Search results for: continuous cycle industrial technological processes

Authors: Mir Mohammad Badrul Hasan, Anwar Abdkader, Chokri Cherif

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With the increasing demand and use of carbon fibre reinforced composites (CFRC), disposal of the carbon fibres (CF) and end of life composite parts is gaining tremendous importance on the issue especially of sustainability. Furthermore, a number of processes (e. g. pyrolysis, solvolysis, etc.) are available currently to obtain recycled CF (rCF) from end-of-life CFRC. Since the CF waste or rCF are neither allowed to be thermally degraded nor landfilled (EU Directive 1999/31/EC), profitable recycling and re-use concepts are urgently necessary. Currently, the market for materials based on rCF mainly consists of random mats (nonwoven) made from short fibres. The strengths of composites that can be achieved from injection-molded components and from nonwovens are between 200-404 MPa and are characterized by low performance and suitable for non-structural applications such as in aircraft and vehicle interiors. On the contrary, spinning rCF to yarn constructions offers good potential for higher CFRC material properties due to high fibre orientation and compaction of rCF. However, no investigation is reported till yet on the direct comparison of the mechanical properties of thermoplastic CFRC manufactured from virgin CF filament yarn and spun yarns from staple rCF. There is a lack of understanding on the level of performance of the composites that can be achieved from hybrid yarns consisting of rCF and PA6 fibres. In this drop back, extensive research works are being carried out at the Textile Machinery and High-Performance Material Technology (ITM) on the development of new thermoplastic CFRC from hybrid yarns consisting of rCF. For this purpose, a process chain is developed at the ITM starting from fibre preparation to hybrid yarns manufacturing consisting of staple rCF by mixing with thermoplastic fibres. The objective is to apply such hybrid yarns for the manufacturing of load bearing textile reinforced thermoplastic CFRCs. In this paper, the development of innovative multi-component core-sheath hybrid yarn structures consisting of staple rCF and polyamide 6 (PA 6) on a DREF-3000 friction spinning machine is reported. Furthermore, Unidirectional (UD) CFRCs are manufactured from the developed hybrid yarns, and the mechanical properties of the composites such as tensile and flexural properties are analyzed. The results show that the UD composite manufactured from the developed hybrid yarns consisting of staple rCF possesses approximately 80% of the tensile strength and E-module to those produced from virgin CF filament yarn. The results show a huge potential of the DREF-3000 friction spinning process to develop composites from rCF for high-performance applications.

Keywords: recycled carbon fibres, hybrid yarn, friction spinning, thermoplastic composite

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Authors: O. E. Akinyemi, P. O. Alege, O. O. Ajayi, L. A. Amaghionyediwe, A. A. Ogundipe

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Nigeria as an oil-producing developing country in Africa is one of the many countries that had been subsidizing consumption of fossil fuel. Despite the numerous advantage of this policy ranging from increased energy access, fostering economic and industrial development, protecting the poor households from oil price shocks, political considerations, among others; they have been found to impose economic cost, wasteful, inefficient, create price distortions discourage investment in the energy sector and contribute to environmental pollution. These negative consequences coupled with the fact that the policy had not been very successful at achieving some of its stated objectives, led to a number of organisations and countries such as the Group of 7 (G7), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Energy Agency (IEA), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others call for global effort towards reforming fossil fuel subsidies. This call became necessary in view of seeking ways to harmonise certain existing policies which may by design hamper current effort at tackling environmental concerns such as climate change. This is in addition to driving a green growth strategy and low carbon development in achieving sustainable development. The energy sector is identified to play a vital role. This study thus investigates the prospects of using fuel subsidy reform as a viable tool in driving an economy that de-emphasizes carbon growth in Nigeria. The method used is the Johansen and Engle-Granger two-step Co-integration procedure in order to investigate the existence or otherwise of a long-run equilibrium relationship for the period 1971 to 2011. Its theoretical framework is rooted in the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis. In developing three case scenarios (case of subsidy payment, no subsidy payment and effective subsidy), findings from the study supported evidence of a long run sustainable equilibrium model. Also, estimation results reflected that the first and the second scenario do not significantly influence the indicator of environmental quality. The implication of this is that in reforming fuel subsidy to drive environmental quality for an economy like Nigeria, strong and effective regulatory framework (measure that was interacted with fuel subsidy to yield effective subsidy) is essential.

Keywords: environmental quality, fuel subsidy, green growth, low carbon growth strategy

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Authors: Flavien Marteau, Pedro Affonso Nóbrega, Pascal Biwole, Nicolas Autrusson, Iona De Bievre, Christian Beauger

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Effective water management is essential for the optimal performance of fuel cells. For this reason, many vehicle systems use a membrane humidifier, a passive device that humidifies the air before the cathode inlet. Although they offer good performance, humidifiers are voluminous, costly, and fragile, hence the desire to find an alternative. Direct water injection could be an option, although this method lacks maturity. It consists of injecting liquid water as a spray in the dry heated air coming out from the compressor. This work focuses on the evaluation of direct water injection and its performance compared to the membrane humidifier selected as a reference. Two architectures were experimentally tested to humidify an industrial 2 kW short stack made up of 20 cells of 150 cm² each. For the reference architecture, the inlet air is humidified with a commercial membrane humidifier. For the direct water injection architecture, a pneumatic nozzle was selected to generate a fine spray in the air flow with a Sauter mean diameter of about 20 μm. Initial performance was compared over the entire range of current based on polarisation curves. Then, the influence of various parameters impacting water management was studied, such as the temperature, the gas stoichiometry, and the water injection flow rate. The experimental results obtained confirm the possibility of humidifying the fuel cell using direct water injection. This study, however shows the limits of this humidification method, the mean cell voltage being significantly lower in some operating conditions with direct water injection than with the membrane humidifier. The voltage drop reaches 30 mV per cell (4 %) at 1 A/cm² (1,8 bara, 80 °C) and increases in more demanding humidification conditions. It is noteworthy that the heat of compression available is not enough to evaporate all the injected liquid water in the case of DWI, resulting in a mix of liquid and vapour water entering the fuel cell, whereas only vapour is present with the humidifier. Variation of the injection flow rate shows that part of the injected water is useless for humidification and seems to cross channels without reaching the membrane. The stack was successfully humidified thanks to direct water injection. Nevertheless, our work shows that its implementation requires substantial adaptations and may reduce the fuel cell stack performance when compared to conventional membrane humidifiers, but opportunities for optimisation have been identified.

Keywords: cathode humidification, direct water injection, membrane humidifier, proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Authors: Mária Ildikó Farkas

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Kokugaku of the Edo period can be seen as a key factor of defining cultural (and national) identity in the 18th and early 19th century based on Japanese cultural heritage. Kokugaku focused on Japanese classics, on exploring, studying and reviving (or even inventing) ancient Japanese language, literature, myths, history and also political ideology. ‘Japanese culture’ as such was distinguished from Chinese (and all other) cultures, ‘Japanese identity’ was thus defined. Meiji scholars used kokugaku conceptions of Japan to construct a modern national identity based on the premodern and culturalist conceptions of community. The Japanese cultural movement of the 18-19th centuries (kokugaku) of defining cultural and national identity before modernization can be compared not to the development of Western Europe (where national identity strongly attached to modern nation states) or other parts of Asia (where these emerged after the Western colonization), but rather with the ‘national awakening’ movements of the peoples of East Central Europe, a comparison which have not been dealt with in the secondary literature yet. The role of a common language, culture, history and myths in the process of defining cultural identity – following mainly Miroslav Hroch’s comparative and interdisciplinary theory of national development – can be examined compared to the movements of defining identity of the peoples of East Central Europe (18th-19th c). In the shadow of a cultural and/or political ‘monolith’ (China for Japan and Germany for Central Europe), before modernity, ethnic groups or communities started to evolve their own identities with cultural movements focusing on their own language and culture, thus creating their cultural identity, and in the end, a new sense of community, the nation. Comparing actual texts (‘narratives’) of the kokugaku scholars and Central European writers of the nation building period (18th and early 19th centuries) can reveal the similarities of the discourses of deliberate searches for identity. Similar motives of argument can be identified in these narratives: ‘language’ as the primary bearer of collective identity, the role of language in culture, ‘culture’ as the main common attribute of the community; and similar aspirations to explore, search and develop native language, ‘genuine’ culture, ‘original’ traditions. This comparative research offering ‘development patterns’ for interpretation can help us understand processes that may be ambiguously considered ‘backward’ or even ‘deleterious’ (e.g. cultural nationalism) or just ‘unique’. ‘Cultural identity’ played a very important role in the formation of national identity during modernization especially in the case of non-Western communities, who had to face the danger of losing their identities in the course of ‘Westernization’ accompanying modernization.

Keywords: cultural identity, Japanese modernization, kokugaku, national awakening

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Authors: Gebreselassie Sebhatleab

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According to the Global Peace Index report (GPI, 2023), global peacefulness has deteriorated by more than 0.42%. Old and new conflicts, COVID-19, and political and cultural polarization are the main drivers of conflicts in the world. The 2022 was the deadliest year for armed conflict in the history of the GPI. In Ethiopia, over half a million people died in the Tigray war, which was the largest conflict death event since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In total, 84 countries recorded an improvement, while 79 countries recorded a deterioration in peacefulness across the globe. The Russia-Ukraine war and its consequences were the main drivers of the deterioration in peacefulness globally. Both Russia and Ukraine are now ranked amongst the ten least peaceful countries, and Ukraine had the largest deterioration of any country in the 2023 GPI. In the same year, the global impact of violence on the economy was 17 percent, which was equivalent to 10.9% of global GDP. Besides, the brutal conflict in Tigray started in November. 2020 claimed more than half a million lives lost and displaced nearly 3 million people, along with widespread human rights violations and sexual violence has left deep damage on the population. The displaced people are still unable to return home because the western, southern and Eastern parts of Tigray are occupied by Eritrean and Amhara forces, despite the Pretoria Agreement. Currently, armed conflicts in Amhara in the Oromya regions are intensified, and human rights violations are being reported in both regions. Meanwhile, protests have been held by war-injured TDF members, IDPs and teachers in the Tigray region. Hence, the general objective of this project is to explore the challenges of peace-building processes in the border woredas of the Eastern Zone of the Tigray Region. Methodologically, the project will employ exploratory qualitative research designs to gather and analyze qualitative data. A purposive sampling technique will be applied to gather pertinent information from the key stakeholders. Open-ended interview questions will be prepared to gather relevant information about the challenges and perceptions of peacebuilding in the study area. Data will be analyzed using qualitative methods such as content analysis, narrative analysis and phenomenological analysis to deeply investigate the challenges of peace-building in the study woredas. Findings of this research project will be employed for program intervention to promote sustainable peace in the study area.

Keywords: peace building, conflcit and violence, political instability, insecurity

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Authors: Narjis Kahtoon

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The issue of the wage discrimination on the basis of gender and social problem has been a significant research problem for several decades. Whereas lots of have explored reasons for the persistence of an inequality in the wages of male and female, none has successfully explained away the entire differentiation. The wage discrimination on the basis of gender and social problem of working women is a global issue. Although inequality in political and economic and social make-up of countries all over the world, the gender wage discrimination, and social constraint is present. The aim of the research is to examine the gender wage discrimination and social constraint from an international perspective and to determine whether any pattern exists among cultural dimensions of a country and the man and women remuneration gap in Readymade Garment Sector of Pakistan. Population growth rate is significant indicator used to explain the change in population and play a crucial point in the economic development of a country. In Pakistan, readymade garment sector consists of small, medium and large sized firms. With an estimated 30 percent of the workforce in textile- Garment is females’. Readymade garment industry is a labor intensive industry and relies on the skills of individual workers and provides highest value addition in the textile sector. In the Garment sector, female workers are concentrated in poorly paid, labor-intensive down-stream production (readymade garments, linen, towels, etc.), while male workers dominate capital- intensive (ginning, spinning and weaving) processes. Gender wage discrimination and social constraint are reality in Pakistan Labor Market. This research allows us not only to properly detect the size of gender wage discrimination and social constraint but to also fully understand its consequences in readymade garment sector of Pakistan. Furthermore, research will evaluated this measure for the three main clusters like Lahore, Karachi, and Faisalabad. These data contain complete details of male and female workers and supervisors in the readymade garment sector of Pakistan. These sources of information provide a unique opportunity to reanalyze the previous finding in the literature. The regression analysis focused on the standard 'Mincerian' earning equation and estimates it separately by gender, the research will also imply the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (2001) to profile a country’s cultural status and compare those cultural dimensions to the wage inequalities. Readymade garment of Pakistan is one of the important sectors since its products have huge demand at home and abroad. These researches will a major influence on the measures undertaken to design a public policy regarding wage discrimination and social constraint in readymade garment sector of Pakistan.

Keywords: gender wage differentials, decomposition, garment, cultural

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Authors: S. Paszkiewicz, A. Zubkiewicz, A. Szymczyk, D. Pawlikowska, I. Irska, E. Piesowicz, A. Linares, T. A. Ezquerra

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Over the last century, the world has become increasingly dependent on oil as its main source of chemicals and energy. Driven largely by the strong economic growth of India and China, demand for oil is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. This growth in demand, combined with diminishing reserves, will require the development of new, sustainable sources for fuels and bulk chemicals. Biomass is an attractive alternative feedstock, as it is widely available carbon source apart from oil and coal. Nowadays, academic and industrial research in the field of polymer materials is strongly oriented towards bio-based alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics with enhanced properties for advanced applications. In this context, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), a biomass-based chemical product derived from lignocellulose, is one of the most high-potential biobased building blocks for polymers and the first candidate to replace the petro-derived terephthalic acid. FDCA has been identified as one of the top 12 chemicals in the future, which may be used as a platform chemical for the synthesis of biomass-based polyester. The aim of this study is to synthesize and characterize the multiblock copolymers containing rigid segments of poly(trimethylene 2,5-furanoate) (PTF) and soft segments of poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO) with excellent elastic properties or aliphatic polyesters of polycaprolactone (PCL). Two series of PTF based copolymers, i.e., PTF-block-PTMO-T and PTF-block-PCL-T, with different content of flexible segments were synthesized by means of a two-step melt polycondensation process and characterized by various methods. The rigid segments of PTF, as well as the flexible PTMO/or PCL ones, were randomly distributed along the chain. On the basis of 1H NMR, SAXS and WAXS, DSC an DMTA results, one can conclude that both phases were thermodynamically immiscible and the values of phase transition temperatures varied with the composition of the copolymer. The copolymers containing 25, 35 and 45wt.% of flexible segments (PTMO) exhibited elastomeric property characteristics. Moreover, with respect to the flexible segments content, the temperatures corresponding to 5%, 25%, 50% and 90% mass loss as well as the values of tensile modulus decrease with the increasing content of aliphatic polyether or aliphatic polyester in the composition.

Keywords: furan based polymers, multiblock copolymers, supramolecular structure, functional properties

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Authors: Agnetha Schuchardt, Jennifer Hartmann, Laura Schulte, Roman Peperhove, Lars Gerhold

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If critical infrastructures fail, even for a short period of time, it can have significant negative consequences for the affected population. This is especially true for the food sector that is strongly interlinked with other sectors like the power supply. A blackout could lead to several cities being without food supply for numerous days, simply because cash register systems do no longer work properly. Following the public opinion, securing the food supply in emergencies is considered a task of the state, however, in the German context, the key players are private enterprises and private households. Both are not aware of their responsibility and both cannot be forced to take any preventive measures prior to an emergency. This problem became evident to officials and politicians so that the law covering food security was revised in order to include private stakeholders into mitigation processes. The paper will present a scientific review of governmental and regulatory literature. The focus is the inclusion of the food industry through a law reform and the challenges that still exist. Together with legal experts, an analysis of regulations will be presented that explains the development of the law reform concerning food security and emergency storage in Germany. The main findings are that the existing public food emergency storage is out-dated, insufficient and too expensive. The state is required to protect food as a critical infrastructure but does not have the capacities to live up to this role. Through a law reform in 2017, new structures should to established. The innovation was to include the private sector into the civil defense concept since it has the required knowledge and experience. But the food industry is still reluctant. Preventive measures do not serve economic purposes – on the contrary, they cost money. The paper will discuss respective examples like equipping supermarkets with emergency power supply or self-sufficient cash register systems and why the state is not willing to cover the costs of these measures, but neither is the economy. The biggest problem with the new law is that private enterprises can only be forced to support food security if the state of emergency has occurred already and not one minute earlier. The paper will cover two main results: the literature review and an expert workshop that will be conducted in summer 2018 with stakeholders from different parts of the food supply chain as well as officials of the public food emergency concept. The results from this participative process will be presented and recommendations will be offered that show how the private economy could be better included into a modern food emergency concept (e. g. tax reductions for stockpiling).

Keywords: critical infrastructure, disaster control, emergency food storage, food security, private economy, resilience

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Authors: Dino Carpentras, Alejandro Dinkelberg, Michael Quayle

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Within agent-based modeling, opinion dynamics is the field that focuses on modeling people's opinions. In this prolific field, most of the literature is dedicated to the exploration of the two 'degrees of freedom' and how they impact the model’s properties (e.g., the average final opinion, the number of final clusters, etc.). These degrees of freedom are (1) the interaction rule, which determines how agents update their own opinion, and (2) the network topology, which defines the possible interaction among agents. In this work, we show that the third degree of freedom exists. This can be used to change a model's output up to 100% of its initial value or to transform two models (both from the literature) into each other. Since opinion dynamics models are representations of the real world, it is fundamental to understand how people’s opinions can be measured. Even for abstract models (i.e., not intended for the fitting of real-world data), it is important to understand if the way of numerically representing opinions is unique; and, if this is not the case, how the model dynamics would change by using different representations. The process of measuring opinions is non-trivial as it requires transforming real-world opinion (e.g., supporting most of the liberal ideals) to a number. Such a process is usually not discussed in opinion dynamics literature, but it has been intensively studied in a subfield of psychology called psychometrics. In psychometrics, opinion scales can be converted into each other, similarly to how meters can be converted to feet. Indeed, psychometrics routinely uses both linear and non-linear transformations of opinion scales. Here, we analyze how this transformation affects opinion dynamics models. We analyze this effect by using mathematical modeling and then validating our analysis with agent-based simulations. Firstly, we study the case of perfect scales. In this way, we show that scale transformations affect the model’s dynamics up to a qualitative level. This means that if two researchers use the same opinion dynamics model and even the same dataset, they could make totally different predictions just because they followed different renormalization processes. A similar situation appears if two different scales are used to measure opinions even on the same population. This effect may be as strong as providing an uncertainty of 100% on the simulation’s output (i.e., all results are possible). Still, by using perfect scales, we show that scales transformations can be used to perfectly transform one model to another. We test this using two models from the standard literature. Finally, we test the effect of scale transformation in the case of finite precision using a 7-points Likert scale. In this way, we show how a relatively small-scale transformation introduces both changes at the qualitative level (i.e., the most shared opinion at the end of the simulation) and in the number of opinion clusters. Thus, scale transformation appears to be a third degree of freedom of opinion dynamics models. This result deeply impacts both theoretical research on models' properties and on the application of models on real-world data.

Keywords: degrees of freedom, empirical validation, opinion scale, opinion dynamics

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Authors: Tran Thi Thuy Oanh, Nguyen Ngoc Bao Tran

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In the view of Cognitive Linguistics (CL), knowledge and experience of things and events are used by human beings in expressing concepts, especially in their daily life. The human conceptual system is considered to be fundamentally metaphorical in nature. It is also said that the way we think, what we experience, and what we do everyday is very much a matter of language. In fact, language is an integral factor of cognition in that CL is a family of broadly compatible theoretical approaches sharing the fundamental assumption. The relationship between language and thought, of course, has been addressed by many scholars. CL, however, strongly emphasizes specific features of this relation. By experiencing, we receive knowledge of lives. The partial things are ideal domains, we make use of all aspects of this domain in metaphorically understanding abstract targets. The paper refered to applying this theory on pragmatics lessons for major English students at University of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Da Nang, Viet Nam. We conducted the study with two third – year students groups studying English pragmatics lessons. To clarify this study, the data from these two classes were collected for analyzing linguistic perspectives in the view of CL and traditional concepts. Descriptive, analytic, synthetic, comparative, and contrastive methods were employed to analyze data from 50 students undergoing English pragmatics lessons. The two groups were taught how to transfer the meanings of expressions in daily life with the view of CL and one group used the traditional view for that. The research indicated that both ways had a significant influence on students' English translating and interpreting abilities. However, the traditional way had little effect on students' understanding, but the CL view had a considerable impact. The study compared CL and traditional teaching approaches to identify benefits and challenges associated with incorporating CL into the curriculum. It seeks to extend CL concepts by analyzing metaphorical expressions in daily conversations, offering insights into how CL can enhance language learning. The findings shed light on the effectiveness of applying CL in teaching and learning English pragmatics. They highlight the advantages of using metaphorical expressions from daily life to facilitate understanding and explore how CL can enhance cognitive processes in language learning in general and teaching English pragmatics to third-year students at the UFLS - UDN, Vietnam in personal. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the relationship between language, cognition, and learning. By emphasizing the metaphorical nature of human conceptual systems, it offers insights into how CL can enrich language teaching practices and enhance students' comprehension of abstract concepts.

Keywords: cognitive linguisitcs, lakoff and johnson, pragmatics, UFLS

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Authors: Alba Ballester Ciuró, Marc Pares Franzi

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While coming decades are likely to see a higher flood risk in Europe and greater socio-economic damages, traditional flood risk management has become inefficient. In response to that, new approaches such as capacity building and public participation have recently been incorporated in natural hazards mitigation policy (i.e. Sendai Framework for Action, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and EU Floods Directive). By integrating capacity building and public participation, we present a research concerning the promotion of participatory social capacity building actions for flood risk mitigation at the local level. Social capacities have been defined as the resources and abilities available at individual and collective level that can be used to anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from and adapt to external stressors. Social capacity building is understood as a process of identifying communities’ social capacities and of applying collaborative strategies to improve them. This paper presents a proposal of systematization of participatory social capacity building process for flood risk mitigation, and its implementation in a high risk of flooding area in the Ebro river basin: Ribera Alta del Ebro. To develop this process, we designed and tested a tool that allows measuring and building five types of social capacities: knowledge, motivation, networks, participation and finance. The tool implementation has allowed us to assess social capacities in the area. Upon the results of the assessment we have developed a co-decision process with stakeholders and flood risk management authorities on which participatory activities could be employed to improve social capacities for flood risk mitigation. Based on the results of this process, and focused on the weaker social capacities, we developed a set of participatory actions in the area oriented to general public and stakeholders: informative sessions on flood risk management plan and flood insurances, interpretative river descents on flood risk management (with journalists, teachers, and general public), interpretative visit to the floodplain, workshop on agricultural insurance, deliberative workshop on project funding, deliberative workshops in schools on flood risk management (playing with a flood risk model). The combination of obtaining data through a mixed-methods approach of qualitative inquiry and quantitative surveys, as well as action research through co-decision processes and pilot participatory activities, show us the significant impact of public participation on social capacity building for flood risk mitigation and contributes to the understanding of which main factors intervene in this process.

Keywords: flood risk management, public participation, risk reduction, social capacities, vulnerability assessment

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Authors: Suparna Bagchi

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Education as a discipline will probably be shaped by the importance it places on a conceptual, curricular, and pedagogical need to shift the emphasis toward transformative classrooms working for positive change through cultural diversity. Awareness of cultural diversity and race equality has heightened following George Floyd’s killing in the USA in 2020. This increasing awareness is particularly relevant in areas of historically low ethnic diversity which have lately experienced a rise in ethnic minority populations and where inclusive growth is a challenge. This research study aims to explore the perspectives of practitioners, students, and parents towards multiculturalism in four South West England primary schools. A qualitative case study methodology has been adopted framed by sociocultural theory. Data were collected through virtually conducted semi-structured interviews with school practitioners and parents, observation of students’ classroom activities, and documentary analysis of classroom displays. Although one-third of the school population includes ethnically diverse children, BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) characters featured in children's books published in Britain in 2019 were almost invisible, let alone a BAME main character. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) are vocal about extending the Curriculum beyond the academic and technical arenas for pupils’ broader development and creation of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity. However, race equality and community cohesion which could help in the students’ broader development are not Ofsted’s school inspection criteria. The absence of culturally diverse content in the school curriculum highlighted by the 1985 Swann Report and 2007 Ajegbo Report makes England’s National Curriculum look like a Brexit policy three decades before Brexit. A revised National Curriculum may be the starting point with the teachers as curriculum framers playing a significant part. The task design is crucial where teachers can place equal importance on the interwoven elements of “how”, “what” and “why” the task is taught. Teachers need to build confidence in encouraging difficult conversations around racism, fear, indifference, and ignorance breaking the stereotypical barriers, thus helping to create students’ conception of a multicultural Britain. Research showed that trainee teachers in predominantly White areas often exhibit confined perspectives while educating children. Irrespective of the geographical location, school teachers can be equipped with culturally responsive initial and continuous professional development necessary to impart multicultural education. This may aid in the reduction of employees’ unconscious bias. This becomes distinctly pertinent to avoid horrific cases in the future like the recent one in Hackney where a Black teenager was strip-searched during period wrongly suspected of cannabis possession. Early research findings show participants’ eagerness for more ethnic diversity content incorporated in teaching and learning. However, schools are considerably dependent on the knowledge-focused Primary National Curriculum in England. Moreover, they handle issues around the intersectionality of disability, poverty, and gender. Teachers were trained in times when foregrounding ethnicity matters was not happening. Therefore, preoccupied with Curriculum requirements, intersectionality issues, and teacher preparations, schools exhibit an incapacity due to which keeping momentum on ethnic diversity is somewhat endangered.

Keywords: case study, curriculum decolonisation, inclusive education, multiculturalism, qualitative research in Covid19 times

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Authors: Hila Levi

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Respect for human rights is a fundamental element of the European Union's (EU) identity and law. Surprisingly, however, the protection of human rights has been significantly restricted in the austerity programs ordered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) (often labeled 'the Troika') in return for financial aid to the crisis-hit countries. This paper focuses on the role of the ECB in the crisis management. While other international financial institutions, such as the IMF or the World Bank, may opt to neglect human rights obligations, one might expect a greater respect of human rights from the ECB, which is bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, this paper argues that ECB officials made no significant effort to protect human rights or strike an adequate balance between competing financial and human rights needs while coping with the crisis. ECB officials were preoccupied with the need to stabilize the economy and prevent a collapse of the Eurozone, and paid only marginal attention to human rights concerns in the design and implementation of Troikas' programs. This paper explores the role of Organizational Culture (OC) in explaining this marginalization. While International Relations (IR) research on Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) behavior has traditionally focused on external interests of powerful member states, and on national and economic considerations, this study focuses on particular institutions' internal factors and independent processes. OC characteristics have been identified in OC literature as an important determinant of organizational behavior. This paper suggests that cultural characteristics are also vital for the examination of IGOs, and particularly for understanding the ECB's behavior during the crisis. In order to assess the OC of the ECB and the impact it had on its policies and decisions during the Eurozone crisis, the paper uses the results of numerous qualitative interviews conducted with high-ranking officials and staff members of the ECB involved in the crisis management. It further reviews primary sources of the ECB (such as ECB statutes, and the Memoranda of Understanding signed between the crisis countries and the Troika), and secondary sources (such as the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Austerity measures and economic, social, and cultural rights). It thus analyzes the interaction between the ECBs culture and the almost complete absence of human rights considerations in the Eurozone crisis resolution scheme. This paper highlights the importance and influence of internal ideational factors on IGOs behavior. From a more practical perspective, this paper may contribute to understanding one of the obstacles in the process of human rights implementation in international organizations, and provide instruments for better protection of social and economic rights.

Keywords: European central bank, eurozone crisis, intergovernmental organizations, organizational culture

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Authors: Kedar J. Mahadeshwar

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Concept introduction: This paper talks about how an innovative cloud based analytics enabled solution that could address a major industry challenge that is approaching all of us globally faster than what one would think. The world of supply chain for drugs and devices is changing today at a rapid speed. In the US, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) is a new law for Tracing, Verification and Serialization phasing in starting Jan 1, 2015 for manufacturers, repackagers, wholesalers and pharmacies / clinics. Similarly we are seeing pressures building up in Europe, China and many countries that would require an absolute traceability of every drug and device end to end. Companies (both manufacturers and distributors) can use this opportunity not only to be compliant but to differentiate themselves over competition. And moreover a country such as UAE can be the leader in coming up with a global solution that brings innovation in this industry. Problem definition and timing: The problem of counterfeit drug market, recognized by FDA, causes billions of dollars loss every year. Even in UAE, the concerns over prevalence of counterfeit drugs, which enter through ports such as Dubai remains a big concern, as per UAE pharma and healthcare report, Q1 2015. Distribution of drugs and devices involves multiple processes and systems that do not talk to each other. Consumer confidence is at risk due to this lack of traceability and any leading provider is at risk of losing its reputation. Globally there is an increasing pressure by government and regulatory bodies to trace serial numbers and lot numbers of every drug and medical devices throughout a supply chain. Though many of large corporations use some form of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, it is far from having a capability to trace a lot and serial number beyond the enterprise and making this information easily available real time. Solution: The solution here talks about a service provider that allows all subscribers to take advantage of this service. The solution allows a service provider regardless of its physical location, to host this cloud based traceability and analytics solution of millions of distribution transactions that capture lots of each drug and device. The solution platform will capture a movement of every medical device and drug end to end from its manufacturer to a hospital or a doctor through a series of distributor or retail network. The platform also provides advanced analytics solution to do some intelligent reporting online. Why Dubai? Opportunity exists with huge investment done in Dubai healthcare city also with using technology and infrastructure to attract more FDI to provide such a service. UAE and countries similar will be facing this pressure from regulators globally in near future. But more interestingly, Dubai can attract such innovators/companies to run and host such a cloud based solution and become a hub of such traceability globally.

Keywords: cloud, pharmaceutical, supply chain, tracking

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Authors: Henda Gnakate Biba, Ndassa Mouafon Issa

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Dictionaries modeled on the Western model [tonic accent languages] are not suitable and do not account for tonal languages phonologically, which is why the [prosodic and phonological] ethnographic dictionary was designed. It is a glossary that expresses the tones and the rhythm of words. It recreates exactly the speaking or singing of a tonal language, and allows the non-speaker of this language to pronounce the words as if they were a native. It is a dictionary adapted to tonal languages. It was built from ethnomusicological theorems and phonological processes, according to Jean. J. Rousseau 1776 hypothesis /To say and to sing were once the same thing/. Each word in the French dictionary finds its corresponding language, ekaη. And each word ekaη is written on a musical staff. This ethnographic dictionary is also an inventive, original and innovative research thesis, but it is also an inventive, original and innovative research thesis. A contribution to the theoretical, musicological, ethno musicological and linguistic conceptualization of languages, giving rise to the practice of interlocution between the social and cognitive sciences, the activities of artistic creation and the question of modeling in the human sciences: mathematics, computer science, translation automation and artificial intelligence. When you apply this theory to any text of a folksong of a world-tone language, you do not only piece together the exact melody, rhythm, and harmonies of that song as if you knew it in advance but also the exact speaking of this language. The author believes that the issue of the disappearance of tonal languages and their preservation has been structurally resolved, as well as one of the greatest cultural equations related to the composition and creation of tonal, polytonal and random music. The experimentation confirming the theorization designed a semi-digital, semi-analog application which translates the tonal languages of Africa (about 2,100 languages) into blues, jazz, world music, polyphonic music, tonal and anatonal music and deterministic and random music). To test this application, I use a music reading and writing software that allows me to collect the data extracted from my mother tongue, which is already modeled in the musical staves saved in the ethnographic (semiotic) dictionary for automatic translation ( volume 2 of the book). Translation is done (from writing to writing, from writing to speech and from writing to music). Mode of operation: you type a text on your computer, a structured song (chorus-verse), and you command the machine a melody of blues, jazz and, world music or, variety etc. The software runs, giving you the option to choose harmonies, and then you select your melody.

Keywords: music, language, entenglement, science, research

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Authors: Antonina A. Shumakova, Sergey A. Khotimchenko

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The relevance of research is associated, on the one hand, with an ever-increasing volume of production and the expansion of the scope of application of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), and on the other hand, with the lack of sufficient scientific information on the nature of the interactions of nanoparticles (NPs) with components of biogenic and abiogenic origin. In particular, studying the effect of ENMs (TiO2 NPs, SiO2 NPs, Al2O3 NPs, fullerenol) on the toxicometric characteristics of common contaminants such as lead and cadmium is an important hygienic task, given the high probability of their joint presence in food products. Data were obtained characterizing a multidirectional change in the toxicity of model toxicants when they are co-administered with various types of ENMs. One explanation for this fact is the difference in the adsorption capacity of ENMs, which was further studied in in vitro studies. For this, a method was proposed based on in vitro modeling of conditions simulating the environment of the small intestine. It should be noted that the obtained data are in good agreement with the results of in vivo experiments: - with the combined administration of lead and TiO2 NPs, there were no significant changes in the accumulation of lead in rat liver; in other organs (kidneys, spleen, testes and brain), the lead content was lower than in animals of the control group; - studying the combined effect of lead and Al2O3 NPs, a multiple and significant increase in the accumulation of lead in rat liver was observed with an increase in the dose of Al2O3 NPs. For other organs, the introduction of various doses of Al2O3 NPs did not significantly affect the bioaccumulation of lead; - with the combined administration of lead and SiO2 NPs in different doses, there was no increase in lead accumulation in all studied organs. Based on the data obtained, it can be assumed that at least three scenarios of the combined effects of ENMs and chemical contaminants on the body: - ENMs quite firmly bind contaminants in the gastrointestinal tract and such a complex becomes inaccessible (or inaccessible) for absorption; in this case, it can be expected that the toxicity of both ENMs and contaminants will decrease; - the complex formed in the gastrointestinal tract has partial solubility and can penetrate biological membranes and / or physiological barriers of the body; in this case, ENMs can play the role of a kind of conductor for contaminants and, thus, their penetration into the internal environment of the body increases, thereby increasing the toxicity of contaminants; - ENMs and contaminants do not interact with each other in any way, therefore the toxicity of each of them is determined only by its quantity and does not depend on the quantity of another component. Authors hypothesized that the degree of adsorption of various elements on the surface of ENMs may be a unique characteristic of their action, allowing a more accurate understanding of the processes occurring in a living organism.

Keywords: absorption, cadmium, engineered nanomaterials, lead

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Authors: Sharon Jackson, Lynn Kelly

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This paper proposes a conceptual review of the interdisciplinary literature which has theorised the concept of ‘children’s voices’. The primary aim is to identify and consider the theoretical relevance of conceptual thought on ‘children’s voices’ for research and practice in child protection contexts. Attending to the ‘voice of the child’ has become a core principle of social work practice in contemporary child protection contexts. Discourses of voice permeate the legislative, policy and practice frameworks of child protection practices within the UK and internationally. Voice is positioned within a ‘child-centred’ moral imperative to ‘hear the voices’ of children and take their preferences and perspectives into account. This practice is now considered to be central to working in a child-centered way. The genesis of this call to voice is revealed through sociological analysis of twentieth-century child welfare reform as rooted inter alia in intersecting political, social and cultural discourses which have situated children and childhood as cites of state intervention as enshrined in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by the UK government in 1991 and more specifically Article 12 of the convention. From a policy and practice perspective, the professional ‘capturing’ of children’s voices has come to saturate child protection practice. This has incited a stream of directives, resources, advisory publications and ‘how-to’ guides which attempt to articulate practice methods to ‘listen’, ‘hear’ and above all – ‘capture’ the ‘voice of the child’. The idiom ‘capturing the voice of the child’ is frequently invoked within the literature to express the requirements of the child-centered practice task to be accomplished. Despite the centrality of voice, and an obsession with ‘capturing’ voices, evidence from research, inspection processes, serious case reviews, child abuse and death inquires has consistently highlighted professional neglect of ‘the voice of the child’. Notable research studies have highlighted the relative absence of the child’s voice in social work assessment practices, a troubling lack of meaningful engagement with children and the need to more thoroughly examine communicative practices in child protection contexts. As a consequence, the project of capturing ‘the voice of the child’ has intensified, and there has been an increasing focus on developing methods and professional skills to attend to voice. This has been guided by a recognition that professionals often lack the skills and training to engage with children in age-appropriate ways. We argue however that the problem with ‘capturing’ and [re]representing ‘voice’ in child protection contexts is, more fundamentally, a failure to adequately theorise the concept of ‘voice’ in the ‘voice of the child’. For the most part, ‘The voice of the child’ incorporates psychological conceptions of child development. While these concepts are useful in the context of direct work with children, they fail to consider other strands of sociological thought, which position ‘the voice of the child’ within an agentic paradigm to emphasise the active agency of the child.

Keywords: child-centered, child protection, views of the child, voice of the child

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Authors: Kamaran Fathulla

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Human creativity knows no bounds. More than a millennia ago humans have expressed their knowledge on cave walls and on clay artefacts. Using visuals such as diagrams and paintings have always provided us with a natural and intuitive medium for expressing such creativity. Making sense of human generated visualisation has been influenced by western scientific philosophies which are often reductionist in their nature. Theoretical frameworks such as those delivered by Peirce dominated our views of how to make sense of visualisation where a visual is seen as an emergent property of our thoughts. Others have reduced the richness of human-generated visuals to mere shapes drawn on a piece of paper or on a screen. This paper introduces an alternate framework where the centrality of human functioning is given explicit and richer consideration through the multi aspectual philosophical works of Herman Dooyeweerd. Dooyeweerd's framework of understanding reality was based on fifteen aspects of reality, each having a distinct core meaning. The totality of the aspects formed a ‘rainbow’ like spectrum of meaning. The thesis of this approach is that meaningful human functioning in most cases involves the diversity of all aspects working in synergy and harmony. Illustration of the foundations and applicability of this approach is underpinned in the case of humans use of diagramming for creative purposes, particularly within an educational context. Diagrams play an important role in education. Students and lecturers use diagrams as a powerful tool to aid their thinking. However, research into the role of diagrams used in education continues to reveal difficulties students encounter during both processes of interpretation and construction of diagrams. Their main problems shape up students difficulties with diagrams. The ever-increasing diversity of diagrams' types coupled with the fact that most real-world diagrams often contain a mix of these different types of diagrams such as boxes and lines, bar charts, surfaces, routes, shapes dotted around the drawing area, and so on with each type having its own distinct set of static and dynamic semantics. We argue that the persistence of these problems is grounded in our existing ways of understanding diagrams that are often reductionist in their underpinnings driven by a single perspective or formalism. In this paper, we demonstrate the limitations of these approaches in dealing with the three problems. Consequently, we propose, discuss, and demonstrate the potential of a nonreductionist framework for understanding diagrams based on Symbolic and Spatial Mappings (SySpM) underpinned by Dooyeweerd philosophy. The potential of the framework to account for the meaning of diagrams is demonstrated by applying it to a real-world case study physics diagram.

Keywords: SySpM, drawing style, mapping

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Authors: M. François, L. Sigot, C. Vallières

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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a real health issue, particularly in domestic indoor environments. Among these VOCs, acetaldehyde is frequently monitored in dwellings ‘air, especially due to smoking and spontaneous emissions from the new wall and soil coverings. It is responsible for respiratory complaints and is classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. Adsorption processes are commonly used to remove VOCs from the air. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a promising type of material for high adsorption performance. These hybrid porous materials composed of metal inorganic clusters and organic ligands are interesting thanks to their high porosity and surface area. The HKUST-1 (also referred to as MOF-199) is a copper-based MOF with the formula [Cu₃(BTC)₂(H₂O)₃]n (BTC = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate) and exhibits unsaturated metal sites that can be attractive sites for adsorption. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of HKUST-1 pretreatment on acetaldehyde adsorption. Thus, dynamic adsorption experiments were conducted in 1 cm diameter glass column packed with 2 cm MOF bed height. MOF were sieved to 630 µm - 1 mm. The feed gas (Co = 460 ppmv ± 5 ppmv) was obtained by diluting a 1000 ppmv acetaldehyde gas cylinder in air. The gas flow rate was set to 0.7 L/min (to guarantee a suitable linear velocity). Acetaldehyde concentration was monitored online by gas chromatography coupled with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Breakthrough curves must allow to understand the interactions between the MOF and the pollutant as well as the impact of the HKUST-1 humidity in the adsorption process. Consequently, different MOF water content conditions were tested, from a dry material with 7 % water content (dark blue color) to water saturated state with approximately 35 % water content (turquoise color). The rough material – without any pretreatment – containing 30 % water serves as a reference. First, conclusions can be drawn from the comparison of the evolution of the ratio of the column outlet concentration (C) on the inlet concentration (Co) as a function of time for different HKUST-1 pretreatments. The shape of the breakthrough curves is significantly different. The saturation of the rough material is slower (20 h to reach saturation) than that of the dried material (2 h). However, the breakthrough time defined for C/Co = 10 % appears earlier in the case of the rough material (0.75 h) compared to the dried HKUST-1 (1.4 h). Another notable difference is the shape of the curve before the breakthrough at 10 %. An abrupt increase of the outlet concentration is observed for the material with the lower humidity in comparison to a smooth increase for the rough material. Thus, the water content plays a significant role on the breakthrough kinetics. This study aims to understand what can explain the shape of the breakthrough curves associated to the pretreatments of HKUST-1 and which mechanisms take place in the adsorption process between the MOF, the pollutant, and the water.

Keywords: acetaldehyde, dynamic adsorption, HKUST-1, pretreatment influence

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Authors: Mihai Palade, Gina Cecilia Pistol, Mariana Stancu, Veronica Chedea, Ionelia Taranu

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Nutrition is an important determinant of general health status, with especially focus on prevention and/or attenuation of the inflammatory-associated pathologies. People with chronic kidney disease can experience chronic inflammation that can lead to cardiovascular disease and even an increased rate of death. There are important links between chronic kidney diseases, inflammation and nutritional strategies that may prevent or protect against undesirable inflammation and oxidative stress. The grape by-products either seeds or pomace are rich in polyphenols which may be beneficial in prevention of inflammatory, antioxidant and antimicrobial processes. As a model for studying the impact of grape seeds on renal inflammation and oxidative stress, we used in this study weaned piglets. After a feeding trial of 30 days with a control diet and an experimental diet containing 5% grape seed (GS), kidney samples were collected. In renal tissues were determined the expression and activity of important markers of immune respose and oxidative stress: pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, IFN-gamma), anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10), anti-oxidant enzymes (catalase CAT, superoxide dismutase SOD, glutathione peroxidise GPx) and important mediators belonging to nuclear receptors (NF-kB1, Nrf-2 and PPAR-gamma). Gene expression was evaluated by qPCR, whereas protein concentration was determined using proteomic techniques (ELISA). The activity of anti-oxidant enzymes was determined using specific kits. Our results showed that GS enriched in polyphenols does not have effect on TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-1 beta gene expression and protein concentration in kidney. By contrast, the gene expression and protein level of IL-8 and IFN-gamma were decreased in GS kidney. Anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 gene levels were increased in kidneys collected from GS piglets in comparison with controls, with no modification of protein levels between the two groups. The activities of anti-oxidant enzymes CAT and GPx were increased in kidney by GS, whereas SOD activity was unmodified in comparison with control samples. Also, the GS diet was associated with no modulation of mRNAs for nuclear receptors NF-kB1, Nrf-2 and PPAR-gamma gene expressions in kidneys. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that GS enriched in bioactive compounds such polyphenols could modulate inflammation and oxidative stress markers in kidney tissues. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the mechanism of action of GS compounds in case kidney inflammation associated with oxidative stress, and signalling molecules involved in these mechanisms.

Keywords: animal model, kidney inflammation, oxidative stress, grape seed

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Authors: Ram V. Mohan, John Rivas-Murillo, Ahmed Mohamed, Wayne D. Hodo

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Cementitious materials, an excellent example of highly complex, heterogeneous material systems, are cement-based systems that include cement paste, mortar, and concrete that are heavily used in civil infrastructure; though commonly used are one of the most complex in terms of the material morphology and structure than most materials, for example, crystalline metals. Processes and features occurring at the nanometer sized morphological structures affect the performance, deformation/failure behavior at larger length scales. In addition, cementitious materials undergo chemical and morphological changes gaining strength during the transient hydration process. Hydration in cement is a very complex process creating complex microstructures and the associated molecular structures that vary with hydration. A fundamental understanding can be gained through multi-scale level modeling for the behavior and properties of cementitious materials starting from the material chemistry level atomistic scale to further explore their role and the manifested effects at larger length and engineering scales. This predictive modeling enables the understanding, and studying the influence of material chemistry level changes and nanomaterial additives on the expected resultant material characteristics and deformation behavior. Atomistic-molecular dynamic level modeling is required to couple material science to engineering mechanics. Starting at the molecular level a comprehensive description of the material’s chemistry is required to understand the fundamental properties that govern behavior occurring across each relevant length scale. Material chemistry level models and molecular dynamics modeling and simulations are employed in our work to describe the molecular-level chemistry features of calcium-silicate-hydrate (CSH), one of the key hydrated constituents of cement paste, their associated deformation and failure. The molecular level atomic structure for CSH can be represented by Jennite mineral structure. Jennite has been widely accepted by researchers and is typically used to represent the molecular structure of the CSH gel formed during the hydration of cement clinkers. This paper will focus on our recent work on the shear and compressive deformation and failure behavior of CSH represented by Jennite mineral structure that has been widely accepted by researchers and is typically used to represent the molecular structure of CSH formed during the hydration of cement clinkers. The deformation and failure behavior under shear and compression loading deformation in traditional hydrated CSH; effect of material chemistry changes on the predicted stress-strain behavior, transition from linear to non-linear behavior and identify the on-set of failure based on material chemistry structures of CSH Jennite and changes in its chemistry structure will be discussed.

Keywords: cementitious materials, deformation, failure, material chemistry modeling

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Authors: Karolina Ordon, Sandrine Coste, Malgorzata Makowska-Janusik, Abdelhadi Kassiba

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Photocatalytic processes play key role in the production of a new source of energy (as hydrogen), design of self-cleaning surfaces or for the environment preservation. The most challenging task deals with the purification of water distinguished by high efficiency. In the mentioned process, organic pollutants in solutions are decomposed to the simple, non-toxic compounds as H2O and CO2. The most known photocatalytic materials are ZnO, CdS and TiO2 semiconductors with a particular involvement of TiO2 as an efficient photocatalysts even with a high band gap equal to 3.2 eV which exploit only UV radiation from solar emitted spectrum. However, promising material with visible light induced photoactivity was searched through the monoclinic polytype of BiVO4 which has energy gap about 2.4 eV. As required in heterogeneous photocatalysis, the high contact surface is required. Also, BiVO4 as photocatalyst can be optimized by increasing its surface area by achieving the mesoporous structure synthesize. The main goal of the present work consists in the synthesis and characterization of BiVO4 mesoporous thin film. The synthesis method based on sol-gel was carried out using a standard surfactants such as P123 and F127. The thin film was deposited by spin and dip coating method. Then, the structural analysis of the obtained material was performed thanks to X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. The surface of resulting structure was investigated using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The computer simulations based on modeling the optical and electronic properties of bulk BiVO4 by using DFT (density functional theory) methodology were carried out. The semiempirical parameterized method PM6 was used to compute the physical properties of BiVO4 nanostructures. The Raman and IR absorption spectra were also measured for synthesized mesoporous material, and the results were compared with the theoretical predictions. The simulations of nanostructured BiVO4 have pointed out the occurrence of quantum confinement for nanosized clusters leading to widening of the band gap. This result overcame the relevance of nanosized objects to harvest wide part of the solar spectrum. Also, a balance was searched experimentally through the mesoporous nature of the films devoted to enhancing the contact surface as required for heterogeneous catalysis without to lower the nanocrystallite size under some critical sizes inducing an increased band gap. The present contribution will discuss the relevant features of the mesoporous films with respect to their photocatalytic responses.

Keywords: bismuth vanadate, photocatalysis, thin film, quantum-chemical calculations

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Authors: Piotr Wisniewski, Sławomir Dykas

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Condensation has a negative impact on turbomachinery efficiency in many energy processes.In technical applications, it is often impossible to dry the working fluid at the nozzle inlet. One of the most popular working fluid is atmospheric air that always contains water in form of steam, liquid, or ice crystals. Moreover, it always contains some amount of suspended particles which influence the phase change process. It is known that the phenomena of evaporation or condensation are connected with release or absorption of latent heat, what influence the fluid physical properties and might affect the machinery efficiency therefore, the phase transition has to be taken under account. This researchpresents an attempt to evaluate the impact of solid and liquid particles suspended in the air on the expansion of moist air in a low expansion rate, i.e., with expansion rate, P≈1000s⁻¹. The numerical study supported by analytical and experimental research is presented in this work. The experimental study was carried out using an in-house experimental test rig, where nozzle was examined for different inlet air relative humidity values included in the range of 25 to 51%. The nozzle was tested for a supersonic flow as well as for flow with shock waves induced by elevated back pressure. The Schlieren photography technique and measurement of static pressure on the nozzle wall were used for qualitative identification of both condensation and shock waves. A numerical model validated against experimental data available in the literature was used for analysis of occurring flow phenomena. The analysis of the suspended particles number, diameter, and character (solid or liquid) revealed their connection with heterogeneous condensation importance. If the expansion of fluid without suspended particlesis considered, the condensation triggers so called condensation wave that appears downstream the nozzle throat. If the solid particles are considered, with increasing number of them, the condensation triggers upwind the nozzle throat, decreasing the condensation wave strength. Due to the release of latent heat during condensation, the fluid temperature and pressure increase, leading to the shift of normal shock upstream the flow. Owing relatively large diameters of the droplets created during heterogeneous condensation, they evaporate partially on the shock and continues to evaporate downstream the nozzle. If the liquid water particles are considered, due to their larger radius, their do not affect the expanding flow significantly, however might be in major importance while considering the compression phenomena as they will tend to evaporate on the shock wave. This research proves the need of further study of phase change phenomena in supersonic flow especially considering the interaction of droplets with the aerodynamic waves in the flow.

Keywords: aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, condensation, moist air, multi-phase flows

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Authors: M. El-haj, Z. Olama, H. Holail

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Single cell oils (SCOs) accumulated by oleaginous fungi have emerged as a potential alternative feedstock for biodiesel production. Five fungal strains were isolated from the Lebanese environment namely Fusarium oxysporum, Mucor hiemalis, Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus tamari, and Aspergillus niger that have been selected among 39 oleaginous strains for their potential ability to accumulate lipids (lipid content was more than 40% on dry weight basis). Wide variations were recorded in the environmental factors that lead to maximum lipid production by fungi under test and were cultivated under submerged fermentation on medium containing glucose as a carbon source. The maximum lipid production was attained within 6-8 days, at pH range 6-7, 24 to 48 hours age of seed culture, 4 to 6.107 spores/ml inoculum level and 100 ml culture volume. Eleven culture conditions were examined for their significance on lipid production using Plackett-Burman factorial design. Reducing sugars and nitrogen source were the most significant factors affecting lipid production process. Maximum lipid yield was noticed with 15.62, 14.48, 12.75, 13.68 and 20.41g/l for Fusarium oxysporum, Mucor hiemalis, Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus tamari, and Aspergillus niger respectively. A verification experiment was carried out to examine model validation and revealed more than 94% validity. The profile of extracted lipids from each fungal isolate was studied using thin layer chromatography (TLC) indicating the presence of monoacylglycerols, diaacylglycerols, free fatty acids, triacylglycerols and sterol esters. The fatty acids profiles were also determined by gas-chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Data revealed the presence of significant amount of oleic acid (29-36%), palmitic acid (18-24%), linoleic acid (26.8-35%), and low amount of other fatty acids in the extracted fungal oils which indicate that the fatty acid profiles were quite similar to that of conventional vegetable oil. The cost of lipid production could be further reduced with acid-pretreated lignocellulotic corncob waste, whey and date molasses to be utilized as the raw material for the oleaginous fungi. The results showed that the microbial lipid from the studied fungi was a potential alternative resource for biodiesel production.

Keywords: agro-industrial waste products, biodiesel, fatty acid, single cell oil, Lebanese environment, oleaginous fungi

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Authors: Teresa Shuk-Ching Poon

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This paper sets out to examine the changing employment relations practices in Hong Kong’s retail banking sector over a period of more than 10 years. The major objective of the research is to examine whether and to what extent local institutional influences have overshadowed global market forces in shaping strategic management decisions and employment relations practices in Hong Kong, with a view to drawing implications to comparative employment relations studies. Examining the changing pattern of employment relations, this paper finds the industrial relations strategic choice model (Kochan, McKersie and Cappelli, 1984) appropriate to use as a framework for the study. Four broad aspects of employment relations are examined, including work organisation and job design; staffing and labour adjustment; performance appraisal, compensation and employee development; and labour unions and employment relations. Changes in the employment relations practices in two multinational retail banks operated in Hong Kong are examined in detail. The retail banking sector in Hong Kong is chosen as a case to examine as it is a highly competitive segment in the financial service industry very much susceptible to global market influences. This is well illustrated by the fact that Hong Kong was hit hard by both the Asian and the Global Financial Crises. This sector is also subject to increasing institutional influences, especially after the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1997. The case study method is used as it is a suitable research design able to capture the complex institutional and environmental context which is the subject-matter to be examined in the paper. The paper concludes that operation of the retail banks in Hong Kong has been subject to both institutional and global market changes at different points in time. Information obtained from the two cases examined tends to support the conclusion that the relative significance of institutional as against global market factors in influencing retail banks’ operation and their employment relations practices is depended very much on the time in which these influences emerged and the scale and intensity of these influences. This case study highlights the importance of placing comparative employment relations studies within a context where employment relations practices in different countries or different regions/cities within the same country could be examined and compared over a longer period of time to make the comparison more meaningful.

Keywords: employment relations, institutional influences, global market forces, strategic management decisions, retail banks, Hong Kong

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Authors: Mir Md. Abdus Salam, Muhammad Mohsin, Pertti Pulkkinen, Paavo Pelkonen, Ari Pappinen

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Soil and water pollution caused by extensive mining practices can adversely affect environmental components, such as humans, animals, and plants. Despite a generally positive contribution to society, mining practices have become a serious threat to biological systems. As metals do not degrade completely, they require immobilization, toxicity reduction, or removal. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of lime and N100 (11-amino-1-hydroxyundecylidene) chelate amendment on the growth and phytoextraction potential of the willow variety Klara (S. viminalis × S. schwerinii × S. dasyclados) grown in soils heavily contaminated with copper (Cu). The plants were irrigated with tap or processed water (mine wastewater). The sequential extraction technique and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) tool were used to determine the extractable metals and evaluate the fraction of metals in the soil that could be potentially available for plant uptake. The results suggest that the combined effects of the contaminated soil and processed water inhibited growth parameter values. In contrast, the accumulation of Cu in the plant tissues was increased compared to the control. When the soil was supplemented with lime and N100; growth parameter and resistance capacity were significantly higher compared to unamended soil treatments, especially in the contaminated soil treatments. The combined lime- and N100-amended soil treatment produced higher growth rate of biomass, resistance capacity and phytoextraction efficiency levels relative to either the lime-amended or the N100-amended soil treatments. This study provides practical evidence of the efficient chelate-assisted phytoextraction capability of Klara and highlights its potential as a viable and inexpensive novel approach for in-situ remediation of Cu-contaminated soils and mine wastewaters. Abandoned agricultural, industrial and mining sites can also be utilized by a Salix afforestation program without conflict with the production of food crops. This kind of program may create opportunities for bioenergy production and economic development, but contamination levels should be examined before bioenergy products are used.

Keywords: copper, Klara, lime, N100, phytoextraction

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Authors: Angeliki Gkiouzeli, Christine Rotonda, Elise Eby, Claire Touchet, Marie-Jo Brennstuhl, Cyril Tarquinio

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Resilience is a psychological concept of possible relevance to the development and maintenance of chronic pain (CP). It refers to the ability of individuals to maintain reasonably healthy levels of physical and psychological functioning when exposed to an isolated and potentially highly disruptive event. Extensive research in recent years has supported the importance of this concept in the CP literature. Increased levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of perceived pain intensity and better mental health outcomes in adults with persistent pain. The ongoing project seeks to include the concept of pain-specific resilience in the French literature in order to provide more appropriate measures for assessing and understanding the complexities of CP in the near future. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no validated version of the pain-specific resilience measure, the Pain Resilience scale (PRS), for French-speaking populations. Therefore, the present work aims to address this gap, firstly by performing a linguistic and cultural translation of the scale into French and secondly by studying the internal validity and reliability of the PRS for French CP populations. The forward-translation-back translation methodology was used to achieve as perfect a cultural and linguistic translation as possible according to the recommendations of the COSMIN (Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments) group, and an online survey is currently conducted among a representative sample of the French population suffering from CP. To date, the survey has involved one hundred respondents, with a total target of around three hundred participants at its completion. We further seek to study the metric properties of the French version of the PRS, ''L’Echelle de Résilience à la Douleur spécifique pour les Douleurs Chroniques'' (ERD-DC), in French patients suffering from CP, assessing the level of pain resilience in the context of CP. Finally, we will explore the relationship between the level of pain resilience in the context of CP and other variables of interest commonly assessed in pain research and treatment (i.e., general resilience, self-efficacy, pain catastrophising, and quality of life). This study will provide an overview of the methodology used to address our research objectives. We will also present for the first time the main findings and further discuss the validity of the scale in the field of CP research and pain management. We hope that this tool will provide a better understanding of how CP-specific resilience processes can influence the development and maintenance of this disease. This could ultimately result in better treatment strategies specifically tailored to individual needs, thus leading to reduced healthcare costs and improved patient well-being.

Keywords: chronic pain, pain measure, pain resilience, questionnaire adaptation

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Authors: A. J. Cobley, L. Krishnan

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The demand for multi-functional lightweight materials in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, electronics is growing, and for this reason fibre-reinforced, epoxy polymer composites are being widely utilized. The fibre reinforcing material is mainly responsible for the strength and stiffness of the composites whilst the main role of the epoxy polymer matrix is to enhance the load distribution applied on the fibres as well as to protect the fibres from the effect of harmful environmental conditions. The superior properties of the fibre-reinforced composites are achieved by the best properties of both of the constituents. Although factors such as the chemical nature of the epoxy and how it is cured will have a strong influence on the properties of the epoxy matrix, the method of mixing and degassing of the resin can also have a significant impact. The production of a fibre-reinforced epoxy polymer composite will usually begin with the mixing of the epoxy pre-polymer with a hardener and accelerator. Mechanical methods of mixing are often employed for this stage but such processes naturally introduce air into the mixture, which, if it becomes entrapped, will lead to voids in the subsequent cured polymer. Therefore, degassing is normally utilised after mixing and this is often achieved by placing the epoxy resin mixture in a vacuum chamber. Although this is reasonably effective, it is another process stage and if a method of mixing could be found that, at the same time, degassed the resin mixture this would lead to shorter production times, more effective degassing and less voids in the final polymer. In this study the effect of four different methods for mixing and degassing of the pre-polymer with hardener and accelerator were investigated. The first two methods were manual stirring and magnetic stirring which were both followed by vacuum degassing. The other two techniques were ultrasonic mixing/degassing using a 40 kHz ultrasonic bath and a 20 kHz ultrasonic probe. The cured cast resin samples were examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM), optical microscope, and Image J analysis software to study morphological changes, void content and void distribution. Three point bending test and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were also performed to determine the thermal and mechanical properties of the cured resin. It was found that the use of the 20 kHz ultrasonic probe for mixing/degassing gave the lowest percentage voids of all the mixing methods in the study. In addition, the percentage voids found when employing a 40 kHz ultrasonic bath to mix/degas the epoxy polymer mixture was only slightly higher than when magnetic stirrer mixing followed by vacuum degassing was utilized. The effect of ultrasonic mixing/degassing on the thermal and mechanical properties of the cured resin will also be reported. The results suggest that low frequency ultrasound is an effective means of mixing/degassing a pre-polymer mixture and could enable a significant reduction in production times.

Keywords: degassing, low frequency ultrasound, polymer composites, voids

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Authors: Imed Feki, Faouzi Msahli

Abstract:

Selection of relevant parameters from a high dimensional process operation setting space is a problem frequently encountered in industrial process modelling. This paper presents a method for selecting the most relevant fabric physical parameters for each sensory quality feature. The proposed relevancy criterion has been developed using two approaches. The first utilizes a fuzzy sensitivity criterion by exploiting from experimental data the relationship between physical parameters and all the sensory quality features for each evaluator. Next an OWA aggregation procedure is applied to aggregate the ranking lists provided by different evaluators. In the second approach, another panel of experts provides their ranking lists of physical features according to their professional knowledge. Also by applying OWA and a fuzzy aggregation model, the data sensitivity-based ranking list and the knowledge-based ranking list are combined using our proposed percolation technique, to determine the final ranking list. The key issue of the proposed percolation technique is to filter automatically and objectively the relevant features by creating a gap between scores of relevant and irrelevant parameters. It permits to automatically generate threshold that can effectively reduce human subjectivity and arbitrariness when manually choosing thresholds. For a specific sensory descriptor, the threshold is defined systematically by iteratively aggregating (n times) the ranking lists generated by OWA and fuzzy models, according to a specific algorithm. Having applied the percolation technique on a real example, of a well known finished textile product especially the stonewashed denims, usually considered as the most important quality criteria in jeans’ evaluation, we separate the relevant physical features from irrelevant ones for each sensory descriptor. The originality and performance of the proposed relevant feature selection method can be shown by the variability in the number of physical features in the set of selected relevant parameters. Instead of selecting identical numbers of features with a predefined threshold, the proposed method can be adapted to the specific natures of the complex relations between sensory descriptors and physical features, in order to propose lists of relevant features of different sizes for different descriptors. In order to obtain more reliable results for selection of relevant physical features, the percolation technique has been applied for combining the fuzzy global relevancy and OWA global relevancy criteria in order to clearly distinguish scores of the relevant physical features from those of irrelevant ones.

Keywords: data sensitivity, feature selection, fuzzy logic, OWA operators, percolation technique

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Authors: Abulbasit G. Abdulsayid, Zinab F. Abdulla, Asma A. Omer

Abstract:

On the ground that the orifice plate is relatively inexpensive, requires very little maintenance and only calibrated during the occasion of plant turnaround, the orifice plate has turned to be in a real prevalent use in gas industry. Inaccuracy of measurement in the fiscal metering stations may highly be accounted to be the most vital factor for mischarges in the natural gas industry in Libya. A very trivial error in measurement can add up a fast escalating financial burden to the custodian transactions. The unaccounted gas quantity transferred annually via orifice plates in Libya, could be estimated in an extent of multi-million dollars. As the oil and gas wealth is the solely source of income to Libya, every effort is now being exerted to improve the accuracy of existing orifice metering facilities. Discharge coefficient has become pivotal in current researches undertaken in this regard. Hence, increasing the knowledge of the flow field in a typical orifice meter is indispensable. Recently and in a drastic pace, the CFD has become the most time and cost efficient versatile tool for in-depth analysis of fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer of various industrial applications. Getting deeper into the physical phenomena lied beneath and predicting all relevant parameters and variables with high spatial and temporal resolution have been the greatest weighing pros counting for CFD. In this paper, flow phenomena for air passing through an orifice meter were numerically analyzed with CFD code based modeling, giving important information about the effect of orifice plate specifications on the discharge coefficient for three different tappings locations, i.e., flange tappings, D and D/2 tappings compared with vena contracta tappings. Discharge coefficients were paralleled with discharge coefficients estimated by ISO 5167. The influences of orifice plate bore thickness, orifice plate thickness, beveled angle, perpendicularity and buckling of the orifice plate, were all duly investigated. A case of an orifice meter whose pipe diameter of 2 in, beta ratio of 0.5 and Reynolds number of 91100, was taken as a model. The results highlighted that the discharge coefficients were highly responsive to the variation of plate specifications and under all cases, the discharge coefficients for D and D/2 tappings were very close to that of vena contracta tappings which were believed as an ideal arrangement. Also, in general sense, it was appreciated that the standard equation in ISO 5167, by which the discharge coefficient was calculated, cannot capture the variation of the plate specifications and thus further thorough considerations would be still needed.

Keywords: CFD, discharge coefficients, orifice meter, orifice plate specifications

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