Search results for: pole phase modulation

Authors: Behrooz Movahedi

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Fe-based amorphous feedstock powders are used as the matrix into which various ratios of hard B4C nanoparticles (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 vol.%) as reinforcing agents were prepared using a planetary high-energy mechanical milling. The ball-milled nanocomposite feedstock powders were also sprayed by means of high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) technique. The characteristics of the powder particles and the prepared coating depending on their microstructures and nanohardness were examined in detail using nanoindentation tester. The results showed that the formation of the Fe-based amorphous phase was noticed over the course of high-energy ball milling. It is interesting to note that the nanocomposite coating is divided into two regions, namely, a full amorphous phase region and homogeneous dispersion of B4C nanoparticles with a scale of 10–50 nm in a residual amorphous matrix. As the B4C content increases, the nanohardness of the composite coatings increases, but the fracture toughness begins to decrease at the B4C content higher than 20 vol.%. The optimal mechanical properties are obtained with 15 vol.% B4C due to the suitable content and uniform distribution of nanoparticles. Consequently, the changes in mechanical properties of the coatings were attributed to the changes in the brittle to ductile transition by adding B4C nanoparticles.

Keywords: Fe-based amorphous, B₄C nanoparticles, nanocomposite coating, HVOF

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Authors: Adrián Esteban Ortiz-Valera, Angélica Lozano

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In developing countries, informal trade is relevant, but it has been little studied in urban freight transport (UFT) context, although it is a challenge due to the non- contemplated demand it produces and the operational limitations it imposes. Hence, UFT operational improvements (initiatives) and freight attraction models must consider informal trade for developing countries. Afour phasesapproach for characterizing the commercial areas in developing countries (considering both formal and informal establishments) is proposed and applied to ten areas in Mexico City. This characterization is required to calculate real freight trip attraction and then select and/or adapt suitable initiatives. Phase 1 aims the delimitation of the study area. The following information is obtained for each establishment of a potential area: location or geographic coordinates, industrial sector, industrial subsector, and number of employees. Phase 2 characterizes the study area and proposes a set of indicators. This allows a broad view of the operations and constraints of UFT in the study area. Phase 3 classifies the study area according to seven indicators. Each indicator represents a level of conflict in the area due to the presence of formal (registered) and informal establishments on the sidewalks and streets, affecting urban freight transport (and other activities). Phase 4 determines preliminary initiatives which could be implemented in the study area to improve the operation of UFT. The indicators and initiatives relation allows a preliminary initiatives selection. This relation requires to know the following: a) the problems in the area (congested streets, lack of parking space for freight vehicles, etc.); b) the factors which limit initiatives due to informal establishments (reduced streets for freight vehicles; mobility and parking inability during a period, among others), c) the problems in the area due to its physical characteristics; and d) the factors which limit initiatives due to regulations of the area. Several differences in the study areas were observed. As the indicators increases, the areas tend to be less ordered, and the limitations for the initiatives become higher, causing a smaller number of susceptible initiatives. In ordered areas (similar to the commercial areas of developed countries), the current techniquesfor estimating freight trip attraction (FTA) can bedirectly applied, however, in the areas where the level of order is lower due to the presence of informal trade, this is not recommended because the real FTA would not be estimated. Therefore, a technique, which consider the characteristics of the areas in developing countries to obtain data and to estimate FTA, is required. This estimation can be the base for proposing feasible initiatives to such zones. The proposed approach provides a wide view of the needs of the commercial areas of developing countries. The knowledge of these needs would allow UFT´s operation to be improved and its negative impacts to be minimized.

Keywords: freight initiatives, freight trip attraction, informal trade, urban freight transport

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Authors: Mounir Baccar, Imen Jmal

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Because of the rise in energy costs, thermal storage systems designed for the heating and cooling of buildings are becoming increasingly important. Energy storage can not only reduce the time or rate mismatch between energy supply and demand but also plays an important role in energy conservation. One of the most preferable storage techniques is the Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage (LHTES) by Phase Change Materials (PCM) due to its important energy storage density and isothermal storage process. This paper presents a numerical study of the solidification of a PCM (paraffin RT27) in a rectangular thermal storage exchanger for air conditioning systems taking into account the presence of natural convection. Resolution of continuity, momentum and thermal energy equations are treated by the finite volume method. The main objective of this numerical approach is to study the effect of natural convection on the PCM solidification time and the impact of fins number on heat transfer enhancement. It also aims at investigating the temporal evolution of PCM solidification, as well as the longitudinal profiles of the HTF circling in the duct. The present research undertakes the study of two cases: the first one treats the solidification of PCM in a PCM-air heat exchanger without fins, while the second focuses on the solidification of PCM in a heat exchanger of the same type with the addition of fins (3 fins, 5 fins, and 9 fins). Without fins, the stratification of the PCM from colder to hotter during the heat transfer process has been noted. This behavior prevents the formation of thermo-convective cells in PCM area and then makes transferring almost conductive. In the presence of fins, energy extraction from PCM to airflow occurs at a faster rate, which contributes to the reduction of the discharging time and the increase of the outlet air temperature (HTF). However, for a great number of fins (9 fins), the enhancement of the solidification process is not significant because of the effect of confinement of PCM liquid spaces for the development of thermo-convective flow. Hence, it can be concluded that the effect of natural convection is not very significant for a high number of fins. In the optimum case, using 3 fins, the increasing temperature of the HTF exceeds approximately 10°C during the first 30 minutes. When solidification progresses from the surfaces of the PCM-container and propagates to the central liquid phase, an insulating layer will be created in the vicinity of the container surfaces and the fins, causing a low heat exchange rate between PCM and air. As the solid PCM layer gets thicker, a progressive regression of the field of movements is induced in the liquid phase, thus leading to the inhibition of heat extraction process. After about 2 hours, 68% of the PCM became solid, and heat transfer was almost dominated by conduction mechanism.

Keywords: heat transfer enhancement, front solidification, PCM, natural convection

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Authors: Sanjay M. Gulhane, Athar Ravish Khan, Umesh W. Kaware

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Orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing (OFCDM) has received large attention as a modulation scheme to realize high data rate transmission. Multiband (MB) Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) Ultra Wide Band (UWB) system become promising technique for high data rate due to its large number of advantage over Singleband (UWB) system, but it suffer from coherent frequency diversity problem. In this paper we have proposed MB-OFCDM UWB system, in which two-dimensional (2D) spreading (time and frequency domain spreading), has been introduced, combining OFDM with 2D spreading, proposed system can provide frequency diversity. This paper presents the basic structure and main functions of the MB-OFCDM system, and evaluates the bit error rate BER performance of MB-OFDM and MB-OFCDM system under UWB indoor multi-path channel model. It is observe that BER curve of MB-OFCDM UWB improve its performance by 2dB as compare to MB-OFDM UWB system.

Keywords: MB-OFDM UWB system, MB-OFCDM UWB system, UWB IEEE channel model, BER

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Ghadimi, Golnoush Ghadimi

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Precise monitoring of glacier velocity is critical in determining glacier-related hazards. Zardkooh Mountain was studied in terms of glacial activity rate in Zagros Mountainous region in Iran. In this study, we assessed the ability of optical and radar imagery to derive glacier-surface velocities in mountainous terrain. We processed Landsat 8 for optical data and Sentinel-1a for radar data. We used methods that are commonly used to measure glacier surface movements, such as cross correlation of optical and radar satellite images, SAR tracking techniques, and multiple aperture InSAR (MAI). We also assessed time series glacier surface displacement using our modified method, Enhanced Small Baseline Subset (ESBAS). The ESBAS has been implemented in StaMPS software, with several aspects of the processing chain modified, including filtering prior to phase unwrapping, topographic correction within three-dimensional phase unwrapping, reducing atmospheric noise, and removing the ramp caused by ionosphere turbulence and/or orbit errors. Our findings indicate an average surface velocity rate of 32 mm/yr in the Zardkooh mountainous areas.

Keywords: active rock glaciers, landsat 8, sentinel-1a, zagros mountainous region

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Authors: Eli Buchbinder

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Dialectics theory perceives two or more forces or themes as mutually opposed and negating on the one hand and as interdependent for their definition, existence, and resolution on the other. Such opposites might never be fully reconciled but might, simultaneously, continue to produce a higher level of integration and synthesis as well as tension, contradictions, and paradoxes. The identity of social work is constructed by poles; an understanding that emerges through key concepts that shape the profession. The key concept of person-in-environment creates dialectical tensions between the psychological versus the social pole. Important examples that reflect this focus on the psychological versus the social nature of human beings. This meta-perspective influences and constructs the implementation of values, ways of intervention, and professional relationships, e.g., creating a conflict between personal/social empowerment and social control and correction as the aims of the profession. Social work is dynamic and changing, with a unique way of perceiving and conceptualizing human behavior. Social workers must be able to face and accept the contradicting elements inherent in practicing social work. The basic philosophy for social work education is a dialectic conceptualization. In light of the above, social work students require dialectics as a critical mode of perception, reflection, and intervention. In the presentation, the focus will be on reflection on teaching students to conceptualize dialectics as a frame when training to be social workers. It is believed that the focus should emphasis two points: 1) the need to assist students to identify poles and to analyze the interrelationships created between them while coping emotionally with the tension and difficulties involved in containing these poles; 2) teaching students to integrate poles as a basis for assessment, planning, and intervention.

Keywords: professional ontology, a generic social work education, skills and values of social work, reflecting on social work teaching methods

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Authors: Jiawen Wang, Qijun Chen

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The performance of most machine-learning methods for image inpainting depends on the quantity and quality of the training samples. However, it is very expensive or even impossible to obtain a great number of training samples in many scenarios. In this paper, an image inpainting model based on a generative adversary network (GAN) is constructed for the cases when the number of training samples is small. Firstly, a feature extraction network (F-net) is incorporated into the GAN network to utilize the available information of the inpainting image. The weighted sum of the extracted feature and the random noise acts as the input to the generative network (G-net). The proposed network can be trained well even when the sample size is very small. Secondly, in the phase of the completion for each damaged image, a genetic algorithm is designed to search an optimized noise input for G-net; based on this optimized input, the parameters of the G-net and F-net are further learned (Once the completion for a certain damaged image ends, the parameters restore to its original values obtained in the training phase) to generate an image patch that not only can fill the missing part of the damaged image smoothly but also has visual semantics.

Keywords: image inpainting, generative adversary nets, genetic algorithm, small-sample size

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Authors: M. Bouhoun Ali, A. Y. Badjah Hadj Ahmed, M. Attou, A. Elias, M. A. Didi

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The extraction of uranium(VI) from aqueous solutions has been investigated using 1-hydroxyhexadecylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HHDPA) and 1-hydroxydodecylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HDDPA), which were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 31P NMR spectroscopy. In this paper, we propose a tentative assignment for the shifts of those two ligands and their specific complexes with uranium(VI). We carried out the extraction of uranium(VI) by HHDPA and HDDPA from [carbon tetrachloride + 2-octanol (v/v: 90%/10%)] solutions. Various factors such as contact time, pH, organic/aqueous phase ratio and extractant concentration were considered. The optimum conditions obtained were: contact time= 20 min, organic/aqueous phase ratio = 1, pH value = 3.0 and extractant concentration = 0.3M. The extraction yields are more significant in the case of the HHDPA which is equipped with a hydrocarbon chain, longer than that of the HDDPA. Logarithmic plots of the uranium(VI) distribution ratio vs. pHeq and the extractant concentration showed that the ratio of extractant to extracted uranium(VI) (ligand/metal) is 2:1. The formula of the complex of uranium(VI) with the HHDPA and the DHDPA is UO2(H3L)2 (HHDPA and DHDPA are denoted as H4L). A spectroscopic analysis has showed that coordination of uranium(VI) takes place via oxygen atoms.

Keywords: liquid-liquid extraction, uranium(vi), 1-hydroxyalkylidene-1, 1-diphosphonic acids, hhdpa, hddpa, aqueous solution

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Authors: Nattaporn Khanoonkon, Rangrong Yoksan, Amod A. Ogale

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Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most petroleum-based thermoplastic materials used in many applications including packaging due to its cheap, light-weight, chemically inert and capable to be converted into various shapes and sizes of products. Although PE is a commercially potential material, its non-biodegradability caused environmental problems. At present, bio-based polymers become more interesting owing to its bio-degradability, non-toxicity, and renewability as well as being eco-friendly. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) is a bio-based and biodegradable plastic produced from the plasticization of starch under applying heat and shear force. In many researches, TPS was blended with petroleum-based polymers including PE in order to reduce the cost and the use of those polymers. However, the phase separation between hydrophobic PE and hydrophilic TPS limited the amount of TPS incorporated. The immiscibility of two different polarity polymers can be diminished by adding compatibilizer. PE-based compatibilizers, e.g. polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride, polyethylene-co-vinyl alcohol, etc. have been applied for the PE/TPS blend system in order to improve their miscibility. Until now, there is no report about the utilization of starch-based compatibilizer for PE/TPS blend system. The aims of the present research were therefore to synthesize a new starch-based compatibilizer, i.e. stearic acid-grafted starch (SA-g-starch) and to study the effect of SA-g-starch on chemical interaction, morphological properties, tensile properties and water vapor as well as oxygen barrier properties of the PE/TPS blend films. PE/TPS blends without and with incorporating SA-g-starch with a content of 1, 3 and 5 part(s) per hundred parts of starch (phr) were prepared using a twin screw extruder and then blown into films using a film blowing machine. Incorporating 1 phr and 3 phr of SA-g-starch could improve miscibility of the two polymers as confirmed from the reduction of TPS phase size and the good dispersion of TPS phase in PE matrix. In addition, the blend containing SA-g-starch with contents of 1 phr and 3 phr exhibited higher tensile strength and extensibility, as well as lower water vapor and oxygen permeabilities than the naked blend. The above results suggested that SA-g-starch could be potentially applied as a compatibilizer for the PE/TPS blend system.

Keywords: blend, compatibilizer, polyethylene, thermoplastic starch

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Authors: C. Lopez, S. Dourdain, G. Arrachart, S. Pellet-Rostaing

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Ionic liquids (ILs) are considered a good alternative for organic solvents in extractive processes; however, the higher or lower extraction efficiency in ILs remains difficult to predict because a lack of understanding of the extraction mechanisms in this class of diluents, making their application difficult to generalize. We have studied the extraction behavior of La(III) and Eu(III) from aqueous solution into n-dodecane and two ionic liquids (ILs), 1-ethyl-1-butylpiperidinium bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [EBPip⁺] [NTf₂⁻] and 1-ethyl-1-octylpiperidinium bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [EOPip⁺] [NTf₂⁻], at room temperature using N,N’- dimethyl- N,N’-dioctylhexylethoxymalonamide (DMDOHEMA) as extractant. Fe(III) was introduced to the aqueous phase in order to study the selectivity toward La(III) and Eu(III) and the effect of variation of PH was investigated by using of several HNO₃ concentrations. We found that the ionic liquid with shorter alkyl chain [EBPip⁺] [NTf₂⁻] showed a higher extraction ability than [EOPip⁺] [NTf₂⁻] and that the use of ILs as organic solvent instead n-dodecane, greatly enhanced the extraction percentage of the target metals with a good selectivity. Cation ([EBPip⁺] or [EOPip⁺]) and anion ([NTf₂⁻]) concentration in the aqueous phase, has been determined in order to elucidate the extraction mechanism.

Keywords: extraction mechanism, ionic liquids, rare earths elements, solvent extraction

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Authors: Karishma Chester, Sarvesh K. Paliwal, Sayeed Ahmad

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Inab-us-salab also known as Solanum nigrum L. (Family: Solanaceae), is an important Indian medicinal plant and have been used in various unani traditional formulations for hepato-protection. It has been reported to contain significant amount of steroidal glycosides such as solamargine and solasonine as well as their aglycone part solasodine. Being important pharmacologically active metabolites of several members of solanaceae, these markers have been attempted various times for their extraction and quantification but separately for glycoside and aglycone part because of their opposite polarity. Here, we propose for the first time its fractionation and fingerprinting of aglycone (solasodine) and glycosides (solamargine and solasonine) in leaves and berries of S. nigrum using solvent extraction and fractionation followed by HPTLC analysis. The fingerprinting was done using silica gel 60F254 HPTLC plates as stationary phase and chloroform: methanol: acetone: 0.5% ammonia (7: 2.5: 1: 0.4 v/v/v/v) as mobile phase at 400 nm, after derivatization with antimony tri chloride reagent for identification of steroidal glycoside. The statistical data obtained can further be validated and can be used routinely for quality control of various solanaceous drugs reported for these markers as well as traditional formulations containing those plants as an ingredient.

Keywords: solanum nigrum, solasodine, solamargine, solasonine, quantification

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Authors: William Xiu Shun Wong, Myungsu Lim, Yoonjin Hyun, Chen Liu, Seongi Choi, Dasom Kim, Kee-Young Kwahk, Namgyu Kim

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Recently, many users have begun to frequently share their opinions on diverse issues using various social media. Therefore, numerous governments have attempted to establish or improve national policies according to the public opinions captured from various social media. In this paper, we indicate several limitations of the traditional approaches to analyze public opinion on science and technology and provide an alternative methodology to overcome these limitations. First, we distinguish between the science and technology analysis phase and the social issue analysis phase to reflect the fact that public opinion can be formed only when a certain science and technology is applied to a specific social issue. Next, we successively apply a start list and a stop list to acquire clarified and interesting results. Finally, to identify the most appropriate documents that fit with a given subject, we develop a new logical filter concept that consists of not only mere keywords but also a logical relationship among the keywords. This study then analyzes the possibilities for the practical use of the proposed methodology thorough its application to discover core issues and public opinions from 1,700,886 documents comprising SNS, blogs, news, and discussions.

Keywords: big data, social network analysis, text mining, topic modeling

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Authors: R. Reshma srilakshmi, S. Shalini, P. Yogeeswari, D. Sriram

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Lysine aminotransferase is a crucial enzyme for dormancy in M. tuberculosis. It is involved in persistence and antibiotic resistance. In present work, we attempted to develop benzthiazole derivatives as lysine aminotransferase inhibitors. In our attempts, we also unexpectedly arrived at an interesting compound 21 (E)-4-(5-(2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-2-cyanovinyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzoic acid which even though has moderate activity against persistent phase of mycobacterium, it has significant potency against active phase. In the entire series compound 22 (E)-4-(5-(2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-2-cyanovinyl)thiophen-2-yl)isophthalic acid emerged as potent molecule with LAT IC50 of 2.62 µM. It has a significant log reduction of 2.9 and 2.3 fold against nutrient starved and biofilm forming mycobacteria. It was found to be inactive in MABA assay and M.marinum induced zebra fish model. It is also devoid of cytotoxicity. Compound 22 was also found to possess bactericidal effect which is independent of concentration and time. It was found to be effective in combination with Rifampicin in 3D granuloma model. The results are very encouraging as the hit molecule shows activity against active as well as persistent forms of tuberculosis. The identified hit needs further more pharmacokinetic and dynamic screening for development as new drug candidate.

Keywords: benzothiazole, latent tuberculosis, LAT, nutrient starvation

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Authors: J. R. Dinsmore, R. W. Hood

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Experiences of a divine or mystical light are frequently reported in religious/spiritual experiences today, most notably in the context of mystical and near-death experiences. Light of a transcendental nature and its experiences of it are also widely present and highly valued in many religious and mystical traditions. Despite the significance of this luminosity to the topic of religious experience, efforts to study the phenomenon empirically have been minimal and scattered. This mixed methods study developed and validated a questionnaire for the measurement of numinous luminosity experience and investigated the dimensions and effects of this novel construct using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. A sequential explanatory design (participant selection model) was used, which involved a scale development phase, followed by a correlational study testing hypotheses about its effects on beliefs and well-being derived from the literature, and lastly, a phenomenological study of a sample selected from the correlational phase results. The outcomes of the study are a unified theoretical model of numinous luminosity experience across multiple experiential contexts, initial correlational findings regarding the possible mechanism of its reported positive transformational effects, and a valid and reliable instrument for its further empirical study.

Keywords: religious experience, mystical experience, near-death experience, scale development, questionnaire, divine light, mystical light, mystical luminosity

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Authors: V. Samulionis, J. Banys, A. Sánchez-Ferrer

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Inorganic nanoparticles are used for fabrication of various composites based on polymer materials because they exhibit a good homogeneity and solubility of the composite material. Multifunctional materials based on composites of a polymer containing inorganic nanotubes are expected to have a great impact on industrial applications in the future. An emerging family of such composites are polyurea elastomers with inorganic MoS2 nanotubes or MoSI nanowires. Polyurea elastomers are a new kind of materials with higher performance than polyurethanes. The improvement of mechanical, chemical and thermal properties is due to the presence of hydrogen bonds between the urea motives which can be erased at high temperature softening the elastomeric network. Such materials are the combination of amorphous polymers above glass transition and crosslinkers which keep the chains into a single macromolecule. Polyurea exhibits a phase separated structure with rigid urea domains (hard domains) embedded in a matrix of flexible polymer chains (soft domains). The elastic properties of polyurea can be tuned over a broad range by varying the molecular weight of the components, the relative amount of hard and soft domains, and concentration of nanoparticles. Ultrasonic methods as non-destructive techniques can be used for elastomer composites characterization. In this manner, we have studied the temperature dependencies of the longitudinal ultrasonic velocity and ultrasonic attenuation of these new polyurea elastomers and composites with inorganic nanoparticles. It was shown that in these polyurea elastomers large ultrasonic attenuation peak and corresponding velocity dispersion exists at 10 MHz frequency below room temperature and this behaviour is related to glass transition Tg of the soft segments in the polymer matrix. The relaxation parameters and Tg depend on the segmental molecular weight of the polymer chains between crosslinking points, the nature of the crosslinkers in the network and content of MoS2 nanotubes or MoSI nanowires. The increase of ultrasonic velocity in composites modified by nanoparticles has been observed, showing the reinforcement of the elastomer. In semicrystalline polyurea elastomer matrices, above glass transition, the first order phase transition from quasi-crystalline to the amorphous state has been observed. In this case, the sharp ultrasonic velocity and attenuation anomalies were observed near the transition temperature TC. Ultrasonic attenuation maximum related to glass transition was reduced in quasicrystalline polyureas indicating less influence of soft domains below TC. The first order phase transition in semicrystalline polyurea elastomer samples has large temperature hysteresis (> 10 K). The impact of inorganic MoS2 nanotubes resulted in the decrease of the first order phase transition temperature in semicrystalline composites.

Keywords: inorganic nanotubes, polyurea elastomer composites, ultrasonic velocity, ultrasonic attenuation

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Authors: Farshad Kalantari

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Tourism industry has gained a progressive trend within the past years, which affect the cultural exchange among different nations. It is obvious that each country has its own culture, heritage and history, which can be manifested in the population lifestyle and pattern of living. the lifestyle can be considered as an indicator for health status, as the culture may affect way of living, which known as lifestyle and its components, including dietary pattern, physical activity status and other social behaviours. As a result, it seems that each culture can transfer the lifestyle to other societies by international communications. Moreover, different regions and countries may benefit from natural resources, which can be a leading cause for tourist attraction, in the other words, natural resources and culture, can affect the tourist turnover in a region, and as a result, it can be hypothesised that it may affect the exchange of lifestyle including dietary pattern and physical activity. In the positive way, this can make a region to health pole for other nationalities to gain benefit from that culture in order to improve their quality of life and health status. In this paper has aimed to assess the effect of culture and heritage on tourism rate and the effect of natural resources along with cultural lifestyle on public health and international exchange between other regions. It was hypothesised that by using culture in a positive manner, positive aspect of lifestyle, including ancient physical activity patter, can be transfer and exchange with other regions, which can improve health status as a result. Moreover, it was focused on how to design and recruit strategies to improve the way of gaining benefits from resources and lifestyle in order to improve tourism industry and its rate, which may bring beneficial outcomes, including financial, cultural and health outcomes.

Keywords: toursim, health, culture, sport, lifestyle

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Authors: Miranda Enesi, Helena Grillo Mukli

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The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms which can be largely accounted for by the abundant borrowing. Translation problems encountered by translators in general are usually ‘transfer problems’. They face more difficulties in the interpretation of meaning from the source language text than lexical differences between languages. The aim of the study is to inspect the various strategies used in translating from English into Albanian specific words in the ‘A Farwell to arms’ novel. For this purpose, examples translated from English into Albanian were examined. The Albanian equivalents have shown that various strategies were used in order to overcome the problem of rendering words and expressions into the target language. Employed strategies were synonymy, modulation, transposition, calque and word for word translation. In addition, this paper shows that the strategy of translating using synonymy is mostly used. In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the nature of contextual synonymy in order to investigate its problematic nature regarding translation. Types of synonymy are analyzed and then examples from English and Albanian versions are provided to examine the overlap between them.

Keywords: equivalence, literal translation, paraphrasing, transfer problems, synonymy

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Authors: Jinan Fiaidhi, Sabah Mohammed

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Cross-domain learning in the medical field is a research challenge as many conditions, like in oncology imaging, use different imaging modalities. Moreover, in most of the medical learning applications, the sample training size is relatively small. Although few-shot learning (FSL) through the use of a Siamese neural network was able to be trained on a small sample with remarkable accuracy, FSL fails to be effective for use in multiple domains as their convolution weights are set for task-specific applications. In this paper, we are addressing this problem by enabling FSL to possess the ability to shift across domains by designing a two-layer FSL network that can learn individually from each domain and produce a shared features map with extra modulation to be used at the second layer that can recognize important targets from mix domains. Our initial experimentations based on mixed medical datasets like the Medical-MNIST reveal promising results. We aim to continue this research to perform full-scale analytics for testing our cross-domain FSL learning.

Keywords: Siamese neural network, few-shot learning, meta-learning, metric-based learning, thick data transformation and analytics

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Authors: Sofiqul Islam, V. Murugan, Prema Kumari, Hari

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Gentamicin is a broad spectrum water-soluble aminoglycoside antibiotics produced by the fermentation process of microorganism known as Micromonospora purpurea. It is widely used for the treatment of infection caused by both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Gentamicin consists of a mixture of aminoglycoside components like C1, C1a, C2a, and C2. The molecular structure of Gentamicin and its related substances showed that it has lack of presence of chromophore group in the molecule due to which the detection of such components were quite critical and challenging. In this study, a simple Reversed Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method using ultraviolet (UV) detector was developed and validated for quantification of the related substances present in Gentamicin drug substances. The method was achieved by using Thermo Scientific Hypersil Gold analytical column (150 x 4.6 mm, 5 µm particle size) with isocratic elution composed of methanol: water: glacial acetic acid: sodium hexane sulfonate in the ratio 70:25:5:3 % v/v/v/w as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, column temperature was maintained at 30 °C and detection wavelength of 330 nm. The four components of Gentamicin namely Gentamicin C1, C1a, C2a, and C2 were well separated along with the related substance present in Gentamicin. The Limit of Quantification (LOQ) values were found to be at 0.0075 mg/mL. The accuracy of the method was quite satisfactory in which the % recovery was resulted between 95-105% for the related substances. The correlation coefficient (≥ 0.995) shows the linearity response against concentration over the range of Limit of Quantification (LOQ). Precision studies showed the % Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) values less than 5% for its related substance. The method was validated in accordance with the International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) guideline with various parameters like system suitability, specificity, precision, linearity, accuracy, limit of quantification, and robustness. This proposed method was easy and suitable for use for the quantification of related substances in routine analysis of Gentamicin formulations.

Keywords: reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC), high performance liquid chromatography, gentamicin, isocratic, ultraviolet

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Authors: Elmahdi Elgharbaoui, Tamou Nasser, Ahmed Essadki

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In the era of sustainable development, photovoltaic (PV) technology has shown significant potential as a renewable energy source. Photovoltaic generators (GPV) have a non-linear current-voltage characteristic, with a maximum power point (MPP) characterized by an optimal voltage, and depends on environmental factors such as temperature and irradiation. To extract each time the maximum power available at the terminals of the GPV and transfer it to the load, an adaptation stage is used, consisting of a boost chopper controlled by a maximum power point tracking technique (MPPT) through a stage of pulse width modulation (PWM). Our choice has focused on three techniques which are: the perturbation and observation method (P&O), the incremental conductance method (InCond) and the last is that of control using the fuzzy logic. The implementation and simulation of the system (photovoltaic generator, chopper boost, PWM and MPPT techniques) are then performed in the Matlab/Simulink environment.

Keywords: photovoltaic generator, technique MPPT, boost chopper, PWM, fuzzy logic, P&O, InCond

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Authors: Harish K. Chandrawanshi, Mithun S. Rajput, Neelima Choure, Purnima Dey Sarkar, Shailesh Jain

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The present research study aimed to fabricate and evaluate biodegradable nanoparticles of aromatase inhibitor letrozole, intended for breast cancer therapy. Letrozole loaded poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide acid) nanoparticles were prepared by solvent evaporation method using dichlorometane as solvent (oil phase) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as aqueous phase. Prepared nanoparticles were characterized by particle size, infrared spectra, drug loading efficiency, drug entrapment efficiency and in vitro release and also evaluated for in vivo anticancer activity. The high speed homogenizer was used to produce stable nanoparticles of mean size range 198.35 ± 0.04 nm with high entrapment efficiency (69.86 ± 2.78%). Percentage of drug and homogenization speed significantly influenced the particle size, entrapment efficiency and release (p<0.05). The nanoparticles show significant in vivo anticancer activity against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in mice. The significant system sustained the release of letrozole drug effectively and further investigation could exhibit its potential usefulness in breast cancer therapy.

Keywords: breast cancer/therapy, letrozole, nanoparticles, PLGA

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Authors: Sonja Gögele, Petra Kletzenbauer

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International strategies are ranked as one of the core activities in the development plans of Austrian universities. This has led to numerous promising activities in terms of internationalization (i.e. development of international degree programmes, increased staff, and student mobility, and blended international projects). The latest innovative approach are so called Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP), which combine jointly delivered teaching and learning elements of at least three participating ERASMUS universities in a virtual and short-term mobility setup. Students who participate in BIP can maintain their study plans at their home institution and include BIP as a parallel activity. This paper presents the experiences of this programme on the topic of sustainable computing hosted by the University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM. By means of an online survey and face-to-face interviews with all stakeholders (20 students, 8 professors), the empirical study addresses the challenges of hosting an international blended learning programme (i.e. virtual phase and on-site intensive phase) and discusses the impact of such activities in terms of innovative pedagogy (i.e. virtual collaboration, research-based learning).

Keywords: internationalization, collaborative learning, blended intensive programme, pedagogy

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Authors: Abhijith N. V., Abhijit Pattnayak, Deepak Kumar

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Nowadays, a group of alloys, namely high entropy alloys (HEA), because of their excellent properties. However, the fabrication of HEAs requires multistage techniques, especially mill-ing, sieving, compaction, sintering, inert media, etc. These processes are laborious, costly, time-oriented, and unsuitable for commercial application. This study adopted a single-stage process-based HVOF thermal spray to develop HEA coating on SS304L substrates. The wear behavior of the deposited HEA coating was explored under different milling time durations (5h, 10h, and 15h, respectively). The effect of feedstock preparation, microstructure, surface chemistry, and mechanical and metallurgical properties on wear resistance was also investigated. The microstructure and composition of both coating and feedstock were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. Finally, the phase distribution was correlated by X-ray diffraction (XRD ) analysis. The results showed that 15h milled powder coating indicated better tribological than the base substrate and 5h,10h milled powder coating. A chemically stable Body Centered Cubic (BCC) solid solution phase was generated within the 15h milled powder-coated system, which resulted in superior tribological properties.

Keywords: high entropy alloys coating, wear mechanism, HVOF coating, microstructure

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Authors: Zarmina Gillani, Nuzhat Huma, Aysha Sameen, Mulazim Hussain Bukhari

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Whey is an excellent food ingredient owing to its high nutritive value and its functional properties. However, composition of whey varies depending on composition of milk, processing conditions, processing method, and its whey protein content. The aim of this study was to prepare a whey powder from raw whey and to determine the influence of different processing temperatures (160 and 180 °C) on the physicochemical, functional properties during storage of 180 days and on whey protein denaturation. Results have shown that temperature significantly (P < 0.05) affects the pH, acidity, non-protein nitrogen (NPN), protein total soluble solids, fat and lactose contents. Significantly (p < 0.05) higher foaming capacity (FC), foam stability (FS), whey protein nitrogen index (WPNI), and a lower turbidity and solubility index (SI) were observed in whey powder processed at 160 °C compared to whey powder processed at 180 °C. During storage of 180 days, slow but progressive changes were noticed on the physicochemical and functional properties of whey powder. Reverse phase-HPLC analysis revealed a significant (P < 0.05) effect of temperature on whey protein contents. Denaturation of β-Lactoglobulin is followed by α-lacalbumin, casein glycomacropeptide (CMP/GMP), and bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Keywords: whey powder, temperature, denaturation, reverse phase, HPLC

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Authors: Dechrit Maneetham

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The aim of this paper was to design a void and head controlled electric power wheelchair (EPW). A novel activate the control system for quadriplegics with voice, head and neck mobility. Head movement has been used as a control interface for people with motor impairments in a range of applications. Acquiring measurements from the module is simplified through a synchronous a motor. Axis measures the two directions namely x and y. At the same time, patients can control the motorized wheelchair using voice signals (forward, backward, turn left, turn right, and stop) given by it self. The model of a dc motor is considered as a speed control by selection of a PID parameters using genetic algorithm. An experimental set-up constructed, which consists of micro controller as controller, a DC motor driven EPW and feedback elements. This paper is tuning methods of parameter for a pulse width modulation (PWM) control system. A speed controller has been designed successfully for closed loop of the dc motor so that the motor runs very closed to the reference speed and angle. Intelligent wheelchair can be used to ensure the person’s voice and head are attending the direction of travel asserted by a conventional, direction and speed control.

Keywords: wheelchair, quadriplegia, rehabilitation , medical devices, speed control

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Authors: Edgar Santoyo, Daniel Perez-Zarate, Agustin Acevedo, Lorena Diaz-Gonzalez, Mirna Guevara

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Four new gas geothermometers have been derived from a multivariate geo chemometric analysis of a geothermal fluid chemistry database, two of which use the natural logarithm of CO₂ and H2S concentrations (mmol/mol), respectively, and the other two use the natural logarithm of the H₂S/H₂ and CO₂/H₂ ratios. As a strict compilation criterion, the database was created with gas-phase composition of fluids and bottomhole temperatures (BHTM) measured in producing wells. The calibration of the geothermometers was based on the geochemical relationship existing between the gas-phase composition of well discharges and the equilibrium temperatures measured at bottomhole conditions. Multivariate statistical analysis together with the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) was successfully applied for correlating the gas-phase compositions and the BHTM. The predicted or simulated bottomhole temperatures (BHTANN), defined as output neurons or simulation targets, were statistically compared with measured temperatures (BHTM). The coefficients of the new geothermometers were obtained from an optimized self-adjusting training algorithm applied to approximately 2,080 ANN architectures with 15,000 simulation iterations each one. The self-adjusting training algorithm used the well-known Levenberg-Marquardt model, which was used to calculate: (i) the number of neurons of the hidden layer; (ii) the training factor and the training patterns of the ANN; (iii) the linear correlation coefficient, R; (iv) the synaptic weighting coefficients; and (v) the statistical parameter, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) to evaluate the prediction performance between the BHTM and the simulated BHTANN. The prediction performance of the new gas geothermometers together with those predictions inferred from sixteen well-known gas geothermometers (previously developed) was statistically evaluated by using an external database for avoiding a bias problem. Statistical evaluation was performed through the analysis of the lowest RMSE values computed among the predictions of all the gas geothermometers. The new gas geothermometers developed in this work have been successfully used for predicting subsurface temperatures in high-temperature geothermal systems of Mexico (e.g., Los Azufres, Mich., Los Humeros, Pue., and Cerro Prieto, B.C.) as well as in a blind geothermal system (known as Acoculco, Puebla). The last results of the gas geothermometers (inferred from gas-phase compositions of soil-gas bubble emissions) compare well with the temperature measured in two wells of the blind geothermal system of Acoculco, Puebla (México). Details of this new development are outlined in the present research work. Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge the funding received from CeMIE-Geo P09 project (SENER-CONACyT).

Keywords: artificial intelligence, gas geochemistry, geochemometrics, geothermal energy

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Authors: S. Kadiyala, M. Berzins, D. Juba, W. Keyrouz

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This paper describes the Material Point Method (MPM) for simulating a single-track laser melting process on an IN718 solid plate. MPM, known for simulating challenging multiphysics problems, is used to model the intricate thermal, mechanical, and fluid interactions during the laser sintering process. This study analyzes the formation of single tracks, exploring the impact of varying laser parameters such as speed, power, and spot diameter on the melt pool and track formation. The focus is on MPM’s ability to accurately simulate and capture the transient thermo-mechanical and phase change phenomena, which are critical in predicting the cooling rates before and after solidification of the laser track and the final melt pool geometry. The simulation results are rigorously compared with experimental data (AMB2022 benchmarks), demonstrating the effectiveness of MPM in replicating the physical processes in laser sintering. This research highlights the potential of MPM in advancing the understanding and simulation of melt pool physics in metal additive manufacturing, paving the way for optimized process parameters and improved material performance.

Keywords: dditive manufacturing simulation, material point method, phase change, melt pool physics

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Authors: Siddeeq Y. Ameen, Mohammed K. Yousif

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Cooperative communication systems are considered to be a promising technology to improve the system capacity, reliability and performances over fading wireless channels. Cooperative relaying system with a single antenna will be able to reach the advantages of multiple antenna communication systems. It is ideally suitable for the distributed communication systems; the relays can cooperate and form virtual MIMO systems. Thus the paper will aim to investigate the possible enhancement of cooperated system using decode and forward protocol. On decode and forward an attempt to cancel or at least reduce the interference instead of increasing the SNR values is achieved. The latter can be achieved via the use group of relays depending on the channel status from source to relay and relay to destination respectively. In the proposed system, the transmission time has been divided into two phases to be used by decode and forward protocol. The first phase has been allocated for the source to transmit its data whereas the relays and destination nodes are in receiving mode. On the other hand, the second phase is allocated for the first and second groups of relay nodes to relay the data to the destination node. Simulations results have shown an improvement in performance is achieved compared to the conventional decode and forward in terms of BER and transmission rate.

Keywords: cooperative systems, decode and forward, interference cancellation, virtual MIMO

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Authors: Hassan El Ghazi, Mohammed El Jourmi, Tayeb Sadiki, Esmail Ahouzi

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The purpose of this paper is to model and analyze a geostationary satellite communication system based on VSAT network and Multicarrier CDMA system scheme which presents a combination of multicarrier modulation scheme and CDMA concepts. In this study the channel coding strategies (Turbo codes and LDPC codes) are adopted to achieve good performance due to iterative decoding. The envisaged system is examined for a transmission over Multipath channel with use of Ku band in the uplink case. The simulation results are obtained for each different case. The performance of the system is given in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) and energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio (Eb/N0). The performance results of designed system shown that the communication system coded with LDPC codes can achieve better error rate performance compared to VSAT MC-CDMA system coded with Turbo codes.

Keywords: satellite communication, VSAT Network, MC-CDMA, LDPC codes, turbo codes, uplink

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Authors: Niki K. Burns, James R. Pearson, Paul G. Stevenson, Xavier A. Conlan

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In Australian state Victoria, synthetic cannabinoids have recently been made illegal under an amendment to the drugs, poisons and controlled substances act 1981. Identification of synthetic cannabinoids in popular brands of ‘incense’ and ‘potpourri’ has been a difficult and challenging task due to the sample complexity and changes observed in the chemical composition of the cannabinoids of interest. This study has developed analytical methodology for the targeted extraction and determination of synthetic cannabinoids available pre-ban. A simple solvent extraction and solid phase extraction methodology was developed that selectively extracted the cannabinoid of interest. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV‐visible and chemiluminescence detection (acidic potassium permanganate and tris (2,2‐bipyridine) ruthenium(III)) were used to interrogate the synthetic cannabinoid products. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used for structural elucidation of the synthetic cannabinoids. The tris(2,2‐bipyridine)ruthenium(III) detection was found to offer better sensitivity than the permanganate based reagents. In twelve different brands of herbal incense, cannabinoids were extracted and identified including UR‐144, XLR 11, AM2201, 5‐F‐AKB48 and A796‐260.

Keywords: electrospray mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, solid phase extraction, synthetic cannabinoids

Procedia PDF Downloads 450