisen for an optimized biosensor capable of giving high output signal in response the detection of few analytes in the sample; the ultimate goal is being able to convert the attachment of a single biomolecule into a measurable quantity. For this purpose, MEMS microcantilevers based biosensors emerged as a promising sensing solution because it is simple, cheap, very sensitive and more importantly does not need analytes optical labeling (Label-free). Among the different microcantilever transducing techniques, piezoresistive based microcantilever biosensors became more prominent because it works well in liquid environments and has an integrated readout system. However, the design of piezoresistive microcantilevers is not a straightforward problem due to coupling between the design parameters, constraints, process conditions, and performance. It was found that the parameters that can be optimized to enhance the sensitivity of Piezoresistive microcantilever-based sensors are: cantilever dimensions, cantilever material, cantilever shape, piezoresistor material, piezoresistor doping level, piezoresistor dimensions, piezoresistor position, Stress Concentration Region's (SCR) shape and position. After a systematic analyzation of the effect of each design and process parameters on the sensitivity, a step-wise optimization approach was developed in which almost all these parameters were variated one at each step while fixing the others to get the maximum possible sensitivity at the end. At each step, the goal was to optimize the parameter in a way that it maximizes and concentrates the stress in the piezoresistor region for the same applied force thus get the higher sensitivity. Using this approach, an optimized sensor that has 73.5x times higher electrical sensitivity (ΔR⁄R) than the starting sensor was obtained. In addition to that, this piezoresistive microcantilever biosensor it is more sensitive than the other similar sensors previously reported in the open literature. The mechanical sensitivity of the final senior is -1.5×10-8 Ω/Ω ⁄pN; which means that for each 1pN (10-10 g) biomolecules attach to this biosensor; the piezoresistor resistivity will decrease by 1.5×10-8 Ω. Throughout this work COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0, a commercial Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tool, has been used to simulate the sensor performance.

Keywords: biosensor, microcantilever, piezoresistive, stress concentration region (SCR)

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Authors: Yaeji Lim, Hee-Seok Oh

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The coherence analysis measures the linear time-invariant relationship between two data sets and has been studied various fields such as signal processing, engineering, and medical science. However classical coherence analysis tends to be sensitive to outliers and focuses only on mean relationship. In this paper, we generalized cross periodogram to quantile cross periodogram and provide richer inter-relationship between two data sets. This is a general version of Laplace cross periodogram. We prove its asymptotic distribution under the long range process and compare them with ordinary coherence through numerical examples. We also present real data example to confirm the usefulness of quantile coherence analysis.

Keywords: coherence, cross periodogram, spectrum, quantile

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Authors: Jaya Mathew

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Many organizations are faced with the challenge of how to analyze and build Machine Learning models using their sensitive telemetry data. In this paper, we discuss how users can leverage the power of R without having to move their big data around as well as a cloud based solution for organizations willing to host their data in the cloud. By using ScaleR technology to benefit from parallelization and remote computing or R Services on premise or in the cloud, users can leverage the power of R at scale without having to move their data around.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, machine learning, big data, cloud based, on premise solution, R

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Authors: C. Busuioc, S. Jinga, E. Pavel

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Optical lithography is a key technique in the development of sub-5 nm patterns for the semiconductor industry. We have already reported that the best results obtained with respect to direct laser writing process on active media, such as glass-ceramics, are achieved only when the energy of the laser radiation is absorbed in discrete quantities. Further, we need to clarify the role of active centers concentration in silver nanocrystals natural generation, as well as in fluorescent rare-earth nanostructures formation. As a consequence, samples with different compositions were prepared. SEM, AFM, TEM and STEM investigations were employed in order to demonstrate that few nm width lines can be written on fluorescent photosensitive glass-ceramics, these being efficient absorbers. Moreover, we believe that the experimental data will lead to the best choice in terms of active centers amount, laser power and glass-ceramic matrix.

Keywords: glass-ceramics, 3D laser writing, optical disks, data storage

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Authors: Ainura Kairanbayeva

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Currently, the issue of maintaining the operational condition of highways at the required level is acute in Kazakhstan. The impact of landslides on the state of the road industry in Kazakhstan has been poorly studied. This article presents the classification of natural hazards and examines the influence of atmospheric natural processes on the operational condition of the sections of the highway "Ayusai–Kosmostantsia" passing along the mountain slopes of the Trans-Ili Alatau. According to the results of field studies, multi-turn reflected cracks have been identified, this is also due to the fact that the base of the road is made of a sand-gravel mixture and is not treated with reinforcing additives and the actual density of the asphalt concrete pavement is below regulatory requirements.

Keywords: building materials and products, construction of highways and engineering structures, construction processes, displacements of the earth's surface, geodynamic processes

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Authors: Khulud M. Rahuma, Ibrahim B. Younis

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Assessment of petrophysical parameters are very essential for reservoir engineer. Three techniques can be used to predict reservoir properties: well logging, well testing, and core analysis. Cementation factor and saturation exponent are very required for calculation, and their values role a great effect on water saturation estimation. In this study a sensitive analysis was performed to investigate the influence of cementation factor and saturation exponent variation applying logs, and core analysis. Measurements of water saturation resulted in a maximum difference around fifteen percent.

Keywords: porosity, cementation factor, saturation exponent, formation factor, water saturation

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Authors: Zeineb Baatout, Safa Teka, Nejmeddine Jaballah, Nawfel Sakly, Xiaonan Sun, Mustapha Majdoub

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Currently, the economic interests linked to the development of bio-based materials make biomass one of the most interesting areas for science development. We are interested in the β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), one of the popular bio-sourced macromolecule, produced from the starch via enzymatic conversion. It is a cyclic oligosaccharide formed by the association of seven glucose units. It presents a rigid conical and amphiphilic structure with hydrophilic exterior, allowing it to be water-soluble. It has also a hydrophobic interior enabling the formation of inclusion complexes, which support its application for the elaboration of electrochemical and optical sensors. Nevertheless, the solubility of β-CD in water makes its use as sensitive layer limit and difficult due to their instability in aqueous media. To overcome this limitation, we chose to precede by modification of the hydroxyl groups to obtain hydrophobic derivatives which lead to water-stable sensing layers. Hence, a series of benzylated β-CDs were synthesized in basic aqueous media in one pot. This work reports the synthesis of a new family of substituted amphiphilic β-CDs using a green methodology. The obtained β-CDs showed different degree of substitution (DS) between 0.85 and 2.03. These organic macromolecular materials were soluble in common organic volatile solvents, and their structures were investigated by NMR, FT-IR and MALDI-TOF spectroscopies. Thermal analysis showed a correlation between the thermal properties of these derivatives and the benzylation degree. The surface properties of the thin films based on the benzylated β-CDs were characterized by contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These organic materials were investigated as sensitive layers, deposited on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) gravimetric transducer, for humidity sensor at room temperature. The results showed that the performances of the prepared sensors are greatly influenced by the benzylation degree of β-CD. The partially modified β-CD (DS=1) shows linear response with best sensitivity, good reproducibility, low hysteresis, fast response time (15s) and recovery time (17s) at higher relative humidity levels (RH) between 11% and 98% in room temperature.

Keywords: β-cyclodextrin, green synthesis, humidity sensor, quartz crystal microbalance

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Authors: Faizan Sultan

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Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan have the potential to deliver services such as health, education, and rural development through targeting the most vulnerable communities of society. Having this significant importance, NGOs are facing numerous challenges in service delivery. So, there is a need to identify the challenges NGOs face in community development, particularly post-conflict development. The current study has analyzed the social and political constraints in development projects in the post-conflict region of the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of this study are “What are the social and political constraints faced by the nongovernmental organizations in the implementation of development aid Projects in post-conflict development of Swat and to examine the challenges in coordination mechanism between government departments, NGOs, and community in reconstruction activities”. This research is based upon both the quantitative and qualitative data that is being gathered from the NGO representatives, government officials, and community members who were involved in post-conflict development interventions in the Swat region. A purposive sampling technique was used to select respondents from the community members/activists (25 in number) and government and NGO officials (10 in number). Based on analysis against our objectives, NGOs have faced numerous constraints such as Insecurity, Negative Perceptions about NGOs, restrictions on women's mobility, government policies and regulations, lack of coordination and networking, trust deficit, and political interference while implementing their project interventions. These findings concluded that constraints have affected project implementation to a greater extent, including women's participation, involvement of marginalized populations, and equal distribution of resources. In the Swat region, NGOs cannot openly discuss sensitive projects such as human rights, gender-based projects, or women empowerment as these issues are very sensitive to the local community due to their cultural values. The community may not allow their females to go outside their homes as this region is a male-dominated society. Similarly, lack of communication and poor networking for the arrangements of the project meetings were also the major constraints.

Keywords: national disaster management authority, millennium development goals, provincial disaster management authority, provincial reconstruction, rehabilitation and settlement authority

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Authors: Yan Zhang

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Predictive maintenance is a technique to predict when an in-service machine will fail so that maintenance can be planned in advance. Analytics-driven predictive maintenance is gaining increasing attention in many industries such as manufacturing, utilities, aerospace, etc., along with the emerging demand of Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the maturity of technologies that support Big Data storage and processing. This study aims to build an end-to-end analytics solution that includes both real-time machine condition monitoring and machine learning based predictive analytics capabilities. The goal is to showcase a general predictive maintenance solution architecture, which suggests how the data generated from field machines can be collected, transmitted, stored, and analyzed. We use a publicly available aircraft engine run-to-failure dataset to illustrate the streaming analytics component and the batch failure prediction component. We outline the contributions of this study from four aspects. First, we compare the predictive maintenance problems from the view of the traditional reliability centered maintenance field, and from the view of the IoT applications. When evolving to the IoT era, predictive maintenance has shifted its focus from ensuring reliable machine operations to improve production/maintenance efficiency via any maintenance related tasks. It covers a variety of topics, including but not limited to: failure prediction, fault forecasting, failure detection and diagnosis, and recommendation of maintenance actions after failure. Second, we review the state-of-art technologies that enable a machine/device to transmit data all the way through the Cloud for storage and advanced analytics. These technologies vary drastically mainly based on the power source and functionality of the devices. For example, a consumer machine such as an elevator uses completely different data transmission protocols comparing to the sensor units in an environmental sensor network. The former may transfer data into the Cloud via WiFi directly. The latter usually uses radio communication inherent the network, and the data is stored in a staging data node before it can be transmitted into the Cloud when necessary. Third, we illustrate show to formulate a machine learning problem to predict machine fault/failures. By showing a step-by-step process of data labeling, feature engineering, model construction and evaluation, we share following experiences: (1) what are the specific data quality issues that have crucial impact on predictive maintenance use cases; (2) how to train and evaluate a model when training data contains inter-dependent records. Four, we review the tools available to build such a data pipeline that digests the data and produce insights. We show the tools we use including data injection, streaming data processing, machine learning model training, and the tool that coordinates/schedules different jobs. In addition, we show the visualization tool that creates rich data visualizations for both real-time insights and prediction results. To conclude, there are two key takeaways from this study. (1) It summarizes the landscape and challenges of predictive maintenance applications. (2) It takes an example in aerospace with publicly available data to illustrate each component in the proposed data pipeline and showcases how the solution can be deployed as a live demo.

Keywords: Internet of Things, machine learning, predictive maintenance, streaming data

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Authors: Ruchika Bagga, Mauro Falconieri, Venu Gopal Achanta, José M. F. Ferreira, Ashutosh Goel, Gopi Sharma

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Mixed valence Eu-doped nanocrystalline NaAlSiO4/NaY9Si6O26 glass-ceramics have been prepared by controlled crystallization of melt quenched bulk glasses. XRD and SEM techniques were employed to characterize the crystallization process of the precursor glass and their resultant glass-ceramics. Photoluminescence spectroscopy was used to analyze the formation of divalent europium (Eu2+) from Eu3+ ions during high temperature synthesis under ambient atmosphere and is explained on the basis of optical basicity model. The observed luminescence properties of Eu: NaY9Si6O26 are compared with that of well explored Eu: β-PbF2 nanocrystals and their marked differences are discussed.

Keywords: rare earth, oxyfluoride glasses, nano-crystalline glass-ceramics, photoluminescence spectroscopy

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Authors: Prasad Urvashi, Wynn Yezarni, Williams Shehan, Ravindran Arun

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Introduction: Primary health services are often the first point of contact that patients with mental illness have with the healthcare system. A number of tools have been developed to increase detection of depression in the context of primary care. However, one challenge amongst many includes utilizing these tools within the limited primary care consultation timeframe. Therefore, short questionnaires that screen for depression that are just as effective as more comprehensive diagnostic tools may be beneficial in improving detection rates of patients visiting a primary care setting. Objective: To develop and determine the sensitivity and specificity of a 2-Question Questionnaire (2-QQ) to screen for depression in in a suburban primary care clinic in Ragama, Sri Lanka. The purpose is to develop a short screening tool for depression that is culturally adapted in order to increase the detection of depression in the Sri Lankan patient population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving two steps. Step one: verbal administration of 2-QQ to patients by their primary care physician. Step two: completion of the Peradeniya Depression Scale, a validated diagnostic tool for depression, the patient after their consultation with the primary care physician. The results from the PDS were then correlated to the results from the 2-QQ for each patient to determine sensitivity and specificity of the 2-QQ. Results: A score of 1/+ on the 2-QQ was most sensitive but least specific. Thus, setting the threshold at this level is effective for correctly identifying depressed patients, but also inaccurately captures patients who are not depressed. A score of 6 on the 2-QQ was most specific but least sensitive. Setting the threshold at this level is effective for correctly identifying patients without depression, but not very effective at capturing patients with depression. Discussion: In the context of primary care, it may be worthwhile setting the 2-QQ screen at a lower threshold for positivity (such as a score of 1 or above). This would generate a high test sensitivity and thus capture the majority of patients that have depression. On the other hand, by setting a low threshold for positivity, patients who do not have depression but score higher than 1 on the 2-QQ will also be falsely identified as testing positive for depression. However, the benefits of identifying patients who present with depression may outweigh the harms of falsely identifying a non-depressed patient. It is our hope that the 2-QQ will serve as a quick primary screen for depression in the primary care setting and serve as a catalyst to identify and treat individuals with depression.

Keywords: depression, primary care, screening tool, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Muneeb Ahmad, Ali Raza

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A computational method inspired by the immune system (IS) is presented, leveraging its shared characteristics of robustness, fault tolerance, scalability, and adaptability with swarm intelligence. This method aims to showcase flocking behaviors in a swarm of robots (SR). The innate part of the IS offers a variety of reactive and probabilistic cell functions alongside its self-regulation mechanism which have been translated to enable swarming behaviors. Although, the research is specially focused on flocking behaviors in a variety of simulated environments using e-puck robots in a physics-based simulator (CoppeliaSim); the artificial innate immune system (AIIS) can exhibit other swarm behaviors as well. The effectiveness of the immuno-inspired approach has been established with extensive experimentations, for scalability and adaptability, using standard swarm benchmarks as well as the immunological regulatory functions (i.e., Dendritic Cells’ Maturity and Inflammation). The AIIS-based approach has proved to be a scalable and adaptive solution for emulating the flocking behavior of SR.

Keywords: artificial innate immune system, flocking swarm, immune system, swarm intelligence

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Authors: Triano Nurhikmat

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Along with the progress of science and technology, the development of the industrialized world in Indonesia took place very rapidly. This leads to a process of industrialization of society Indonesia faster with the establishment of the company and the workplace are diverse. Development of the industry relates to the activity of the worker. Where in these work activities do not cover the possibility of an impending crash on either the workers or on a construction project. The cause of the occurrence of industrial accidents was the fault of electrical damage, work procedures, and error technique. The method of an association rule is one of the main techniques in data mining and is the most common form used in finding the patterns of data collection. In this research would like to know how relations of the association between the incidence of any industrial accidents. Therefore, by using methods of analysis association rule patterns associated with combination obtained two iterations item set (2 large item set) when every factor of industrial accidents with a West Jakarta so industrial accidents caused by the occurrence of an electrical value damage = 0.2 support and confidence value = 1, and the reverse pattern with value = 0.2 support and confidence = 0.75.

Keywords: association rule, data mining, industrial accidents, rules

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Authors: Aayushi Pandey, Manoj Kumar Pandey, Ashutosh Tiwari, Kireet Kumar

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Glaciers play an important role in climate change and are sensitive phenomena of global climate change scenario. Glaciers in Himalayas are unique as they are predominantly valley type and are located in tropical, high altitude regions. These glaciers are often covered with debris which greatly affects ablation rate of glaciers and work as a sensitive indicator of glacier health. The aim of this study is to map high altitude Glacier surface with a focus on glacial lake and debris estimation using different techniques in Nagling glacier of dhauliganga basin in Himalayan region. Different Image Classification techniques i.e. thresholding on different band ratios and supervised classification using maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) have been used on high resolution sentinel 2A level 1c satellite imagery of 14 October 2017.Here Near Infrared (NIR)/Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) ratio image was used to extract the glaciated classes (Snow, Ice, Ice Mixed Debris) from other non-glaciated terrain classes. SWIR/BLUE Ratio Image was used to map valley rock and Debris while Green/NIR ratio image was found most suitable for mapping Glacial Lake. Accuracy assessment was performed using high resolution (3 meters) Planetscope Imagery using 60 stratified random points. The overall accuracy of MLC was 85 % while the accuracy of Band Ratios was 96.66 %. According to Band Ratio technique total areal extent of glaciated classes (Snow, Ice ,IMD) in Nagling glacier was 10.70 km2 nearly 38.07% of study area comprising of 30.87 % Snow covered area, 3.93% Ice and 3.27 % IMD covered area. Non-glaciated classes (vegetation, glacial lake, debris and valley rock) covered 61.93 % of the total area out of which valley rock is dominant with 33.83% coverage followed by debris covering 27.7 % of the area in nagling glacier. Glacial lake and Debris were accurately mapped using Band ratio technique Hence, Band Ratio approach appears to be useful for the mapping of debris covered glacier in Himalayan Region.

Keywords: band ratio, Dhauliganga basin, glacier mapping, Himalayan region, maximum likelihood classifier (MLC), Sentinel-2 satellite image

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Authors: Mohammed Hussein, Abualseoud Hanani

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In Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation system, routing data from the source all the way to the destination constitutes a daunting challenge because LEO satellite constellation resources are spare and the high speed movement of LEO satellites results in a highly dynamic network topology. This situation limits the applicability of traditional routing approaches that rely on exchanging topology information upon change or setup of a connection. Consequently, in recent years, many routing algorithms and implementation strategies for satellite constellation networks with Inter Satellite Links (ISLs) have been proposed. In this article, we summarize and classify some of the most representative solutions according to their objectives, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, with a look into the future, we present some of the new challenges and opportunities for LEO satellite constellations in general and routing protocols in particular.

Keywords: LEO satellite constellations, dynamic topology, IP routing, inter-satellite-links

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Authors: Bruno Baptista, Andreia S. R. Oliveira, Patricia V. Mendonca, Jorge F. J. Coelho, Fani Sousa

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Drug delivery systems are designed to allow adequate protection and controlled delivery of drugs to specific locations. These systems aim to reduce side effects and control the biodistribution profile of drugs, thus improving therapeutic efficacy. This study involved the synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles, based on amphiphilic diblock copolymers, comprising a biocompatible, poly (oligo (ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate (POEOMA) as hydrophilic segment and a pH-sensitive block, the poly (2-diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDPA). The objective of this work was the development of polymeric pH-responsive nanoparticles to encapsulate and carry small RNAs as a model to further develop non-coding RNAs delivery systems with therapeutic value. The responsiveness of PDPA to pH allows the electrostatic interaction of these copolymers with nucleic acids at acidic pH, as a result of the protonation of the tertiary amine groups of this polymer at pH values below its pKa (around 6.2). Initially, the molecular weight parameters and chemical structure of the block copolymers were determined by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, respectively. Then, the complexation with small RNAs was verified, generating polyplexes with sizes ranging from 300 to 600 nm and with encapsulation efficiencies around 80%, depending on the molecular weight of the polymers, their composition, and concentration used. The effect of pH on the morphology of nanoparticles was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) being verified that at higher pH values, particles tend to lose their spherical shape. Since this work aims to develop systems for the delivery of non-coding RNAs, studies on RNA protection (contact with RNase, FBS, and Trypsin) and cell viability were also carried out. It was found that they induce some protection against constituents of the cellular environment and have no cellular toxicity. In summary, this research work contributes to the development of pH-sensitive polymers, capable of protecting and encapsulating RNA, in a relatively simple and efficient manner, to further be applied on drug delivery to specific sites where pH may have a critical role, as it can occur in several cancer environments.

Keywords: drug delivery systems, pH-responsive polymers, POEOMA-b-PDPA, small RNAs

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Authors: Rajashree Bothale, Venkateswara Rao

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Indian Himalayas also known as third pole with 0.9 Million SQ km area, contain the largest reserve of ice and snow outside poles and affect global climate and water availability in the perennial rivers. The variations in the extent of snow are indicative of climate change. The snow melt is sensitive to climate change (warming) and also an influencing factor to the climate change. A study of the spatio-temporal dynamics of snow cover and melt/freeze conditions is carried out using space based observations in visible and microwave bands. An analysis period of 2003 to 2015 is selected to identify and map the changes and trend in snow cover using Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) data. For mapping of wet snow, microwave data is used, which is sensitive to the presence of liquid water in the snow. The present study uses Ku-band scatterometer data from QuikSCAT and Oceansat satellites. The enhanced resolution images at 2.25 km from the 13.6GHz sensor are used to analyze the backscatter response to dry and wet snow for the period of 2000-2013 using threshold method. The study area is divided into three major river basins namely Brahmaputra, Ganges and Indus which also represent the diversification in Himalayas as the Eastern Himalayas, Central Himalayas and Western Himalayas. Topographic variations across different zones show that a majority of the study area lies in 4000–5500 m elevation range and the maximum percent of high elevated areas (>5500 m) lies in Western Himalayas. The effect of climate change could be seen in the extent of snow cover and also on the melt/freeze status in different parts of Himalayas. Melt onset day increases from east (March11+11) to west (May12+15) with large variation in number of melt days. Western Himalayas has shorter melt duration (120+15) in comparison to Eastern Himalayas (150+16) providing lesser time for melt. Eastern Himalaya glaciers are prone for enhanced melt due to large melt duration. The extent of snow cover coupled with the status of melt/freeze indicating solar radiation can be used as precursor for monsoon prediction.

Keywords: Indian Himalaya, Scatterometer, Snow Melt/Freeze, AWiFS, Cryosphere

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Authors: Hooman Torabifard

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In the last few years, with the progress of technology and computers and artificial intelligence entry into all kinds of scientific and industrial fields, the lifestyles of human life have changed and in general, the way of humans live on earth has many changes and development. Until now, some of the changes has occurred in the context of digital images and image processing and still continues. However, besides all the benefits, there have been disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is the multiplicity of images with high volume and data; the focus of this paper is on improving and developing a method for summarizing and enhancing the productivity of these images. The general method used for this purpose in this paper consists of a set of methods based on data obtained from image processing and using the PSO (Particle swarm optimization) algorithm. In the remainder of this paper, the method used is elaborated in detail.

Keywords: image summarization, particle swarm optimization, image threshold, image processing

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Authors: Oksana G. Cherednichenko, Anastasia L. Pilyugina, Sergey N.Lukashenko, Elena G. Gubitskaya

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The estimation of accumulated radiation doses in people professionally exposed to ionizing radiation was performed using methods of biological (chromosomal aberrations frequency in lymphocytes) and physical (radionuclides analysis in urine, whole-body radiation meter, individual thermoluminescent dosimeters) dosimetry. A group of 84 "A" category employees after their work in the territory of former Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan) was investigated. The dose rate in some funnels exceeds 40 μSv/h. After radionuclides determination in urine using radiochemical and WBC methods, it was shown that the total effective dose of personnel internal exposure did not exceed 0.2 mSv/year, while an acceptable dose limit for staff is 20 mSv/year. The range of external radiation doses measured with individual thermo-luminescent dosimeters was 0.3-1.406 µSv. The cytogenetic examination showed that chromosomal aberrations frequency in staff was 4.27±0.22%, which is significantly higher than at the people from non-polluting settlement Tausugur (0.87±0.1%) (р ≤ 0.01) and citizens of Almaty (1.6±0.12%) (р≤ 0.01). Chromosomal type aberrations accounted for 2.32±0.16%, 0.27±0.06% of which were dicentrics and centric rings. The cytogenetic analysis of different types group radiosensitivity among «professionals» (age, sex, ethnic group, epidemiological data) revealed no significant differences between the compared values. Using various techniques by frequency of dicentrics and centric rings, the average cumulative radiation dose for group was calculated, and that was 0.084-0.143 Gy. To perform comparative individual dosimetry using physical and biological methods of dose assessment, calibration curves (including own ones) and regression equations based on general frequency of chromosomal aberrations obtained after irradiation of blood samples by gamma-radiation with the dose rate of 0,1 Gy/min were used. Herewith, on the assumption of individual variation of chromosomal aberrations frequency (1–10%), the accumulated dose of radiation varied 0-0.3 Gy. The main problem in the interpretation of individual dosimetry results is reduced to different reaction of the objects to irradiation - radiosensitivity, which dictates the need of quantitative definition of this individual reaction and its consideration in the calculation of the received radiation dose. The entire examined contingent was assigned to a group based on the received dose and detected cytogenetic aberrations. Radiosensitive individuals, at the lowest received dose in a year, showed the highest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (5.72%). In opposite, radioresistant individuals showed the lowest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (2.8%). The cohort correlation according to the criterion of radio-sensitivity in our research was distributed as follows: radio-sensitive (26.2%) — medium radio-sensitivity (57.1%), radioresistant (16.7%). Herewith, the dispersion for radioresistant individuals is 2.3; for the group with medium radio-sensitivity — 3.3; and for radio-sensitive group — 9. These data indicate the highest variation of characteristic (reactions to radiation effect) in the group of radio-sensitive individuals. People with medium radio-sensitivity show significant long-term correlation (0.66; n=48, β ≥ 0.999) between the values of doses defined according to the results of cytogenetic analysis and dose of external radiation obtained with the help of thermoluminescent dosimeters. Mathematical models based on the type of violation of the radiation dose according to the professionals radiosensitivity level were offered.

Keywords: biodosimetry, chromosomal aberrations, ionizing radiation, radiosensitivity

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Authors: Cyril Agochi Okorowo

Abstract:

More than ever human activity relating to uncontrolled greenhouse gas (GHG) and its effects on the earth is gaining greater attention in the global academic and policy discussions. Activities of man have greatly influenced climate change over the years as a result of a consistent increase in the use of fossil fuel energy. Scientists and researchers globally are making significant and devoted efforts towards the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies that are harmless to the environment. One of such energy is solar energy with its source from the sun. There are currently two primary ways of harvesting this energy from the sun: through photovoltaic (PV) panels and through thermal collectors. This work discusses solar energy as the abundant renewable energy in the tropical Nigeria, processes of harvesting the energy and recommends solar energy as an alternative means of electric power generation in a time the demand for power in Nigeria supersedes supply.

Keywords: analysis, energy, design, solar

Procedia PDF Downloads 275

Authors: Hamisu Idi

Abstract:

The present study focuses on studying the impact of influencer recommendation in the quality of cement production. Exploratory research was done on monthly basis, where data were obtained from secondary source i.e. the record kept by an automated recompilation machine. The machine keeps all the records of the mills downtime which the process manager checks for validation and refer the fault (if any) to the department responsible for maintenance or measurement taking so as to prevent future occurrence. The findings indicated that the product of the Ashaka Cement Plc. were considered as qualitative, since all the production processes were found to be in control (preset specifications) with the exception of the natural cause of variation which is normal in the production process as it will not affect the outcome of the product. It is reduced to the bearest minimum since it cannot be totally eliminated. It is also hopeful that the findings of this study would be of great assistance to the management of Ashaka cement factory and the process manager in particular at various levels in the monitoring and implementation of statistical process control. This study is therefore of great contribution to the knowledge in this regard and it is hopeful that it would open more research in that direction.

Keywords: cement, quality, variation, assignable cause, common cause

Procedia PDF Downloads 240

Authors: Pallavi Srivastava, Ajay Singh

Abstract:

Hematological assay has used for evaluation of blood changes according to its environment. It’s studies employed to evaluate possible eco-toxic risk due to the exposure of chemicals and pesticides in aquatic organisms. Fishes serve as a sensitive bio-indicator, as changes occur in its surrounding environment. The aim of present study has two-folds first we observed that after exposure of two doses of each class of fungicide i.e. 1.11mg/l, 2.23mg/l for Propiconazole and 11.43mg/l, 22.87mg/l for Mancozeb show maximum blood changes. Second we conclude that toxic effects and blood changes induced by Propiconazole is greater than Mancozeb.

Keywords: hematological assay, fungicides, bio-indicator, eco-toxic risk

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Anne-Lena Kampen, Øivind Kure

Abstract:

Machine learning (ML) can be implemented in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as a central solution or distributed solution where the ML is embedded in the nodes. Embedding improves privacy and may reduce prediction delay. In addition, the number of transmissions is reduced. However, quality factors such as prediction accuracy, fault detection efficiency and coordinated control of the overall system suffer. Here, we discuss and highlight the trade-offs that should be considered when choosing between embedding and centralized ML, especially for multihop networks. In addition, we present estimations that demonstrate the energy trade-offs between embedded and centralized ML. Although the total network energy consumption is lower with central prediction, it makes the network more prone for partitioning due to the high forwarding load on the one-hop nodes. Moreover, the continuous improvements in the number of operations per joule for embedded devices will move the energy balance toward embedded prediction.

Keywords: central machine learning, embedded machine learning, energy consumption, local machine learning, wireless sensor networks, WSN

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Okorowo Cyril Agochi

Abstract:

More than ever human activity relating to uncontrolled greenhouse gas (GHG) and its effects on the earth is gaining greater attention in the global academic and policy discussions. Activities of man has greatly influenced climate change over the years as a result of consistent increase in the use of fossil fuel energy. Scientists and researchers globally are making significant and devoted efforts towards the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies that are harmless to the environment. One of such energy is solar energy with its source from the sun. There are currently two primary ways of harvesting this energy from the sun: through photovoltaic (PV) panels and through thermal collectors. This work discuses solar energy the abundant renewable energy in the tropical Nigeria, processes of harvesting and recommends same as an alternative means of electric power generation in a time the demand for power supersedes supply.

Keywords: electric, power, renewable energy, solar energy, sun, tropical

Procedia PDF Downloads 526

Authors: Sadia Ameen, M. Nazim, Hyumg-Kee Seo, Hyung-Shik Shin

Abstract:

TiO2 nanotube (NT) arrays were grown on titanium (Ti) foil substrate by electrochemical anodic oxidation and utilized as working electrode to fabricate a highly sensitive and reproducible chemical sensor for the detection of harmful phenyl hydrazine chemical. The fabricated chemical sensor based on TiO2 NT arrays electrode exhibited high sensitivity of ~40.9 µA.mM-1.cm-2 and detection limit of ~0.22 µM with short response time (10s).

Keywords: TiO2 NT, phenyl hydrazine, chemical sensor, sensitivity, electrocatalytic properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 483

Authors: S. Besnaci, S. Bensoltane, H. Locif, S. Saadi

Abstract:

To validate an ecotoxicological approach to assessing toxicological effects caused by the oxide powder of nano-iron Fe2O3, we searched in the ecotoxicology laboratory cell bodies bio accumulators and bio-indicators of soil pollution the snail Helix aspersa. In this study, we evaluated the toxicity of nano Fe2O3 during a very sensitive phase of development H.aspersa (embryonic stage). During embryonic development, we observed in treated with various concentrations of nano Fe2O3 (1.25 g/l, 1.5 g/l, and 2 g/l) compared to control, the deformation of the membrane of the egg and accumulation of this molecule at the rear of the egg proven by the photographs, as with the influence on the hatching percentage.

Keywords: eggs, embryotoxicity, Fe2O3, Helix aspersa, nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Sheela Tiwari, R. Naresh, R. Jha

Abstract:

The paper presents an investigation into the effect of neural network predictive control of UPFC on the transient stability performance of a multi-machine power system. The proposed controller consists of a neural network model of the test system. This model is used to predict the future control inputs using the damped Gauss-Newton method which employs ‘backtracking’ as the line search method for step selection. The benchmark 2 area, 4 machine system that mimics the behavior of large power systems is taken as the test system for the study and is subjected to three phase short circuit faults at different locations over a wide range of operating conditions. The simulation results clearly establish the robustness of the proposed controller to the fault location, an increase in the critical clearing time for the circuit breakers and an improved damping of the power oscillations as compared to the conventional PI controller.

Keywords: identification, neural networks, predictive control, transient stability, UPFC

Procedia PDF Downloads 360