Search results for: column generation

Authors: Roya Khajepour, Alireza B. Novinzadeh

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In this paper, the spherical robot is modeled using the Band-Graph approach. This breed of robots is typically employed in expedition missions to unknown territories. Its motion mechanism is based on convection of a fluid in a set of three donut vessels, arranged orthogonally in space. This robot is a non-linear, non-holonomic system. This paper utilizes the Band-Graph technique to derive the torque generation mechanism in a spherical robot. Eventually, this paper describes the motion of a sphere due to the exerted torque components.

Keywords: spherical robot, Band-Graph, modeling, torque

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Authors: M. Leonora D. Guerrero

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The study attempted to uncover the most and least frequent phonological variation evident in the speech patterns of grade 1 teachers in select public elementary schools in the Philippines. It also determined the lectal description of the participants based on Tayao’s consonant charts for American and Philippine English. Descriptive method was utilized. A total of 24 grade 1 teachers participated in the study. The instrument used was word list. Each column in the word list is represented by words with the target consonant phonemes: labiodental fricatives f/ and /v/ and lingua-alveolar fricative /z/. These phonemes were in the initial, medial, and final positions, respectively. Findings of the study revealed that the most frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the final position while the least frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the initial position. The study likewise proved that the grade 1 teachers exhibited the segmental features of both the mesolect and basilect. Based on these results, it is suggested that teachers of English in the Philippines must aspire to manifest the features of the mesolect, if not, the acrolect since it is expected of the academicians not to be displaying the phonological features of the acrolects since this variety is only used by the 'uneducated.' This is especially so with grade 1 teachers who are often mimicked by their students who classify their speech as the 'standard.'

Keywords: consonant phonemes, lectal description, Philippine English, phonological variation

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Authors: Murilo G. Mendes

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This text presents part of the results presented in the Ph.D. thesis that has used John Baily's theory and method as well as its ethnographic application in the context of the fife flutes of the Banda Cabaçal dos Irmãos Aniceto in the state of Ceará, northeast of Brazil. John Baily is a British ethnomusicologist dedicated to studying the relationships between music, musical gesture, and embodied cognition. His methodology became a useful tool to highlight historical-social aspects present in the group's instrumental music. Remaining indigenous and illiterate, these musicians played and transmitted their music from generation to generation, for almost two hundred years, without any nomenclature or systematization of the fingering performed on the flute. In other words, his music, free from any theorization, is learned, felt, perceived, and processed directly through hearing and through the relationship between the instrument's motor skills and its sound result. For this reason, Baily's assumptions became fundamental in the analysis processes. As the author's methodology recommends, classes were held with the natives and provided technical musical learning and some important concepts. Then, transcriptions and analyses of musical aspects were made from patterns of movement on the instrument incorporated by repetitions and/or by the intrinsic facility of the instrument. As a result, it was discovered how the group reconciled its indigenous origins with the demand requested by the public power and the interests of the local financial elite from the mid-twentieth century. The article is structured from the cultural context of the group, where local historical and social aspects influence the social and musical practices of the group. Then, will be present the methodological conceptions of John Baily and, finally, their application in the music of the Irmãos Aniceto. The conclusion points to the good results of identifying, through this methodology and analysis, approximations between discourse, historical-social factors, and musical text. Still, questions are raised about its application in other contexts.

Keywords: Banda Cabaçal dos Irmãos Aniceto, John Baily, pífano, spatial-motor thinking

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Authors: Mokhtar Nikgoo

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Definition of dam: A dam is one of the most important and widely used engineering structures, which means stopping or changing the course of water on a river. A lake is formed behind the dam, which is called (reservoir). Water is stored in the tank to be used when needed. The dam building industry is a great service to mankind in the use of water and land resources. If they build the dam in a suitable place, they will prevent floods. The water that collects behind the dam and in the dam's lake and reservoir is a valuable reserve for drinking by people and animals. Dry agricultural lands are also irrigated with this water. In addition, in many dams, the pressure caused by the water fall is directed by turbines, and the turbines move the power generation devices and provide power from electricity

Keywords: dam, shaft, gallery, spillway, power plant

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Authors: Abdel Khalek Selim, Safaa Mahmoud

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Experiments were designed to study nitrogen loss through leaching in soil columns treated with different nitrogen sources and elemental sulfur. The soil material (3 kg alluvial or calcareous soil) were packed in Plexiglas columns (10 cm diameter). The soil columns were treated with 2 g N in the form of Ca(NO3)2, urea, urea + inhibitor (Nitrapyrin), another set of these treatments was prepared to add elemental sulfur. During incubation period, leaching was performed by applying a volume of water that allows the percolation of 250-ml water throughout the soil column. The leachates were analyzed for NH4-N and N03-N. After 10 weeks, soil columns were cut into four equal segments and analyzed for ammonium, nitrate, and total nitrogen. Results indicated the following: Ca(NO3)2 treatment showed a rapid NO3 leaching, especially in the first 3 weeks, in both clay and calcareous soils. This means that soil texture did not play any role in this respect. Sulfur addition also did not affect the rate of NO3 leaching. In urea treatment, there was a steady increase of NH4- and NO3–N from one leachate to another. Addition of sulfur with urea slowed down the nitrification process and decreased N losses. Clay soil contained residual N much more than calcareous soil. Almost one-third of added nitrogen might have been immobilized by soil microorganisms or lost through other loss paths. Nitrification inhibitor can play a role in preserving added nitrogen from being lost through leaching. Combining the inhibitor with elemental sulfur may help to stabilize certain preferred ratio of NH4 to NO3 in the soil for the benefit of the growing plants.

Keywords: alluvial soil, calcareous soil, elemental sulfur, nitrate leaching

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Authors: Tridipa Biswas, Kamal Pandey

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A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a simple representation of a surface in 3 dimensional space with elevation as the third dimension along with X (horizontal coordinates) and Y (vertical coordinates) in rectangular coordinates. DEM has wide applications in various fields like disaster management, hydrology and watershed management, geomorphology, urban development, map creation and resource management etc. Cartosat-1 or IRS P5 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) is a state-of-the-art remote sensing satellite built by ISRO (May 5, 2005) which is mainly intended for cartographic applications.Cartosat-1 is equipped with two panchromatic cameras capable of simultaneous acquiring images of 2.5 meters spatial resolution. One camera is looking at +26 degrees forward while another looks at –5 degrees backward to acquire stereoscopic imagery with base to height ratio of 0.62. The time difference between acquiring of the stereopair images is approximately 52 seconds. The high resolution stereo data have great potential to produce high-quality DEM. The high-resolution Cartosat-1 stereo image data is expected to have significant impact in topographic mapping and watershed applications. The objective of the present study is to generate high-resolution DEM, quality evaluation in different elevation strata, generation of ortho-rectified image and associated accuracy assessment from CARTOSAT-1 data based Ground Control Points (GCPs) for Aglar watershed (Tehri-Garhwal and Dehradun district, Uttarakhand, India). The present study reveals that generated DEMs (10m and 30m) derived from the CARTOSAT-1 stereo pair is much better and accurate when compared with existing DEMs (ASTER and CARTO DEM) also for different terrain parameters like slope, aspect, drainage, watershed boundaries etc., which are derived from the generated DEMs, have better accuracy and results when compared with the other two (ASTER and CARTO) DEMs derived terrain parameters.

Keywords: ASTER-DEM, CARTO-DEM, CARTOSAT-1, digital elevation model (DEM), ortho-rectified image, photogrammetry, RPC, stereo pair, terrain parameters

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Authors: Ali Mohammad Mobaser Azad, Alireza Akhlaghinia

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Blockchain is changing our world and launching a new generation of decentralized networks. Meanwhile, Blockchain-based networks like Ethereum have been created and they will facilitate these processes using tools like smart contracts. The Ethereum has fundamental structures, each of which affects the activity of the nodes. Our purpose in this paper is to review similar research and examine various components to demonstrate the performance of the Ethereum network and to do this, and we used the data published by the Ethereum Foundation in different time spots to examine the number of changes that determine the status of network performance. This will help other researchers understand better Ethereum in different situations.

Keywords: blockchain, ethereum, smart contract, decentralization consensus algorithm

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Authors: Mbongeni Mabaso, Kandasamy Moodley, Gan Redhi

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The recovery of industrially valuable organic solvents from liquid waste, generated in chemical processes, is economically crucial to countries which need to import organic solvents. In view of this, the main objective of this study was to determine the ability of selected ionic liquids, namely, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulphate, [EMIM] [ESO4] and 1-ethyl-3-methylpyridinium ethylsulphate, [EMpy][ESO4] to recover aromatic components from spent paint solvents. Preliminary studies done on the liquid waste, received from a paint manufacturing company, showed that the aromatic components were present in the range 6 - 21 % by volume. The separation of the aromatic components was performed with the ionic liquids listed above. The phases, resulting from the separation of the mixtures, were analysed with a Gas Chromatograph (GC) coupled to a FID detector. Chromatograms illustrate that the chosen ZB-Wax-Plus column gave excellent separation of all components of interest from the mixtures, including the isomers of xylene. The concentrations of aromatics recovered from the spent solvents were found to be the % ranges 13-33 and 23-49 respectively for imidazolium and pyridinium ionic liquids. These results also show that there is a significant correlation between π-character of ionic liquids and the level of extraction. It is therefore concluded that ionic liquids have the potential for macro-scale recovery of re-useable solvents present in liquid waste emanating from paint manufacture.

Keywords: synthesis, ionic liquid, imidazolium, pyridinium, extraction, aromatic solvents, spent paint organic solvents

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Authors: Selim M. Khan

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Indoor air quality is strongly influenced by the presence of radioactive radon (222Rn) gas. Indeed, exposure to high 222Rn concentrations is unequivocally linked to DNA damage and lung cancer and is a worsening issue in North American and European built environments, having increased over time within newer housing stocks as a function of as yet unclear variables. Indoor air radon concentration can be influenced by a wide range of environmental, structural, and behavioral factors. As some of these factors are quantitative while others are qualitative, no single statistical model can determine indoor radon level precisely while simultaneously considering all these variables across a complex and highly diverse dataset. The ability of AI- machine (deep) learning to simultaneously analyze multiple quantitative and qualitative features makes it suitable to predict radon with a high degree of precision. Using Canadian and Swedish long-term indoor air radon exposure data, we are using artificial deep neural network models with random weights and polynomial statistical models in MATLAB to assess and predict radon health risk to human as a function of geospatial, human behavioral, and built environmental metrics. Our initial artificial neural network with random weights model run by sigmoid activation tested different combinations of variables and showed the highest prediction accuracy (>96%) within the reasonable iterations. Here, we present details of these emerging methods and discuss strengths and weaknesses compared to the traditional artificial neural network and statistical methods commonly used to predict indoor air quality in different countries. We propose an artificial deep neural network with random weights as a highly effective method for assessing and predicting indoor radon.

Keywords: radon, radiation protection, lung cancer, aI-machine deep learnng, risk assessment, risk prediction, Europe, North America

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Authors: Suchithra V., Shreedhanya, Kavya Menon, Vidya Niranjan

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Skin metagenomics has a wide range of applications with direct relevance to the health of the organism. It gives us insight to the diverse community of microorganisms (the microbiome) harbored on the skin. In the recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that the interaction between skin microbiome and the human body plays a prominent role in immune system development, cancer development, disease pathology, and many other biological implications. Next Generation Sequencing has led to faster and better understanding of environmental organisms and their mutual interactions. This project is studying the human skin microbiome of different individuals having varied skin conditions. Bacterial 16S rRNA data of skin microbiome is downloaded from SRA toolkit provided by NCBI to perform metagenomics analysis. Twelve samples are selected with two controls, and 3 different categories, i.e., sex (male/female), skin type (moist/intermittently moist/sebaceous) and occlusion (occluded/intermittently occluded/exposed). Quality of the data is increased using Cutadapt, and its analysis is done using FastQC. USearch, a tool used to analyze an NGS data, provides a suitable platform to obtain taxonomy classification and abundance of bacteria from the metagenome data. The statistical tool used for analyzing the USearch result is METAGENassist. The results revealed that the top three abundant organisms found were: Prevotella, Corynebacterium, and Anaerococcus. Prevotella is known to be an infectious bacterium found on wound, tooth cavity, etc. Corynebacterium and Anaerococcus are opportunist bacteria responsible for skin odor. This result infers that Prevotella thrives easily in sebaceous skin conditions. Therefore it is better to undergo intermittently occluded treatment such as applying ointments, creams, etc. to treat wound for sebaceous skin type. Exposing the wound should be avoided as it leads to an increase in Prevotella abundance. Moist skin type individuals can opt for occluded or intermittently occluded treatment as they have shown to decrease the abundance of bacteria during treatment.

Keywords: bacterial 16S rRNA , next generation sequencing, skin metagenomics, skin microbiome, taxonomy

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Authors: Vishal Mahale, Jayashree Bijwe, Sujeet K. Sinha

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Range of thermal conductivity (TC) of Friction Materials (FMs) is a critical issue since lower TC leads to accumulation of frictional heat on the working surface, which results in excessive fade while higher TC leads to excessive heat flow towards back-plate resulting in boiling of brake-fluid leading to ‘spongy brakes’. This phenomenon prohibits braking action, which is most undesirable. Therefore, TC of the FMs across the brake pads should not be high while along the brake pad, it should be high. To enhance TC, metals in the forms of powder and fibers are used in the FMs. Apart from TC improvement, metals provide strength and structural integrity to the composites. Due to higher TC Copper (Cu) powder/fiber is a most preferred metallic ingredient in FM industry. However, Cu powders/fibers are responsible for metallic wear debris generation, which has harmful effects on aquatic organisms. Hence to get rid of a problem of metallic wear debris generation and to keep the positive effect of TC improvement, incorporation of Cu fabric in NAO brake-pads can be an innovative solution. Keeping this in view, two realistic multi-ingredient FM composites with identical formulations were developed in the form of brake-pads. Out of which one composite series consisted of a single layer of Cu fabric in the body of brake-pad and designated as C1 while double layer of Cu fabric was incorporated in another brake-pad series with designation of C2. Distance of Cu fabric layer from the back-plate was kept constant for C1 and C2. One more composite (C0) was developed without Cu fabric for the sake of comparison. Developed composites were characterized for physical properties. Tribological performance was evaluated on full scale inertia dynamometer by following JASO C 406 testing standard. It was concluded that Cu fabric successfully improved fade resistance by increasing conductivity of the composite and also showed slight improvement in wear resistance. Worn surfaces of pads and disc were analyzed by SEM and EDAX to study wear mechanism.

Keywords: brake inertia dynamometer, copper fabric, non-asbestos organic (NAO) friction materials, thermal conductivity enhancement

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Authors: Rowan Moore, Kai Scheffler, Eugen Damoc, Jennifer Sutton, Aaron Bailey, Stephane Houel, Simon Cubbon, Jonathan Josephs

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Purpose: MS analysis of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) at the protein and peptide levels is critical during development and production of biopharmaceuticals. The compositions of current generation therapeutic proteins are often complex due to various modifications which may affect efficacy. Intact proteins analyzed by MS are detected in higher charge states that also provide more complexity in mass spectra. Protein analysis in native or native-like conditions with zero or minimal organic solvent and neutral or weakly acidic pH decreases charge state value resulting in mAb detection at higher m/z ranges with more spatial resolution. Methods: Three commercially available mAbs were used for all experiments. Intact proteins were desalted online using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) or reversed phase chromatography coupled on-line with a mass spectrometer. For streamlined use of the LC- MS platform we used a single SEC column and alternately selected specific mobile phases to perform separations in either denaturing or native-like conditions: buffer A (20 % ACN, 0.1 % FA) with Buffer B (100 mM ammonium acetate). For peptide analysis mAbs were proteolytically digested with and without prior reduction and alkylation. The mass spectrometer used for all experiments was a commercially available Thermo Scientific™ hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap™ mass spectrometer, equipped with the new BioPharma option which includes a new High Mass Range (HMR) mode that allows for improved high mass transmission and mass detection up to 8000 m/z. Results: We have analyzed the profiles of three mAbs under reducing and native conditions by direct infusion with offline desalting and with on-line desalting via size exclusion and reversed phase type columns. The presence of high salt under denaturing conditions was found to influence the observed charge state envelope and impact mass accuracy after spectral deconvolution. The significantly lower charge states observed under native conditions improves the spatial resolution of protein signals and has significant benefits for the analysis of antibody mixtures, e.g. lysine variants, degradants or sequence variants. This type of analysis requires the detection of masses beyond the standard mass range ranging up to 6000 m/z requiring the extended capabilities available in the new HMR mode. We have compared each antibody sample that was analyzed individually with mixtures in various relative concentrations. For this type of analysis, we observed that apparent native structures persist and ESI is benefited by the addition of low amounts of acetonitrile and formic acid in combination with the ammonium acetate-buffered mobile phase. For analyses on the peptide level we analyzed reduced/alkylated, and non-reduced proteolytic digests of the individual antibodies separated via reversed phase chromatography aiming to retrieve as much information as possible regarding sequence coverage, disulfide bridges, post-translational modifications such as various glycans, sequence variants, and their relative quantification. All data acquired were submitted to a single software package for analysis aiming to obtain a complete picture of the molecules analyzed. Here we demonstrate the capabilities of the mass spectrometer to fully characterize homogeneous and heterogeneous therapeutic proteins on one single platform. Conclusion: Full characterization of heterogeneous intact protein mixtures by improved mass separation on a quadrupole-Orbitrap™ mass spectrometer with extended capabilities has been demonstrated.

Keywords: disulfide bond analysis, intact analysis, native analysis, mass spectrometry, monoclonal antibodies, peptide mapping, post-translational modifications, sequence variants, size exclusion chromatography, therapeutic protein analysis, UHPLC

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Authors: Endris Yibru Hanurry, Wei-Hsin Hsu, Hsieh-Chih Tsai

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In recent years, the discovery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has got great attention for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. However, the therapeutic efficacy of siRNAs has been faced with many drawbacks because of short half-life in blood circulation, poor membrane penetration, weak endosomal escape and inadequate release into the cytosol. To overcome these drawbacks, we designed a non-viral vector by conjugating polyamidoamine generation 4.5 dendrimer (PDG4.5) with diethylenetriamine (DETA)- and tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) followed by binding with siRNA to form polyplexes through electrostatic interaction. The result of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, correlation spectroscopy, heteronuclear single–quantum correlation spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the successful conjugation of DETA and TEPA with PDG4.5. Then, the size, surface charge, morphology, binding ability, stability, release assay, toxicity and cellular internalization were analyzed to explore the physicochemical and biological properties of PDG4.5-DETA and PDG4.5-TEPA polyplexes at specific N/P ratios. The polyplexes (N/P = 8) exhibited spherical nanosized (125 and 85 nm) particles with optimum surface charge (13 and 26 mV), showed strong siRNA binding ability, protected the siRNA against enzyme digestion and accepted biocompatibility to the HeLa cells. Qualitatively, the fluorescence microscopy image revealed the delocalization (Manders’ coefficient 0.63 and 0.53 for PDG4.5-DETA and PDG4.5-TEPA, respectively) of polyplexes and the translocation of the siRNA throughout the cytosol to show a decent cellular internalization and intracellular biodistribution of polyplexes in HeLa cells. Quantitatively, the flow cytometry result indicated that a significant (P < 0.05) amount of siRNA was internalized by cells treated with PDG4.5-DETA (68.5%) and PDG4.5-TEPA (73%) polyplexes. Generally, PDG4.5-DETA and PDG4.5-TEPA were ideal nanocarriers of siRNA in vitro and might be used as promising candidates for in vivo study and future pharmaceutical applications.

Keywords: non-viral carrier, oligoalkylamine, poly(amidoamine) dendrimer, polyplexes, siRNA

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Authors: Karan Bhandari

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Almost quarter region of Indian terrain is covered by grasslands. Grass being a low maintenance perennial crop is in abundance. Farmers are well acquainted with its nature, yield and storage. The aim of this paper is to study and identify the applicability of grass as a source of bio fuel. Anaerobic break down is a well-recognized technology. This process is vital for harnessing bio fuel from grass. Grass is a lignocellulosic material which is fibrous and can readily cause problems with parts in motion. Further, it also has a tendency to float. This paper also deals with the ideal digester configuration for biogas generation from grass. Intensive analysis of the literature is studied on the optimum production of grass storage in accordance with bio digester specifications. Subsequent to this two different digester systems were designed, fabricated, analyzed. The first setup was a double stage wet continuous arrangement usually known as a Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). The next was a double stage, double phase system implementing Sequentially Fed Leach Beds using an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (SLBR-UASB). The above methodologies were carried for the same feedstock acquired from the same field. Examination of grass silage was undertaken using Biomethane Potential values. The outcomes portrayed that the Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor system produced about 450 liters of methane per Kg of volatile solids, at a detention period of 48 days. The second method involving Leach Beds produced about 340 liters of methane per Kg of volatile solids with a detention period of 28 days. The results showcased that CSTR when designed exclusively for grass proved to be extremely efficient in methane production. The SLBR-UASB has significant potential to allow for lower detention times with significant levels of methane production. This technology has immense future for research and development in India in terms utilizing of grass crop as a non-conventional source of fuel.

Keywords: biomethane potential values, bio digester specifications, continuously stirred tank reactor, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket

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Authors: K. Anas, M. Selvakumar, Samson David, R. R. Babu, S. Chattopadhyay

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The dynamic deformation of a visco elastic material can cause heat generation. This heat generation is aspect energy dissipation. The present work investigates the contribution of various factors like; elastomer structure, cross link type and density, filler networking, reinforcement potential and temperature at energy dissipation mechanism. The influences of these elements are investigated using very high frequency analyzer (VHF ) and dynamical mechanical analysis(DMA).VHF follows transmissibility and vibration isolation principle whereas DMA works on dynamical mechanical deformation principle. VHF analysis of different types of elastomers reveals that elastomer can act as a transmitter or damper of energy depending on the applied frequency ratio (ω/ωn). Dynamic modulus (G') of low damping rubbers like natural rubber does not varies rapidly with frequency but vice-versa for high damping rubber like butyl rubber (IIR). VHF analysis also depicts that polysulfidic linkages has high damping ratio (ζ) than mono sulfidic linkages due to its dissipative nature. At comparable cross link density, mono sulfidic linkages shows higher glass transition temperature (Tg) than poly sulfidic linkages. The intensity and location of loss modulus (G'') peak of different types of carbon black filled natural rubber compounds suggests that segmental relaxation at glass transition temperature (Tg) is seldom affected by filler particles, but the filler networks can influence the cross link density by absorbing the curatives. The filler network breaking and reformation during a dynamic strain is a thermally activated process. Thus, stronger aggregates are highly dissipative in nature. Measurements indicate that at lower temperature regimes polymeric chain friction is highly dissipative in nature.

Keywords: damping ratio, natural frequency, crosslinking density, segmental motion, surface activity, dissipative, polymeric chain friction

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Authors: Morteza Ghorbani, Reza Ghorbani

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Cavitation phenomenon has attracted much attention in the mechanical and biomedical technologies. Despite the simplicity and mostly low cost of the devices generating cavitation bubbles, the physics behind the generation and collapse of these bubbles particularly in micro/nano scale has still not well understood. In the chemical industry, micro/nano bubble generation is expected to be applicable to the development of porous materials such as microcellular plastic foams. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the presence of micro/nano bubbles on a surface reduced the adsorption of proteins. Thus, the micro/nano bubbles could act as antifouling agents. Micro and nano bubbles were also employed in water purification, froth floatation, even in sonofusion, which was not completely validated. Small bubbles could also be generated using micro scale hydrodynamic cavitation. In this study, compared to the studies available in the literature, we are proposing a novel approach in micro scale utilizing the energy produced during the interaction of the spray affected by the hydrodynamic cavitating flow and a thin aluminum plate. With a decrease in the size, cavitation effects become significant. It is clearly shown that with the aid of hydrodynamic cavitation generated inside the micro/mini-channels in addition to the optimization of the distance between the tip of the microchannel configuration and the solid surface, surface temperatures can be increased up to 50C under the conditions of this study. The temperature rise on the surfaces near the collapsing small bubbles was exploited for energy harvesting in small scale, in such a way that miniature, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly energy-harvesting devices can be developed. Such devices will not require any external power and moving parts in contrast to common energy-harvesting devices, such as those involving piezoelectric materials and micro engine. Energy harvesting from thermal energy has been widely exploited to achieve energy savings and clean technologies. We are proposing a cost effective and environmentally friendly solution for the growing individual energy needs thanks to the energy application of cavitating flows. The necessary power for consumer devices, such as cell phones and laptops, can be provided using this approach. Thus, this approach has the potential for solving personal energy needs in an inexpensive and environmentally friendly manner and can trigger a shift of paradigm in energy harvesting.

Keywords: cavitation, energy, harvesting, micro scale

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Authors: Gubiani Rino, Nicola Zucchiatti, Da Broi Ugo, Bietresato Marco

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The problem of vibrations in agriculture is very important due to the different types of machinery used for the different types of soil in which work is carried out. One of the most commonly used machines is the tractor, where the phenomenon has been studied for a long time by measuring the whole body and placing the sensor on the seat. However, this measurement system does not take into account the characteristics of the drivers, such as their body index (BMI), their gender (male, female) or the muscle fatigue they are subjected to, which is highly dependent on their age for example. The aim of the research was therefore to place sensors not only on the seat but along the spinal column to check the transmission of vibration on drivers with different BMI on different tractors and at different travel speeds and of different genders. The test was also done using wearable sensors such as a dynamometer applied to the muscles, the data of which was correlated with the vibrations produced by the tractor. Initial data show that even on new tractors with pneumatic seats, the vibrations attenuate little and are still correlated with the roughness of the track travelled and the forward speed. Another important piece of data are the root-mean square values referred to 8 hours (A(8)x,y,z) and the maximum transient vibration values (MTVVx,y,z) and, the latter, the MTVVz values were problematic (limiting factor in most cases) and always aggravated by the speed. The MTVVx values can be lowered by having a tyre-pressure adjustment system, able to properly adjust the tire pressure according to the specific situation (ground, speed) in which a tractor is operating.

Keywords: fatigue, effect vibration on health, tractor driver vibrations, vibration, muscle skeleton disorders

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Authors: G. Anusha, J. Raja Murugadoss

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In recent years, the problem of water contaminant is drastically increasing due to the disposal of industrial wastewater containing iron, fluoride, mercury, lead, cadmium, phosphorus, silver etc. into water bodies. The non-biodegradable heavy metals could accumulate in the human system through food chain and cause various dreadful diseases and permanent disabilities and in worst cases it leads to casual losses. Further, the presence of the excess quantity of such heavy metals viz. Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, Zinc, Copper, Iron etc. seriously affect the natural quality of potable water and necessitates the treatment process for removal. Though there are dozens of standard procedures available for the removal of heavy metals, their cost keeps the industrialists away from adopting such technologies. In the present work, an attempt has been made to remove such contaminants particularly fluoride and to study the efficiency of the removal of fluoride by adsorption using a new agro-based materials namely Limonia acidissima and Emblica officinalis which is commonly referred as wood apple and gooseberry respectively. Accordingly a set of experiments has been conducted using batch and column processes, with the help of activated carbon prepared from the shell of wood apple and seeds of gooseberries. Experiments reveal that the adsorption capacity of the shell of wood apple is significant to yield promising solutions.

Keywords: adsorption, fluoride, agro-based waste materials, Limonia acidissima, Emblica officinalis

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Authors: Priyanka Jain, Ashish K. Sharma, Esha Shukla, K. J. Mukherjee

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We propose a paradigm shift in our approach to design improved platforms for recombinant protein production, by addressing system level issues rather than the individual steps associated with recombinant protein synthesis like transcription, translation, etc. We demonstrate that by controlling and modulating the cellular stress response (CSR), which is responsible for feedback control of protein synthesis, we can generate hyper-producing strains. We did transcriptomic profiling of post-induction cultures, expressing different types of protein, to analyze the nature of this cellular stress response. We found significant down-regulation of substrate utilization, translation, and energy metabolism genes due to generation CSR inside the host cell. However, transcription profiling has also shown that many genes are up-regulated post induction and their role in modulating the CSR is unclear. We hypothesized that these up-regulated genes trigger signaling pathways, generating the CSR and concomitantly reduce the recombinant protein yield. To test this hypothesis, we knocked out the up-regulated genes, which did not have any downstream regulatees, and analyzed their impact on cellular health and recombinant protein expression. Two model proteins i.e., GFP and L-Asparaginase were chosen for this analysis. We observed a significant improvement in expression levels, with some knock-outs showing more than 7-fold higher expression compared to control. The 10 best single knock-outs were chosen to make 45 combinations of all possible double knock-outs. A further increase in expression was observed in some of these double knock- outs with GFP levels being highest in a double knock-out ΔyhbC + ΔelaA. However, for L-Asparaginase which is a secretory protein, the best results were obtained using a combination of ΔelaA+ΔcysW knock-outs. We then tested all the knock outs for their ability to enhance the expression of a 'difficult-to-express' protein. The Rubella virus E1 protein was chosen and tagged with sfGFP at the C-terminal using a linker peptide for easy online monitoring of expression of this fusion protein. Interestingly, the highest increase in Rubella-sGFP levels was obtained in the same double knock-out ΔelaA + ΔcysW (5.6 fold increase in expression yield compared to the control) which gave the highest expression for L-Asparaginase. However, for sfGFP alone, the ΔyhbC+ΔmarR knock-out gave the highest level of expression. These results indicate that there is a fair degree of commonality in the nature of the CSR generated by the induction of different proteins. Transcriptomic profiling of the double knock out showed that many genes associated with the translational machinery and energy biosynthesis did not get down-regulated post induction, unlike the control where these genes were significantly down-regulated. This confirmed our hypothesis of these genes playing an important role in the generation of the CSR and allowed us to design a strategy for making better expression hosts by simply knocking out key genes. This strategy is radically superior to the previous approach of individually up-regulating critical genes since it blocks the mounting of the CSR thus preventing the down-regulation of a very large number of genes responsible for sustaining the flux through the recombinant protein production pathway.

Keywords: cellular stress response, GFP, knock-outs, up-regulated genes

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Authors: Bharath Anantharamaiah, Tomas Bouda, Elke Deckers, Stijn Jonckheere, Wim Desmet, Juan J. Garcia

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Automotive tyres are gaining importance recently in terms of their noise emission, not only with respect to reduction in noise, but also their perception and detection. Tyres exhibit a mechanical noise generation mechanism up to 1 kHz. However, owing to the fact that tyre is a composite of several materials, it has been difficult to model it using finite elements to predict noise at high frequencies. The currently available FE models have a reliability of about 500 Hz, the limit which, however, is not enough to perceive the roughness or sharpness of noise from tyre. These noise components are important in order to alert pedestrians on the street about passing by slow, especially electric vehicles. In order to model tyre noise behaviour up to 1 kHz, its dynamic behaviour must be accurately developed up to a 1 kHz limit using finite elements. Materials play a vital role in modelling the dynamic tyre behaviour precisely. Since tyre is a composition of several components, their precise definition in finite element simulations is necessary. However, during the tyre manufacturing process, these components are subjected to various pressures and temperatures, due to which these properties could change. Hence, material definitions are better described based on the tyre responses. In this work, the hyperelasticity of tyre component rubbers is calibrated, using the design of experiments technique from the tyre characteristic responses that are measured on a stiffness measurement machine. The viscoelasticity of rubbers are defined by the Prony series for rubbers, which are determined from the loss factor relationship between the loss and storage moduli, assuming that the rubbers are excited within the linear viscoelasticity ranges. These values of loss factor are measured and theoretically expressed as a function of rubber shore hardness or hyperelasticities. From the results of the work, there exists a good correlation between test and simulation vibrational transfer function up to 1 kHz. The model also allows flexibility, i.e., the frequency limit can also be extended, if required, by calibrating the Prony parameters of rubbers corresponding to the frequency of interest. As future work, these tyre models are used for noise generation at high frequencies and thus for tyre noise perception.

Keywords: tyre dynamics, rubber materials, prony series, hyperelasticity

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Authors: Hana Barak, Alex Sivan, Ariel Kushmaro

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Microorganisms are the most diverse and abundant life forms on Earth and account for a large portion of the Earth’s biomass and biodiversity. To date though, our knowledge regarding microbial life is lacking, as it is based mainly on information from cultivated organisms. Indeed, microbiologists have borrowed from astrophysics and termed the ‘uncultured microbial majority’ as ‘microbial dark matter’. The realization of how diverse and unexplored microorganisms are, actually stems from recent advances in molecular biology, and in particular from novel methods for sequencing microbial small subunit ribosomal RNA genes directly from environmental samples termed next-generation sequencing (NGS). This has led us to use NGS that generates several gigabases of sequencing data in a single experimental run, to identify and classify environmental samples of microorganisms. In metagenomics sequencing analysis (both 16S and shotgun), sequences are compared to reference databases that contain only small part of the existing microorganisms and therefore their taxonomy assignment may reveal groups of unknown microorganisms or origins. These unknowns, or the ‘microbial sequences dark matter’, are usually ignored in spite of their great importance. The goal of this work was to develop an improved bioinformatics method that enables more complete analyses of the microbial communities in numerous environments. Therefore, NGS was used to identify previously unknown microorganisms from three different environments (industrials wastewater, Negev Desert’s rocks and water wells at the Arava valley). 16S rRNA gene metagenome analysis of the microorganisms from those three environments produce about ~4 million reads for 75 samples. Between 0.1-12% of the sequences in each sample were tagged as ‘Unassigned’. Employing relatively simple methodology for resequencing of original gDNA samples through Sanger or MiSeq Illumina with specific primers, this study demonstrates that the mysterious ‘Unassigned’ group apparently contains sequences of candidate phyla. Those unknown sequences can be located on a phylogenetic tree and thus provide a better understanding of the ‘sequences dark matter’ and its role in the research of microbial communities and diversity. Studying this ‘dark matter’ will extend the existing databases and could reveal the hidden potential of the ‘microbial dark matter’.

Keywords: bacteria, bioinformatics, dark matter, Next Generation Sequencing, unknown

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Authors: Bhavita S. Dave, Chandresh H. Solanki, Atul K. Desai

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Soils of Greater Himalayas mostly pertain to Leh & Ladakh, Lahaul & Sppiti, & high reaches to Uttarakhand. The moisture regime is aridic. The arid zone starts from Baralacha pass in Lahaul and covers the entire Spiti valley in the district of Lahaul & Spiti, Himachal Pradesh of India. Here, the present study is an attempt to determine the suction value of soil collected from the arid zone of Spiti valley for different freezing-thawing cycles considering the climate ranges of Spiti valley. Suction is the basic and most important parameter which influences the behavior of unsaturated soil. It is essential to determine the suction value of unsaturated soil before other tests like shear test, and permeability. Basically, it is the negative pore water pressure in partially saturated soil measured in terms of the height of the water column. The filter paper method has been used for the study as an economical approach to evaluate suction. It is the only method from which both contact and non-contact suction can be deduced. In this study, soil specimens were subjected to 0, 1, 3, & 5 freezing-thawing (F-T) cycles for different degrees of saturation to have a wide range of suction, and soil freezing characteristic curves (SFCC) were formulated for all F-T cycles. The result data collected from the experiments have shown best-fitted values using Fredlund & Xing model for each SFCC.

Keywords: suction, arid region soil, soil freezing characteristic curve, freezing-thawing cycle

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Authors: Insaf Mehani, Bachir Bouchekima

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The necessary reduction and progressive consumption of fossil fuels, whose scarcity is inevitable, involves mobilizing a set of alternatives.Renewable energy, including bio energy are an alternative to fossil fuel depletion and a way to fight against the harmful effects of climate change. It is possible to develop common dates of low commercial value, and put on the local and international market a new generation of products with high added values such as bio ethanol. Besides its use in chemical synthesis, bio ethanol can be blended with gasoline to produce a clean fuel while improving the octane.

Keywords: bioenergy, dates, bioethanol, renewable energy, south Algeria

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Authors: Ehsan Asgari, Meisam Afazeli, Nezhla Attarchian

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Post-earthquake fire is considered as a major threat in seismic areas. After an earthquake, fire is possible in structures. In this research, the effect of post-earthquake fire on steel moment frames with and without fireproofing coating is investigated. For this purpose, finite element method is employed. For the verification of finite element results, the results of an experimental study carried out by previous researchers are used, and the predicted FE results are compared with the test results, and good agreement is observed. After ensuring the accuracy of the predictions of finite element models, the effect of post-earthquake fire on the frames is investigated taking into account the parameters including the presence or absence of fire protection, frame design assumptions, earthquake type and different fire scenario. Ordinary fire and post-earthquake fire effect on the frames is also studied. The plastic hinges induced by earthquake in the structure are determined in the beam to the column connection and in panel zone. These areas should be accurately considered when providing fireproofing coatings. The results of the study show that the occurrence of fire beside corner columns is the most damaging scenario that results in progressive collapse of structure. It was also concluded that the behavior of structure in fire after a strong ground motion is significantly different from that in a normal fire.

Keywords: post earthquake fire, moment frame, finite element simulation, coupled temperature-displacement analysis, fire scenario

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Authors: Jia Xue, Frederica G. Lamar, Siyu Lin, Jennifer G. Lamori, Samendra Sherchan

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Brackish water samples from Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana were assessed for the presence of pathogenic amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). In our study, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods were used to determine N. fowleri, E. coli, and Enterococcus in water collected from Lake Pontchartrain. A total of 158 water samples were analyzed over the 10-month sampling period. Statistically significant positive correlation between water temperature and N. fowleri concentration was observed. N. fowleri target sequence was detected at 35.4% (56/158) of the water samples from ten sites around the Lake ranged from 11.6 GC/100 ml water to 457.8 GC/100 ml water. A single factor (ANOVA) analysis shows the average concentration of N. fowleri in summer (119.8 GC/100 ml) was significantly higher than in winter (58.6 GC/100 ml) (p < 0.01). Statistically significant positive correlations were found between N. fowleri and qPCR E. coli results and N. fowleri and colilert E. coli (culture method), respectively. A weak positive correlation between E. coli and Enterococcus was observed from both qPCR (r = 0.27, p < 0.05) and culture based method (r = 0.52, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, significant positive correlation between qPCR and culture based methods for E. coli (r = 0.30, p < 0.05) and Enterococcus concentration was observed (r = 0.26, p < 0.05), respectively. Future research is needed to determine whether sediment is a source of N. fowleri found in the water column.

Keywords: brackish water, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, Naegleria fowleri, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), qPCR

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Authors: Vincenzo Capalbo, Gianpaolo Ghiani, Emanuele Manni

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Global e-commerce sales have reached unprecedented levels in the past few years. As this trend is only predicted to go up as we continue into the ’20s, new challenges will be faced by companies when planning and controlling e-commerce logistics. In this paper, we survey the related literature on Optimization and Machine Learning as well as on combined methodologies. We also identify the distinctive features of next-generation planning algorithms - namely scalability, model-and-run features and learning capabilities - that will be fundamental to cope with the scale and complexity of logistics in the next decade.

Keywords: e-commerce, hardware acceleration, logistics, machine learning, mixed integer programming, optimization

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Authors: E. E. S. Uy, T. Noda, K. Nakai, J. R. Dungca

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Cyclic threshold shear strain is the cyclic shear strain amplitude that serves as the indicator of the development of pore water pressure. The parameter can be obtained by performing either cyclic triaxial test, shaking table test, cyclic simple shear or resonant column. In a cyclic triaxial test, other researchers install measuring devices in close proximity of the soil to measure the parameter. In this study, an attempt was made to estimate the cyclic threshold shear strain parameter using full-field measurement technique. The technique uses a camera to monitor and measure the movement of the soil. For this study, the technique was incorporated in a strain-controlled consolidated undrained cyclic triaxial test. Calibration of the camera was first performed to ensure that the camera can properly measure the deformation under cyclic loading. Its capacity to measure deformation was also investigated using a cylindrical rubber dummy. Two-dimensional image processing was implemented. Lucas and Kanade optical flow algorithm was applied to track the movement of the soil particles. Results from the full-field measurement technique were compared with the results from the linear variable displacement transducer. A range of values was determined from the estimation. This was due to the nonhomogeneous deformation of the soil observed during the cyclic loading. The minimum values were in the order of 10-2% in some areas of the specimen.

Keywords: cyclic loading, cyclic threshold shear strain, full-field measurement, optical flow

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Authors: Kedibone Masenya, Memory Tekere, Jasper Rees

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Sorghum is an important cereal crop in the world. In particular, it has attracted breeders due to capacity to serve as food, feed, fiber and bioenergy crop. Like any other plant, sorghum hosts a variety of microbes, which can either, have a neutral, negative and positive influence on the plant. In the current study, regions (V3/V4) of 16 S rRNA were targeted to extensively assess bacterial multitrophic interactions in the phyllosphere of sorghum. The results demonstrated that the presence of a pathogen has a significant effect on the endophytic bacterial community. Understanding these interactions is key to develop new strategies for plant protection.

Keywords: bacteria, multitrophic, sorghum, target sequencing

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Authors: Aldilla Damayanti Purnama Ratri, Hendri Subakti, Buldan Muslim

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Ionosphere’s anomalies as an effect of earthquake activity is a phenomenon that is now being studied in seismo-ionospheric coupling. Generally, variation in the ionosphere caused by earthquake activity is weaker than the interference generated by different source, such as geomagnetic storms. However, disturbances of geomagnetic storms show a more global behavior, while the seismo-ionospheric anomalies occur only locally in the area which is largely determined by magnitude of the earthquake. It show that the earthquake activity is unique and because of its uniqueness it has been much research done thus expected to give clues as early warning before earthquake. One of the research that has been developed at this time is the approach of seismo-ionospheric-coupling. This study related the state in the lithosphere-atmosphere and ionosphere before and when earthquake occur. This paper choose the total electron content in a vertical (VTEC) in the ionosphere as a parameter. Total Electron Content (TEC) is defined as the amount of electron in vertical column (cylinder) with cross-section of 1m2 along GPS signal trajectory in ionosphere at around 350 km of height. Based on the analysis of data obtained from the LAPAN agency to identify abnormal signals by statistical methods, obtained that there are an anomaly in the ionosphere is characterized by decreasing of electron content of the ionosphere at 1 TECU before the earthquake occurred. Decreasing of VTEC is not associated with magnetic storm that is indicated as an earthquake precursor. This is supported by the Dst index showed no magnetic interference.

Keywords: earthquake, DST Index, ionosphere, seismoionospheric coupling, VTEC

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Authors: Omnia F. Kharoob, Nashwa M. Yossef

Abstract:

Concrete-filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) columns could be utilized in structures such as bridges, high-rise buildings, viaducts, and electricity transmission towers due to its great structural performance. Alternatively, lean duplex stainless steel has recently gained significant interest for its high structural performance, similar corrosion resistance and lower cost compared to the austenitic steel grade. Hence, this paper presents the nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis, behaviour and design of rectangular outer lean duplex stainless steel (EN 1.4162) CFDST short columns under compression. All classes of the outer rectangular hollow section according to the depth-to-thickness (D/t) ratios were considered. The results showed that the axial ultimate strength of rectangular CFDST short columns increased linearly by increasing the concrete compressive strength, while it does not influence when changing the hollow ratios. Finally, the axial capacities were compared with the available design methods, and recommendations were conducted for the design strength of this type of column.

Keywords: concrete-filled double skin columns, compressive strength, finite element analysis, lean duplex stainless steel, ultimate axial strength, short columns

Procedia PDF Downloads 303