Search results for: solar energy technology

Authors: Natia Jalagonia, Tinatin Kuchukhidze

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Polymer electrolytes (PE) play an important part in electrochemical devices such as batteries and fuel cells. To achieve optimal performance, the PE must maintain a high ionic conductivity and mechanical stability at both high and low relative humidity. The polymer electrolyte also needs to have excellent chemical stability for long and robustness. According to the prevailing theory, ionic conduction in polymer electrolytes is facilitated by the large-scale segmental motion of the polymer backbone, and primarily occurs in the amorphous regions of the polymer electrolyte. Crystallinity restricts polymer backbone segmental motion and significantly reduces conductivity. Consequently, polymer electrolytes with high conductivity at room temperature have been sought through polymers which have highly flexible backbones and have largely amorphous morphology. The interest in polymer electrolytes was increased also by potential applications of solid polymer electrolytes in high energy density solid state batteries, gas sensors and electrochromic windows. Conductivity of 10-3 S/cm is commonly regarded as a necessary minimum value for practical applications in batteries. At present, polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based systems are most thoroughly investigated, reaching room temperature conductivities of 10-7 S/cm in some cross-linked salt in polymer systems based on amorphous PEO-polypropylene oxide copolymers.. It is widely accepted that amorphous polymers with low glass transition temperatures Tg and a high segmental mobility are important prerequisites for high ionic conductivities. Another necessary condition for high ionic conductivity is a high salt solubility in the polymer, which is most often achieved by donors such as ether oxygen or imide groups on the main chain or on the side groups of the PE. It is well established also that lithium ion coordination takes place predominantly in the amorphous domain, and that the segmental mobility of the polymer is an important factor in determining the ionic mobility. Great attention was pointed to PEO-based amorphous electrolyte obtained by synthesis of comb-like polymers, by attaching short ethylene oxide unit sequences to an existing amorphous polymer backbone. The aim of presented work is to obtain of solid polymer electrolyte membranes using PMHS as a matrix. For this purpose the hydrosilylation reactions of α,ω-bis(trimethylsiloxy)methyl¬hydrosiloxane with allyl triethylene-glycol mo¬nomethyl ether and vinyltriethoxysilane at 1:28:7 ratio of initial com¬pounds in the presence of Karstedt’s catalyst, platinum hydrochloric acid (0.1 M solution in THF) and platinum on the carbon catalyst in 50% solution of anhydrous toluene have been studied. The synthesized olygomers are vitreous liquid products, which are well soluble in organic solvents with specific viscosity ηsp ≈ 0.05 - 0.06. The synthesized olygomers were analysed with FTIR, 1H, 13C, 29Si NMR spectroscopy. Synthesized polysiloxanes were investigated with wide-angle X-ray, gel-permeation chromatography, and DSC analyses. Via sol-gel processes of doped with lithium trifluoromethylsulfonate (triflate) or lithium bis¬(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)¬imide polymer systems solid polymer electrolyte membranes have been obtained. The dependence of ionic conductivity as a function of temperature and salt concentration was investigated and the activation energies of conductivity for all obtained compounds are calculated

Keywords: synthesis, PMHS, membrane, electrolyte

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Authors: Etienne Herrick

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As an economically and ecologically feasible method for farmers to introduce greater diversity into their crop rotations, cover cropping presents a valuable opportunity for improving the sustainability of food production. Planted in-between cash crop growing seasons, cover crops serve to enhance agroecosystem functioning, rather than being destined for sale or consumption. In fact, cover crops may hold the capacity to deliver multiple ecosystem functions or services simultaneously (multifunctionality). Building upon this line of research will not only benefit society at present, but also support its continued survival through its potential for restoring depleted soils and reducing the need for energy-intensive and harmful external inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. This study utilizes a trait-based approach to explore the influence of inter- and intra-specific interactions in summer cover crop mixtures and monocultures on functional trait expression and ecosystem services. Functional traits that enhance ecosystem services related to agricultural production include height, specific leaf area (SLA), root, shoot ratio, leaf C and N concentrations, and flowering phenology. Ecosystem services include biomass production, weed suppression, reduced N leaching, N recycling, and support of pollinators. Employing a trait-based approach may allow for the elucidation of mechanistic links between plant structure and resulting ecosystem service delivery. While relationships between some functional traits and the delivery of particular ecosystem services may be readily apparent through existing ecological knowledge (e.g. height positively correlating with weed suppression), this study will begin to quantify those relationships so as to gain further understanding of whether and how measurable variation in functional trait expression across cover crop mixtures and monocultures can serve as a reliable predictor of variation in the types and abundances of ecosystem services delivered. Six cover crop species, including legume, grass, and broadleaf functional types, were selected for growth in six mixtures and their component monocultures based upon the principle of trait complementarity. The tricultures (three-way mixtures) are comprised of a legume, grass, and broadleaf species, and include cowpea/sudex/buckwheat, sunnhemp/sudex/buckwheat, and chickling vetch/oat/buckwheat combinations; the dicultures contain the same legume and grass combinations as above, without the buckwheat broadleaf. By combining species with expectedly complimentary traits (for example, legumes are N suppliers and grasses are N acquirers, creating a nutrient cycling loop) the cover crop mixtures may elicit a broader range of ecosystem services than that provided by a monoculture, though trade-offs could exist. Collecting functional trait data will enable the investigation of the types of interactions driving these ecosystem service outcomes. It also allows for generalizability across a broader range of species than just those selected for this study, which may aid in informing further research efforts exploring species and ecosystem functioning, as well as on-farm management decisions.

Keywords: agroecology, cover crops, functional traits, multifunctionality, trait complementarity

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Frederick Gooding

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This paper explores how many Hip Hop artists have intentionally and strategically invoked sustainability principles of people, planet and profits as a means to create community, compensate for and cope with structural inequalities in society. These themes not only create community within one's country, but the powerful display and demonstration of these narratives create community on a global plane. Listeners of Hip Hop are therefore able to learn about the political events occurring in another country free of censure, and establish solidarity worldwide. Hip Hop therefore can be an ingenious tool to create self-worth, recycle positive imagery, and serve as a defense mechanism from institutional and structural forces that conspire to make an upward economic and social trajectory difficult, if not impossible for many people of color, all across the world. Although the birthplace of Hip Hop, the United States of America, is still predominately White, it has undoubtedly grown more diverse at a breath-­taking pace in recent decades. Yet, whether American mainstream media will fully reflect America’s newfound diversity remains to be seen. As it stands, American mainstream media is seen and enjoyed by diverse audiences not just in America, but all over the world. Thus, it is imperative that further inquiry is conducted about one of the fastest growing genres within one of the world’s largest and most influential media industries generating upwards of $10 billion annually. More importantly, hip hop, its music and associated culture collectively represent a shared social experience of significant value. They are important tools used both to inform and influence economic, social and political identity. Conversely, principles of American exceptionalism often prioritize American political issues over those of others, thereby rendering a myopic political view within the mainstream. This paper will therefore engage in an international contextualization of the global phenomena entitled Hip Hop by exploring the creative genius and marketing appeal of Hip Hop within the global context of information technology, political expression and social change in addition to taking a critical look at historically racialized imagery within mainstream media. Many artists the world over have been able to freely express themselves and connect with broader communities outside of their own borders, all through the sound practice of the craft of Hip Hop. An empirical understanding of political, social and economic forces within the United States will serve as a bridge for identifying and analyzing transnational themes of commonality for typically marginalized or disaffected communities facing similar struggles for survival and respect. The sharing of commonalities of marginalized cultures not only serves as a source of education outside of typically myopic, mainstream sources, but it also creates transnational bonds globally to the extent that practicing artists resonate with many of the original themes of (now mostly underground) Hip Hop as with many of the African American artists responsible for creating and fostering Hip Hop's powerful outlet of expression. Hip Hop's power of connectivity and culture-sharing transnationally across borders provides a key source of education to be taken seriously by academics.

Keywords: culture, education, global, hip hop, mainstream music, transnational

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Authors: Rajwanlop Kumpoopong, Sukit Yindeesuk, Pornchai Silarom

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Modeling cracks in concrete is complicated by its strain-softening behavior which requires the use of sophisticated energy criteria of fracture mechanics to assure stable and convergent solutions in the finite-element (FE) analysis particularly for relatively large structures. However, for small-scale structures such as beams and slabs, a simpler approach relies on retaining some shear stiffness in the cracking plane has been adopted in literature to model the strain-softening behavior of concrete under monotonically increased loading. According to the shear retaining approach, each element is assumed to be an isotropic material prior to cracking of concrete. Once an element is cracked, the isotropic element is replaced with an orthotropic element in which the new orthotropic stiffness matrix is formulated with respect to the crack orientation. The shear transfer factor of 0.5 is used in parallel to the crack plane. The shear retaining approach is adopted in this research to model cracks in RC bridge deck with some modifications to take into account the effect of repetitive moving truck wheel loads as they cause fatigue cracking of concrete. First modification is the introduction of fatigue tests of concrete and reinforcing steel and the Palmgren-Miner linear criterion of cumulative damage in the conventional FE analysis. For a certain loading, the number of cycles to failure of each concrete or RC element can be calculated from the fatigue or S-N curves of concrete and reinforcing steel. The elements with the minimum number of cycles to failure are the failed elements. For the elements that do not fail, the damage is accumulated according to Palmgren-Miner linear criterion of cumulative damage. The stiffness of the failed element is modified and the procedure is repeated until the deck slab fails. The total number of load cycles to failure of the deck slab can then be obtained from which the S-N curve of the deck slab can be simulated. Second modification is the modification in shear transfer factor. Moving loading causes continuous rubbing of crack interfaces which greatly reduces shear transfer mechanism. It is therefore conservatively assumed in this study that the analysis is conducted with shear transfer factor of zero for the case of moving loading. A customized FE program has been developed using the MATLAB software to accomodate such modifications. The developed procedure has been validated with the fatigue test of the 1/6.6-scale AASHTO bridge deck under the applications of both fixed-point repetitive loading and moving loading presented in the literature. Results are in good agreement both experimental vs. simulated S-N curves and observed vs. simulated crack patterns. Significant contribution of the developed procedure is a series of S-N relations which can now be simulated at any desired levels of cracking in addition to the experimentally derived S-N relation at the failure of the deck slab. This permits the systematic investigation of crack propagation or deterioration of RC bridge deck which is appeared to be useful information for highway agencies to prolong the life of their bridge decks.

Keywords: bridge deck, cracking, deterioration, fatigue, finite-element, moving truck, reinforced concrete

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Authors: Yuliana Wahyu, Ambros Leonangung Edu

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The learning praxis that is proposed by 2013 Curriculum (K-13) is no longer school-oriented as a supply-driven, but now a demand-driven provider. This vision is connected with Jokowi-Kalla Nawacita program to create a competitive nation in the global era. Competition is a social fact that must be faced. Therefore the curriculum will design a process to be the innovators and entrepreneurs.To get this goal, K-13 implements the character education. This aims at creating the innovators and entrepreneurs from an early age (primary school). One part of strengthening it is literacy formations (reading, numeracy, science, ICT, finance, and culture). Thus, science literacy is an integral part of character education. The above outputs are only formed through the innovative process through intra-curricular (blended learning), co-curriculer (hands-on learning) and extra-curricular (personalized learning). Unlike the curriculums before that child cram with the theories dominating the intellectual process, new breakthroughs make natural, social, and cultural phenomena as learning sources. For example, Science in primary schoolsplaceBiology as the platform. And Science places natural, social, and cultural phenomena as a learning field so that students can learn, discover, solve concrete problems, and the prospects of development and application in their everyday lives. Science education not only learns about facts collection or natural phenomena but also methods and scientific attitudes. In turn, Science will form the science literacy. Science literacy have critical, creative, logical, and initiative competences in responding to the issues of culture, science and technology. This is linked with science nature which includes hands-on and minds-on. To sustain the effectiveness of science learning, K-13 opens a new way of viewing a contextual learning model in which facts or natural phenomena are drawn closer to the child's learning environment to be studied and analyzed scientifically. Thus, the topic of elementary science discussion is the practical and contextual things that students encounter. This research is about to contextualize Science in primary schools at Manggarai, NTT, by placing local wisdom as a learning source and media to form the science literacy. Explicitly, this study discovers the concept of science and mathematics in Mbaru Niang. Mbaru Niang is a forgotten potentials of the centralistic-theoretical mainstream curriculum so far. In fact, the traditional Manggarai community stores and inherits much of the science-mathematical indigenous sciences. In the traditional house structures are full of science and mathematics knowledge. Every details have style, sound and mathematical symbols. Learning this, students are able to collaborate and synergize the content and learning resources in student learning activities. This is constructivist contextual learning that will be applied in meaningful learning. Meaningful learning allows students to learn by doing. Students then connect topics to the context, and science literacy is constructed from their factual experiences. The research location will be conducted in Manggarai through observation, interview, and literature study.

Keywords: indigenous science, Mbaru Niang, science literacy, science

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Authors: Carly Nesvat, Dominic Jarrett, Colin Thomson, Wilma Coltart, Thelma Bowers, Jan Thomson

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Introduction: Within Scotland, the Same As You strategy committed to moving people with learning disabilities out of long-stay hospital accommodation into homes in the community. Much of the focus of this movement was on the placement of people within individual homes. In order to achieve this, potentially excessive supports were put in place which created dependence, and carried significant ongoing cost primarily for local authorities. The greater focus on empowerment and community participation which has been evident in more recent learning disability strategy, along with the financial pressures being experienced across the public sector, created an imperative to re-examine that provision, particularly in relation to the use of expensive sleepover supports to individuals, and the potential for this to be appropriately scaled back through the use of telecare. Method: As part of a broader programme of redesigning overnight supports within North Ayrshire, a cluster of individuals living in close proximity were identified, who were in receipt of overnight supports, but who were identified as having the capacity to potentially benefit from their removal. In their place, a responder service was established (an individual staying overnight in a nearby service user’s home), and a variety of telecare solutions were placed within individual’s homes. Active and passive technology was connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre, which would alert the local responder service when necessary. Individuals and their families were prepared for the change, and continued to be informed about progress with the pilot. Results: 4 individuals, 2 of whom shared a tenancy, had their sleepover supports removed as part of the pilot. Extensive data collection in relation to alarm activation was combined with feedback from the 4 individuals, their families, and staff involved in their support. Varying perspectives emerged within the feedback. 3 of the individuals were clearly described as benefitting from the change, and the greater sense of independence it brought, while more concerns were evident in relation to the fourth. Some family members expressed a need for greater preparation in relation to the change and ongoing information provision. Some support staff also expressed a need for more information, to help them understand the new support arrangements for an individual, as well as noting concerns in relation to the outcomes for one participant. Conclusion: Developing a telecare response in relation to a cluster of individuals was facilitated by them all being supported by the same care provider. The number of similar clusters of individuals being identified within North Ayrshire is limited. Developing other solutions such as a response service for redesign will potentially require greater collaboration between different providers of home support, as well as continuing to explore the full range of telecare, including digital options. The pilot has highlighted the need for effective preparatory and ongoing engagement with staff and families, as well as the challenges which can accompany making changes to long-standing packages of support.

Keywords: challenges, change, engagement, telecare

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Authors: Aswathaman Vijayan, Manish Jha, Ullas Theertha

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Climate change and Global warming have become an issue for both developed and developing countries and perhaps the biggest threat to the environment. We at ITC Limited believe that a company’s performance must be measured by its Triple Bottom Line contribution to building economic, social and environmental capital. This Triple Bottom Line strategy focuses on - Embedding sustainability in business practices, Investing in social development and Adopting a low carbon growth path with a cleaner environment approach. The Agri Business Division - ILTD operates in the tobacco crop growing regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka province of India. The Agri value chain of the company comprises of two distinct phases: First phase is Agricultural operations undertaken by ITC trained farmers and the second phase is Industrial operations which include marketing and processing of the agricultural produce. This research work covers the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) management strategy of ITC in the Agricultural operations undertaken by the farmers. The agriculture sector adds considerably to global GHG emissions through the use of carbon-based energies, use of fertilizers and other farming operations such as ploughing. In order to minimize the impact of farming operations on the environment, ITC has a taken a big leap in implementing system and process in reducing the GHG impact in farm value chain by partnering with the farming community. The company has undertaken a unique three-pronged approach for GHG management at the farm value chain: 1) GHG inventory at farm value chain: Different sources of GHG emission in the farm value chain were identified and quantified for the baseline year, as per the IPCC guidelines for greenhouse gas inventories. The major sources of emission identified are - emission due to nitrogenous fertilizer application during seedling production and main-field; emission due to diesel usage for farm machinery; emission due to fuel consumption and due to burning of crop residues. 2) Identification and implementation of technologies to reduce GHG emission: Various methodologies and technologies were identified for each GHG emission source and implemented at farm level. The identified methodologies are – reducing the consumption of chemical fertilizer usage at the farm through site-specific nutrient recommendation; Usage of sharp shovel for land preparation to reduce diesel consumption; implementation of energy conservation technologies to reduce fuel requirement and avoiding burning of crop residue by incorporation in the main field. These identified methodologies were implemented at farm level, and the GHG emission was quantified to understand the reduction in GHG emission. 3) Social and farm forestry for CO2 sequestration: In addition, the company encouraged social and farm forestry in the waste lands to convert it into green cover. The plantations are carried out with fast growing trees viz., Eucalyptus, Casuarina, and Subabul at the rate of 10,000 Ha of land per year. The above approach minimized considerable amount of GHG emission at the farm value chain benefiting farmers, community, and environment at a whole. In addition, the CO₂ stock created by social and farm forestry program has made the farm value chain to become environment-friendly.

Keywords: CO₂ sequestration, farm value chain, greenhouse gas, ITC limited

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Authors: Suparna Roy, Anatharaman Perumal

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The industrial effluent with high amount of heavy metals is known to have adverse effects on the environment. For the removal of heavy metals from aqueous environment, different conventional treatment technologies had been applied gradually which are not economically beneficial and also produce huge quantity of toxic chemical sludge. So, bio-sorption of heavy metals by marine plant is an eco-friendly innovative and alternative technology for removal of these pollutants from aqueous environment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the capacity of heavy metals accumulation and removal by some selected marine macroalgae (seaweeds) from marine environment. Methods: Seaweeds Acanthophora spicifera (Vahl.) Boergesen, Codium tomentosum Stackhouse, Halimeda gracilis Harvey ex. J. Agardh, Gracilaria opuntia Durairatnam.nom. inval. Valoniopsis pachynema (Martens) Boergesen, Caulerpa racemosa var. macrophysa (Sonder ex Kutzing) W. R. Taylor and Hydroclathrus clathratus (C. Agardh) Howe were collected from Olaikuda (09°17.526'N-079°19.662'E), Rameshwaram, south east coast of India during post monsoon period (April’2016). Seaweeds were washed with sterilized and filtered in-situ seawater repeatedly to remove all the epiphytes and debris and clean seaweeds were kept for shade drying for one week. The dried seaweeds were grinded to powder, and one gm powder seaweeds were taken in a 250ml conical flask, and 8 ml of 10 % HNO3 (70 % pure) was added to each sample and kept in room temperature (28 ̊C) for 24 hours and then samples were heated in hotplate at 120 ̊C, boiled to evaporate up to dryness and 20 ml of Nitric acid: Percholoric acid in 4:1 were added to it and again heated to hotplate at 90 ̊C up to evaporate to dryness, then samples were kept in room temperature for few minutes to cool and 10ml 10 % HNO3 were added to it and kept for 24 hours in cool and dark place and filtered with Whatman (589/2) filter paper and the filtrates were collected in 250ml clean conical flask and diluted accurately to 25 ml volume with double deionised water and triplicate of each sample were analysed with Inductively-Coupled plasma analysis (ICP-OES) to analyse total eleven heavy metals (Ag, Cd, B, Cu, Mn, Co, Ni, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Al content of the specified species and data were statistically evaluated for standard deviation. Results: Acanthophora spicifera contains highest amount of Ag (0.1± 0.2 mg/mg) followed by Cu (0.16±0.01 mg/mg), Mn (1.86±0.02 mg/mg), B (3.59±0.2 mg/mg), Halimeda gracilis showed highest accumulation of Al (384.75±0.12mg/mg), Valoniopsis pachynema accumulates maximum amount of Co (0.12±0.01 mg/mg), Zn (0.64±0.02 mg/mg), Caulerpa racemosa var. macrophysa contains Zn (0.63±0.01), Cr (0.26±0.01 mg/mg ), Ni (0.21±0.05), Pb (0.16±0.03 ) and Cd ( 0.02±00 ). Hydroclathrus clathratus, Codium tomentosum and Gracilaria opuntia also contain adequate amount of heavy metals. Conclusions: The mentioned species of seaweeds are contributing important role for decreasing the heavy metals pollution in marine environment by bioaccumulation. So, we can utilise this species to remove excess amount of heavy metals from polluted area.

Keywords: heavy metals pollution, seaweeds, bioaccumulation, eco-friendly, phyco-remediation

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Authors: Maria Amelia V. C. Araujo, Billy J. Araujo, Brian Greenwood

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The flow over a backward-facing step is characterized by the presence of flow separation, recirculation and reattachment, for a simple geometry. This type of fluid behaviour takes place in many practical engineering applications, hence the reason for being investigated. Historically, fluid flows over a backward-facing step have been examined in many experiments using a variety of measuring techniques such as laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), hot-wire anemometry, particle image velocimetry or hot-film sensors. However, some of these techniques cannot conveniently be used in separated flows or are too complicated and expensive. In this work, the applicability of the acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV) technique is investigated to such type of flows, at various Reynolds numbers corresponding to different flow regimes. The use of this measuring technique in separated flows is very difficult to find in literature. Besides, most of the situations where the Reynolds number effect is evaluated in separated flows are in numerical modelling. The ADV technique has the advantage in providing nearly non-invasive measurements, which is important in resolving turbulence. The ADV Nortek Vectrino+ was used to characterize the flow, in a recirculating laboratory flume, at various Reynolds Numbers (Reh = 3738, 5452, 7908 and 17388) based on the step height (h), in order to capture different flow regimes, and the results compared to those obtained using other measuring techniques. To compare results with other researchers, the step height, expansion ratio and the positions upstream and downstream the step were reproduced. The post-processing of the AVD records was performed using a customized numerical code, which implements several filtering techniques. Subsequently, the Vectrino noise level was evaluated by computing the power spectral density for the stream-wise horizontal velocity component. The normalized mean stream-wise velocity profiles, skin-friction coefficients and reattachment lengths were obtained for each Reh. Turbulent kinetic energy, Reynolds shear stresses and normal Reynolds stresses were determined for Reh = 7908. An uncertainty analysis was carried out, for the measured variables, using the moving block bootstrap technique. Low noise levels were obtained after implementing the post-processing techniques, showing their effectiveness. Besides, the errors obtained in the uncertainty analysis were relatively low, in general. For Reh = 7908, the normalized mean stream-wise velocity and turbulence profiles were compared directly with those acquired by other researchers using the LDV technique and a good agreement was found. The ADV technique proved to be able to characterize the flow properly over a backward-facing step, although additional caution should be taken for measurements very close to the bottom. The ADV measurements showed reliable results regarding: a) the stream-wise velocity profiles; b) the turbulent shear stress; c) the reattachment length; d) the identification of the transition from transitional to turbulent flows. Despite being a relatively inexpensive technique, acoustic Doppler velocimetry can be used with confidence in separated flows and thus very useful for numerical model validation. However, it is very important to perform adequate post-processing of the acquired data, to obtain low noise levels, thus decreasing the uncertainty.

Keywords: ADV, experimental data, multiple Reynolds number, post-processing

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Authors: Cristina Chaminade, Mandar Kulkarni, Balaji Parthasarathy, Monica Plechero

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The characteristics of a regional innovation system (RIS) and the specificity of the knowledge base of an industry may contribute to create peculiar paths for innovation and development of firms’ geographic extended innovation networks. However, the relative empirical evidence in emerging economies remains underexplored. The paper aims to fill the research gap by means of some recent qualitative research conducted in 2016 in Beijing (China) and Bangalore (India). It analyzes cases studies of firms in the new media industry, a sector that merges different IT competences with competences from other knowledge domains and that is emerging in those RIS. The results show that while in Beijing the new media sector results to be more in line with the existing institutional setting and governmental goals aimed at targeting specific social aspects and social problems of the population, in Bangalore it remains a more spontaneous firms-led process. In Beijing what matters for the development of innovation networks is the governmental setting and the national and regional strategies to promote science and technology in this sector, internet and mass innovation. The peculiarities of recent governmental policies aligned to the domestic goals may provide good possibilities for start-ups to develop innovation networks. However, due to the specificities of those policies targeting the Chinese market, networking outside the domestic market are not so promoted. Moreover, while some institutional peculiarities, such as a culture of collaboration in the region, may be favorable for local networking, regulations related to Internet censorship may limit the use of global networks particularly when based on virtual spaces. Mainly firms with already some foreign experiences and contact take advantage of global networks. In Bangalore, the role of government in pushing networking for the new media industry at the present stage is quite absent at all geographical levels. Indeed there is no particular strategic planning or prioritizing in the region toward the new media industry, albeit one industrial organization has emerged to represent the animation industry interests. This results in a lack of initiatives for sustaining the integration of complementary knowledge into the local portfolio of IT specialization. Firms actually involved in the new media industry face institutional constrains related to a poor level of local trust and cooperation, something that does not allow for full exploitation of local linkages. Moreover, knowledge-provider organizations in Bangalore remain still a solid base for the IT domain, but not for other domains. Initiatives to link to international networks seem therefore more the result of individual entrepreneurial actions aimed at acquiring complementary knowledge and competencies from different domains and exploiting potentiality in different markets. From those cases, it emerges that role of government, soft institutions and organizations in the two RIS differ substantially in the creation of barriers and opportunities for the development of innovation networks and their specific aim.

Keywords: regional innovation system, emerging economies, innovation network, institutions, organizations, Bangalore, Beijing

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Authors: S. Toufigh Bararpour, Davood Karami, Nader Mahinpey

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Dependence of global economics on fossil fuels has led to a large growth in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Among the various GHGs, carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse effect due to its huge emission amount. To mitigate the threatening effect of CO₂, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies have been studied widely in recent years. For the combustion processes, three main CO₂ capture techniques have been proposed such as post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. Post-combustion is the most commonly used CO₂ capture process as it can be readily retrofit into the existing power plants. Multiple advantages have been reported for the post-combustion by solid sorbents such as high CO₂ selectivity, high adsorption capacity, and low required regeneration energy. Chemical adsorption of CO₂ over alkali-metal-based solid sorbents such as K₂CO₃ is a promising method for the selective capture of diluted CO₂ from the huge amount of nitrogen existing in the flue gas. To improve the CO₂ capture performance, K₂CO₃ is supported by a stable and porous material. Al₂O₃ has been employed commonly as the support and enhanced the cyclic CO₂ capture efficiency of K₂CO₃. Different phases of alumina can be obtained by setting the calcination temperature of boehmite at 300, 600 (γ-alumina), 950 (δ-alumina) and 1200 °C (α-alumina). By increasing the calcination temperature, the regeneration capacity of alumina increases, while the surface area reduces. However, sorbents with lower surface areas have lower CO₂ capture capacity as well (except for the sorbents prepared by hydrophilic support materials). To resolve this issue, a highly efficient alumina-aerogel support was synthesized with a BET surface area of over 2000 m²/g and then calcined at a high temperature. The synthesized alumina-aerogel was impregnated on K₂CO₃ based on 50 wt% support/K₂CO₃, which resulted in the preparation of a sorbent with remarkable CO₂ capture performance. The effect of synthesis conditions such as types of alcohols, solvent-to-co-solvent ratios, and aging times was investigated on the performance of the support. The best support was synthesized using methanol as the solvent, after five days of aging time, and at a solvent-to-co-solvent (methanol-to-toluene) ratio (v/v) of 1/5. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effect of operating parameters such as carbonation temperature and H₂O-to-CO₂ flowrate ratio on the CO₂ capture capacity. The maximum CO₂ capture capacity, at the optimum amounts of operating parameters, was 7.2 mmol CO₂ per gram K₂CO₃. Cyclic behavior of the sorbent was examined over 20 carbonation and regenerations cycles. The alumina-aerogel-supported K₂CO₃ showed a great performance compared to unsupported K₂CO₃ and γ-alumina-supported K₂CO₃. Fundamental performance analyses and long-term thermal and chemical stability test will be performed on the sorbent in the future. The applicability of the sorbent for a bench-scale process will be evaluated, and a corresponding process model will be established. The fundamental material knowledge and respective process development will be delivered to industrial partners for the design of a pilot-scale testing unit, thereby facilitating the industrial application of alumina-aerogel.

Keywords: alumina-aerogel, CO₂ capture, K₂CO₃, optimization

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Authors: Iryna Atamaniuk, Hannah Boysen, Nils Wieczorek, Natalia Politaeva, Iuliia Bazarnova, Kerstin Kuchta

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Over the last decade due to climate change and a strategy of natural resources preservation, the interest for the aquatic biomass has dramatically increased. Along with mitigation of the environmental pressure and connection of waste streams (including CO₂ and heat emissions), microalgae bioeconomy can supply food, feed, as well as the pharmaceutical and power industry with number of value-added products. Furthermore, in comparison to conventional biomass, microalgae can be cultivated in wide range of conditions without compromising food and feed production, thus addressing issues associated with negative social and the environmental impacts. This paper presents the state-of-the art technology for microalgae bioeconomy from cultivation process to production of valuable components and by-streams. Microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana were cultivated in the pilot-scale innovation concept in Hamburg (Germany) using different systems such as race way pond (5000 L) and flat panel reactors (8 x 180 L). In order to achieve the optimum growth conditions along with suitable cellular composition for the further extraction of the value-added components, process parameters such as light intensity, temperature and pH are continuously being monitored. On the other hand, metabolic needs in nutrients were provided by addition of micro- and macro-nutrients into a medium to ensure autotrophic growth conditions of microalgae. The cultivation was further followed by downstream process and extraction of lipids, proteins and saccharides. Lipids extraction is conducted in repeated-batch semi-automatic mode using hot extraction method according to Randall. As solvents hexane and ethanol are used at different ratio of 9:1 and 1:9, respectively. Depending on cell disruption method along with solvents ratio, the total lipids content showed significant variations between 8.1% and 13.9 %. The highest percentage of extracted biomass was reached with a sample pretreated with microwave digestion using 90% of hexane and 10% of ethanol as solvents. Proteins content in microalgae was determined by two different methods, namely: Total Kejadahl Nitrogen (TKN), which further was converted to protein content, as well as Bradford method using Brilliant Blue G-250 dye. Obtained results, showed a good correlation between both methods with protein content being in the range of 39.8–47.1%. Characterization of neutral and acid saccharides from microalgae was conducted by phenol-sulfuric acid method at two wavelengths of 480 nm and 490 nm. The average concentration of neutral and acid saccharides under the optimal cultivation conditions was 19.5% and 26.1%, respectively. Subsequently, biomass residues are used as substrate for anaerobic digestion on the laboratory-scale. The methane concentration, which was measured on the daily bases, showed some variations for different samples after extraction steps but was in the range between 48% and 55%. CO₂ which is formed during the fermentation process and after the combustion in the Combined Heat and Power unit can potentially be used within the cultivation process as a carbon source for the photoautotrophic synthesis of biomass.

Keywords: bioeconomy, lipids, microalgae, proteins, saccharides

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Mohamed Sifan, Brabha Nagaratnam, Julian Thamboo, Keerthan Poologanathan

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Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) is a type of cementitious material known for its exceptional strength, ductility, and durability. However, its production is often associated with high costs due to the significant amount of cementitious materials required and the use of fine powders to achieve the desired strength. The aim of this research is to explore the feasibility of developing cost-effective UHPC mixes using locally available materials. Specifically, the study aims to investigate the use of coarse limestone sand along with other sand types, namely, basalt sand, dolomite sand, and river sand for developing UHPC mixes and evaluating its performances. The study utilises the particle packing model to develop various UHPC mixes. The particle packing model involves optimising the combination of coarse limestone sand, basalt sand, dolomite sand, and river sand to achieve the desired properties of UHPC. The developed UHPC mixes are then evaluated based on their workability (measured through slump flow and mini slump value), compressive strength (at 7, 28, and 90 days), splitting tensile strength, and microstructural characteristics analysed through scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. The results of this study demonstrate that cost-effective UHPC mixes can be developed using locally available materials without the need for silica fume or fly ash. The UHPC mixes achieved impressive compressive strengths of up to 149 MPa at 28 days with a cement content of approximately 750 kg/m³. The mixes also exhibited varying levels of workability, with slump flow values ranging from 550 to 850 mm. Additionally, the inclusion of coarse limestone sand in the mixes effectively reduced the demand for superplasticizer and served as a filler material. By exploring the use of coarse limestone sand and other sand types, this study provides valuable insights into optimising the particle packing model for UHPC production. The findings highlight the potential to reduce costs associated with UHPC production without compromising its strength and durability. The study collected data on the workability, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and microstructural characteristics of the developed UHPC mixes. Workability was measured using slump flow and mini slump tests, while compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were assessed at different curing periods. Microstructural characteristics were analysed through SEM and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The collected data were then analysed and interpreted to evaluate the performance and properties of the UHPC mixes. The research successfully demonstrates the feasibility of developing cost-effective UHPC mixes using locally available materials. The inclusion of coarse limestone sand, in combination with other sand types, shows promising results in achieving high compressive strengths and satisfactory workability. The findings suggest that the use of the particle packing model can optimise the combination of materials and reduce the reliance on expensive additives such as silica fume and fly ash. This research provides valuable insights for researchers and construction practitioners aiming to develop cost-effective UHPC mixes using readily available materials and an optimised particle packing approach.

Keywords: cost-effective, limestone powder, particle packing model, ultra high performance concrete

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Gyu-Dong Kim, Wuk-Jae Yoo, Sang-Youl Lee

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Composite structures offer numerous advantages over conventional structural systems in the form of higher specific stiffness and strength, lower life-cycle costs, and benefits such as easy installation and improved safety. Recently, there has been a considerable increase in the use of composites in engineering applications and as wraps for seismic upgrading and repairs. However, these composites deteriorate with time because of outdated materials, excessive use, repetitive loading, climatic conditions, manufacturing errors, and deficiencies in inspection methods. In particular, damaged fibers in a composite result in significant degradation of structural performance. In order to reduce the failure probability of composites in service, techniques to assess the condition of the composites to prevent continual growth of fiber damage are required. Condition assessment technology and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have provided various solutions for the safety of structures by means of detecting damage or defects from static or dynamic responses induced by external loading. A variety of techniques based on detecting the changes in static or dynamic behavior of isotropic structures has been developed in the last two decades. These methods, based on analytical approaches, are limited in their capabilities in dealing with complex systems, primarily because of their limitations in handling different loading and boundary conditions. Recently, investigators have introduced direct search methods based on metaheuristics techniques and artificial intelligence, such as genetic algorithms (GA), simulated annealing (SA) methods, and neural networks (NN), and have promisingly applied these methods to the field of structural identification. Among them, GAs attract our attention because they do not require a considerable amount of data in advance in dealing with complex problems and can make a global solution search possible as opposed to classical gradient-based optimization techniques. In this study, we propose an alternative damage-detection technique that can determine the degraded stiffness distribution of vibrating laminated composites made of Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer (GFRP). The proposed method uses a modified form of the bivariate Gaussian distribution function to detect degraded stiffness characteristics. In addition, this study presents a method to detect the fiber property variation of laminated composite plates from the micromechanical point of view. The finite element model is used to study free vibrations of laminated composite plates for fiber stiffness degradation. In order to solve the inverse problem using the combined method, this study uses only first mode shapes in a structure for the measured frequency data. In particular, this study focuses on the effect of the interaction among various parameters, such as fiber angles, layup sequences, and damage distributions, on fiber-stiffness damage detection.

Keywords: stiffness detection, fiber damage, genetic algorithm, layup sequences

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Vinti Davar

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Introduction: Childhood overweight increases the risk for certain medical and psychological conditions. Millions of school-age children worldwide are affected by serious yet easily treatable and preventable illnesses that inhibit their ability to learn. Healthier children stay in school longer, attend more regularly, learn more and become healthier and more productive adults. Schools are an important setting for nutrition education because one can reach most children, teachers and parents. These years offer a key window for shaping their lifetime habits, which have an impact on their health throughout life. Against this background, an attempt was made to impart nutrition education to school children in Haryana state of India to promote healthy food choices and assess the effectiveness of this program. Methodology: This study was completed in two phases. During the first phase, pre-intervention anthropometric and dietary survey was conducted; the teaching materials for nutrition intervention program were developed and tested; and the questionnaire was validated. In the second phase, an intervention was implemented in two schools of Kurukshetra, Haryana for six months by personal visits once a week. A total of 350 children in the age group of 6-12 years were selected. Out of these, 279 children, 153 boys and 126 girls completed the study. The subjects were divided into four groups namely: underweight, normal, overweight and obese based on body mass index-for-age categories. A power point colorful presentation to improve the quality of tiffin, snacks and meals emphasizing inclusion of all food groups especially vegetables every day and fruits at least 3-4 days per week was used. An extra 20 minutes of aerobic exercise daily was likewise organized and a healthy school environment created. Provision of clean drinking water by school authorities was ensured. Selling of soft drinks and energy-dense snacks in the school canteen as well as advertisements about soft drink and snacks on the school walls were banned. Post intervention, anthropometric indices and food selections were reassessed. Results: The results of this study reiterate the critical role of nutrition education and promotion in improving the healthier food choices by school children. It was observed that normal, overweight and obese children participating in nutrition education intervention program significantly (p≤0.05) increased their daily seasonal fruit and vegetable consumption. Fat and oil consumption was significantly reduced by overweight and obese subjects. Fast food intake was controlled by obese children. The nutrition knowledge of school children significantly improved (p≤0.05) from pre to post intervention. A highly significant increase (p≤0.00) was noted in the nutrition attitude score after intervention in all four groups. Conclusion: This study has shown that a well-planned nutrition education program could improve nutrition knowledge and promote positive changes in healthy food choices. A nutrition program inculcates wholesome eating and active life style habits in children and adolescents that could not only prevent them from chronic diseases and early death but also reduce healthcare cost and enhance the quality of life of citizens and thereby nations.

Keywords: children, eating habits healthy food, obesity, school going, fast foods

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Vijay Marisetty, Poonam Singh

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Research on the effect of director's network connections on investor welfare is inconclusive. Some studies suggest that directors' connections are beneficial, in terms of, improving earnings information, firms valuation for new investors. On the other hand, adverse effects of directorial networks are also reported, in terms of higher earnings management, options back dating fraud, reduction in firm performance, lower board monitoring. From regulatory perspective, the role of directorial networks on corporate welfare is crucial. Cognizant of the possible ill effects associated with directorial networks, large investors, for better representation on the boards, are building their own database of prospective directors who are highly qualified, however, sourced from outside the highly connected directorial labor market. For instance, following Dodd-Frank Reform Act, California Public Employees' Retirement Systems (CalPERs) has initiated a database for registering aspiring and highly qualified directors to nominate them for board seats (proxy access). Our paper stems from this background and tries to explore the chances of outside directors getting directorships who lack established network connections. The paper is able to identify such aspiring directors' information by accessing a unique Indian data sourced from an online portal that aims to match the supply of registered aspirants with the growing demand for outside directors in India. The online portal's tie-up with stock exchanges ensures firms to access the new pool of directors. Such direct access to the background details of aspiring directors over a period of 10 years, allows us to examine the chances of aspiring directors without corporate network, to enter directorial network. Using this resume data of 16105 aspiring corporate directors in India, who have no prior board experience in the directorial labor market, the paper analyses the entry dynamics in corporate directors' labor market. The database also allows us to investigate the value of corporate network by comparing non-network new entrants with incumbent networked directors. The study develops measures of network centrality and network degree based on merit, i.e. network of individuals belonging to elite educational institutions, like Indian Institute of Management (IIM) or Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and based on job or company, i.e. network of individuals serving in the same company. The paper then measures the impact of these networks on the appointment of first time directors and subsequent appointment of directors. The paper reports the following main results: 1. The likelihood of becoming a corporate director, without corporate network strength, is only 1 out 100 aspirants. This is inspite of comparable educational background and similar duration of corporate experience; 2. Aspiring non-network directors' elite educational ties help them to secure directorships. However, for post-board appointments, their newly acquired corporate network strength overtakes as their main determinant for subsequent board appointments and compensation. The results thus highlight the limitations in increasing board diversity.

Keywords: aspiring corporate directors, board diversity, director labor market, director networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 312

Authors: Reshma Raskar-Phule, Makarand Landge, Saurabh Singh, Vijay Singh, Jash Saparia, Shivam Tripathi

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For any construction project, slope calculations are necessary in order to evaluate constructability on the site, such as the slope of parking lots, sidewalks, and ramps, the slope of sanitary sewer lines, slope of roads and highways. When slopes and grades are to be determined, designers are concerned with establishing proper slopes and grades for their projects to assess cut and fill volume calculations and determine inverts of pipes. There are several established instruments commonly used to determine slopes, such as Dumpy level, Abney level or Hand Level, Inclinometer, Tacheometer, Henry method, etc., and surveyors are very familiar with the use of these instruments to calculate slopes. However, they have some other drawbacks which cannot be neglected while major surveying works. Firstly, it requires expert surveyors and skilled staff. The accessibility, visibility, and accommodation to remote hilly terrain with these instruments and surveying teams are difficult. Also, determination of gentle slopes in case of road and sewer drainage constructions in congested urban places with these instruments is not easy. This paper aims to develop a method that requires minimum field work, minimum instruments, no high-end technology or instruments or software, and low cost. It requires basic and handy surveying accessories like a plane table with a fixed weighing machine, standard weights, alidade, tripod, and ranging rods should be able to determine the terrain slope in congested areas as well as in remote hilly terrain. Also, being simple and easy to understand and perform the people of that local rural area can be easily trained for the proposed method. The idea for the proposed method is based on the principle of resolution of weight components. When any object of standard weight ‘W’ is placed on an inclined surface with a weighing machine below it, then its cosine component of weight is presently measured by that weighing machine. The slope can be determined from the relation between the true or actual weight and the apparent weight. A proper procedure is to be followed, which includes site location, centering and sighting work, fixing the whole set at the identified station, and finally taking the readings. A set of experiments for slope determination, mild and moderate slopes, are carried out by the proposed method and by the theodolite instrument in a controlled environment, on the college campus, and uncontrolled environment actual site. The slopes determined by the proposed method were compared with those determined by the established instruments. For example, it was observed that for the same distances for mild slope, the difference in the slope obtained by the proposed method and by the established method ranges from 4’ for a distance of 8m to 2o15’20” for a distance of 16m for an uncontrolled environment. Thus, for mild slopes, the proposed method is suitable for a distance of 8m to 10m. The correlation between the proposed method and the established method shows a good correlation of 0.91 to 0.99 for various combinations, mild and moderate slope, with the controlled and uncontrolled environment.

Keywords: surveying, plane table, weight component, slope determination, hilly terrain, construction

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Pedro Llanos, Diego García

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This paper is addressed to expanding our understanding of the effects of hypoxia training on our bodies to better model its dynamics and leverage some of its implications and effects on human health. Hypoxia training is a recommended practice for military and civilian pilots that allow them to recognize their early hypoxia signs and symptoms, and Scientist Astronaut Candidates (SACs) who underwent hypobaric hypoxia (HH) exposure as part of a training activity for prospective suborbital flight applications. This observational-analytical study describes physiologic responses and symptoms experienced by a SAC group before, during and after HH exposure and proposes a model for assessing predicted versus observed physiological responses. A group of individuals with diverse Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) backgrounds conducted a hypobaric training session to an altitude up to 22,000 ft (FL220) or 6,705 meters, where heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR) and core temperature (Tc) were monitored with the use of a chest strap sensor pre and post HH exposure. A pulse oximeter registered levels of saturation of oxygen (SpO₂), number and duration of desaturations during the HH chamber flight. Hypoxia symptoms as described by the SACs during the HH training session were also registered. This data allowed to generate a preliminary predictive model of the oxygen desaturation and O₂ pressure curve for each subject, which consists of a sixth-order polynomial fit during exposure, and a fifth or fourth-order polynomial fit during recovery. Data analysis showed that HR and BR showed no significant differences between pre and post HH exposure in most of the SACs, while Tc measures showed slight but consistent decrement changes. All subjects registered SpO₂ greater than 94% for the majority of their individual HH exposures, but all of them presented at least one clinically significant desaturation (SpO₂ < 85% for more than 5 seconds) and half of the individuals showed SpO₂ below 87% for at least 30% of their HH exposure time. Finally, real time collection of HH symptoms presented temperature somatosensory perceptions (SP) for 65% of individuals, and task-focus issues for 52.5% of individuals as the most common HH indications. 95% of the subjects experienced HH onset symptoms below FL180; all participants achieved full recovery of HH symptoms within 1 minute of donning their O₂ mask. The current HH study performed on this group of individuals suggests a rapid and fully reversible physiologic response after HH exposure as expected and obtained in previous studies. Our data showed consistent results between predicted versus observed SpO₂ curves during HH suggesting a mathematical function that may be used to model HH performance deficiencies. During the HH study, real-time HH symptoms were registered providing evidenced SP and task focusing as the earliest and most common indicators. Finally, an assessment of HH signs of symptoms in a group of heterogeneous, non-pilot individuals showed similar results to previous studies in homogeneous populations of pilots.

Keywords: slow onset hypoxia, hypobaric chamber training, altitude sickness, symptoms and altitude, pressure cabin

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Kuo-Kai Lin, Po-Lun Chang

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Research Background and Purpose: Following the development of the Internet and multimedia, the Internet and information technology have become crucial avenues of modern communication and knowledge acquisition. The advantages of using mobile devices for learning include making learning borderless and accessible. Mobile learning has become a trend in disease management and health promotion in recent years. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is an irreversible chronic disease, and patients who do not receive kidney transplants can only rely on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis to survive. Due to the complexities in caregiving for patients with ESRD that stem from their advanced age and other comorbidities, the patients’ incapacity of self-care leads to an increase in the need to rely on their families or primary caregivers, although whether the primary caregivers adequately understand and implement patient care is a topic of concern. Therefore, this study explored whether primary caregivers’ health care provisions can be improved through the intervention of an automatic speech intelligent system, thereby improving the objective health outcomes of patients undergoing long-term dialysis. Method: This study developed an automatic speech intelligent system with healthcare functions such as health information voice prompt, two-way feedback, real-time push notification, and health information delivery. Convenience sampling was adopted to recruit eligible patients from a hemodialysis center at a regional teaching hospital as research participants. A one-group pretest-posttest design was adopted. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated from the demographic information collected from questionnaires answered by patients and primary caregivers, and from a medical record review, a health care scale (recorded six months before and after the implementation of intervention measures), a subjective health assessment, and a report of objective physiological indicators. The changes in health care behaviors, subjective health status, and physiological indicators before and after the intervention of the proposed automatic speech intelligent system were then compared. Conclusion and Discussion: The preliminary automatic speech intelligent system developed in this study was tested with 20 pretest patients at the recruitment location, and their health care capacity scores improved from 59.1 to 72.8; comparisons through a nonparametric test indicated a significant difference (p < .01). The average score for their subjective health assessment rose from 2.8 to 3.3. A survey of their objective physiological indicators discovered that the compliance rate for the blood potassium level was the most significant indicator; its average compliance rate increased from 81% to 94%. The results demonstrated that this automatic speech intelligent system yielded a higher efficacy for chronic disease care than did conventional health education delivered by nurses. Therefore, future efforts will continue to increase the number of recruited patients and to refine the intelligent system. Future improvements to the intelligent system can be expected to enhance its effectiveness even further.

Keywords: automatic speech intelligent system for health care, primary caregiver, long-term hemodialysis, health care capabilities, health outcomes

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Milica B. Veljković, Milica B. Simović, Marija M. Ćorović, Ana D. Milivojević, Anja I. Petrov, Katarina M. Banjanac, Dejan I. Bezbradica

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In recent decades, the scientific community has recognized the growing importance of prebiotics, and therefore, numerous studies are focused on their economic production due to their low presence in natural resources. It has been confirmed that prebiotics is a source of energy for probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and enable their proliferation, consequently leading to the normal functioning of the intestinal microbiota. Also, products of their fermentation are short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which play a key role in maintaining and improving the health not only of the GIT but also of the whole organism. Among several confirmed prebiotics, fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are considered interesting candidates for use in a wide range of products in the food industry. They are characterized as low-calorie and non-cariogenic substances that represent an adequate sugar substitute and can be considered suitable for use in products intended for diabetics. The subject of this research will be the production of FOS by transforming sucrose using a fructosyltransferase (FTase) present in commercial preparation Pectinex® Ultra SP-L, with special emphasis on the development of adequate FTase immobilization method that would enable selective isolation of the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of FOS from the complex enzymatic mixture. This would lead to considerable enzyme purification and allow its direct incorporation into different sucrose-based products without the fear that the action of the other hydrolytic enzymes may adversely affect the products' functional characteristics. Accordingly, the possibility of selective immobilization of the enzyme using support with primary amino groups, Purolite® A109, which was previously activated and modified using glutaraldehyde (GA), was investigated. In the initial phase of the research, the effects of individual immobilization parameters such as pH, enzyme concentration, and immobilization time were investigated to optimize the process using support chemically activated with 15% and 0.5% GA to form dimers and monomers, respectively. It was determined that highly active immobilized preparations (371.8 IU/g of support - dimer and 213.8 IU/g of support – monomer) were achieved under acidic conditions (pH 4) provided that an enzyme concentration was 50 mg/g of support after 7 h and 3 h, respectively. Bearing in mind the obtained results of the expressed activity, it is noticeable that the formation of dimers showed higher reactivity compared to the form of monomers. Also, in the case of support modification using 15% GA, the value of the ratio of FTase and pectinase (as dominant enzyme mixture component) activity immobilization yields was 16.45, indicating the high feasibility of selective immobilization of FTase on modified polystyrene resin. After obtaining immobilized preparations of satisfactory features, they were tested in a reaction of FOS synthesis under determined optimal conditions. The maximum FOS yields of approximately 50% of total carbohydrates in the reaction mixture were recorded after 21 h. Finally, it can be concluded that the examined immobilization method yielded highly active, stable and, more importantly, refined enzyme preparation that can be further utilized on a larger scale for the development of continual processes for FOS synthesis, as well as for modification of different sucrose-based mediums.

Keywords: chemical modification, fructooligosaccharides, glutaraldehyde, immobilization of fructosyltransferase

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Valentina Dolmova

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What consumers choose to buy and who voters select on election days are two questions that have captivated the interest of both academics and practitioners for many decades. The importance of understanding what influences the behavior of those groups and whether or not we can predict or control it fuels a steady stream of research in a range of fields. By looking only at the past 40 years, more than 70 thousand scientific papers have been published in each field – consumer behavior and political psychology, respectively. From marketing, economics, and the science of persuasion to political and cognitive psychology - we have all remained heavily engaged. The ever-evolving technology, inevitable socio-cultural shifts, global economic conditions, and much more play an important role in choice-equations regardless of context. On one hand, this makes the research efforts always relevant and needed. On the other, the relatively low number of cross-field collaborations, which seem to be picking up only in more in recent years, makes the existing findings isolated into framed bubbles. By performing systematic research across both areas of psychology and building a parallel between theories and factors of influence, however, we find that there is not only a definitive common ground between the behaviors of consumers and voters but that we are moving towards a global model of choice. This means that the lines between contexts are fading which has a direct implication on what we should focus on when predicting or navigating buyers and voters’ behavior. Internal and external factors in four main categories determine the choices we make as consumers and as voters. Together, personal, psychological, social, and cultural create a holistic framework through which all stimuli in relation to a particular product or a political party get filtered. The analogy “consumer-voter” solidifies further. Leading academics suggest that this fundamental parallel is the key to managing successfully political and consumer brands alike. However, we distinguish additional four key stimuli that relate to those factor categories (1/ opportunity costs; 2/the memory of the past; 3/recognisable figures/faces and 4/conflict) arguing that the level of expertise a person has determines the prevalence of factors or specific stimuli. Our efforts take into account global trends such as the establishment of “celebrity politics” and the image of “ethically concerned consumer brands” which bridge the gap between contexts to an even greater extent. Scientists and practitioners are pushed to accept the transformative nature of both fields in social psychology. Existing blind spots as well as the limited number of research conducted outside the American and European societies open up space for more collaborative efforts in this highly demanding and lucrative field. A mixed method of research tests three main hypotheses, the first two of which are focused on the level of irrelevance of context when comparing voting or consumer behavior – both from the factors and stimuli lenses, the third on determining whether or not the level of expertise in any field skews the weight of what prism we are more likely to choose when evaluating options.

Keywords: buyers’ behaviour, decision-making, voters’ behaviour, social psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Elizaveta S. Prokofyeva, Svetlana V. Maltseva, Roman D. Zaitsev

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Rapidly evolving modern data analysis technologies in healthcare play a large role in understanding the operation of the system and its characteristics. Nowadays, one of the key tasks in urban healthcare is to optimize the resource allocation. Thus, the application of data analysis in medical institutions to solve optimization problems determines the significance of this study. The purpose of this research was to establish the dependence between the indicators of the effectiveness of the medical institution and its resources. Hospital discharges by diagnosis; hospital days of in-patients and in-patient average length of stay were selected as the performance indicators and the demand of the medical facility. The hospital beds by type of care, medical technology (magnetic resonance tomography, gamma cameras, angiographic complexes and lithotripters) and physicians characterized the resource provision of medical institutions for the developed models. The data source for the research was an open database of the statistical service Eurostat. The choice of the source is due to the fact that the databases contain complete and open information necessary for research tasks in the field of public health. In addition, the statistical database has a user-friendly interface that allows you to quickly build analytical reports. The study provides information on 28 European for the period from 2007 to 2016. For all countries included in the study, with the most accurate and complete data for the period under review, predictive models were developed based on historical panel data. An attempt to improve the quality and the interpretation of the models was made by cluster analysis of the investigated set of countries. The main idea was to assess the similarity of the joint behavior of the variables throughout the time period under consideration to identify groups of similar countries and to construct the separate regression models for them. Therefore, the original time series were used as the objects of clustering. The hierarchical agglomerate algorithm k-medoids was used. The sampled objects were used as the centers of the clusters obtained, since determining the centroid when working with time series involves additional difficulties. The number of clusters used the silhouette coefficient. After the cluster analysis it was possible to significantly improve the predictive power of the models: for example, in the one of the clusters, MAPE error was only 0,82%, which makes it possible to conclude that this forecast is highly reliable in the short term. The obtained predicted values of the developed models have a relatively low level of error and can be used to make decisions on the resource provision of the hospital by medical personnel. The research displays the strong dependencies between the demand for the medical services and the modern medical equipment variable, which highlights the importance of the technological component for the successful development of the medical facility. Currently, data analysis has a huge potential, which allows to significantly improving health services. Medical institutions that are the first to introduce these technologies will certainly have a competitive advantage.

Keywords: data analysis, demand modeling, healthcare, medical facilities

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: A. K. Tekile, I. L. Kim, J. Y. Lee

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Human activities put freshwater quality under risk, mainly due to expansion of agriculture and industries, damming, diversion and discharge of inadequately treated wastewaters. The rapid human population growth and climate change escalated the problem. External controlling actions on point and non-point pollution sources are long-term solution to manage water quality. To have a holistic approach, these mechanisms should be coupled with the in-water control strategies. The available in-lake or river methods are either costly or they have some adverse effect on the ecological system that the search for an alternative and effective solution with a reasonable balance is still going on. This study aimed at the physical and chemical water quality improvement in a stagnant Yeo-cheon River reach (Korea), which has recently shown sign of water quality problems such as scum formation and fish death. The river water quality was monitored, for the duration of three months by operating only water flow generator in the first two weeks and then ultrasonic irradiation device was coupled to the flow unit for the remaining duration of the experiment. In addition to assessing the water quality improvement, the correlation among the parameters was analyzed to explain the contribution of the ultra-sonication. Generally, the combined strategy showed localized improvement of water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen, Chlorophyll-a and dissolved reactive phosphate. At locations under limited influence of the system operation, chlorophyll-a was highly increased, but within 25 m of operation the low initial value was maintained. The inverse correlation coefficient between dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a decreased from 0.51 to 0.37 when ultrasonic irradiation unit was used with the flow, showing that ultrasonic treatment reduced chlorophyll-a concentration and it inhibited photosynthesis. The relationship between dissolved oxygen and reactive phosphate also indicated that influence of ultra-sonication was higher than flow on the reactive phosphate concentration. Even though flow increased turbidity by suspending sediments, ultrasonic waves canceled out the effect due to the agglomeration of suspended particles and the follow-up settling out. There has also been variation of interaction in the water column as the decrease of pH and dissolved oxygen from surface to the bottom played a role in phosphorus release into the water column. The variation of nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon concentrations showed mixed trend probably due to the complex chemical reactions subsequent to the operation. Besides, the intensive rainfall and strong wind around the end of the field trial had apparent impact on the result. The combined effect of water flow and ultrasonic irradiation was a cumulative water quality improvement and it maintained the dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a requirement of the river for healthy ecological interaction. However, the overall improvement of water quality is not guaranteed as effectiveness of ultrasonic technology requires long-term monitoring of water quality before, during and after treatment. Even though, the short duration of the study conducted here has limited nutrient pattern realization, the use of ultrasound at field scale to improve water quality is promising.

Keywords: stagnant, ultrasonic irradiation, water flow, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Tanveer Ahmed Choudhury

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Background: Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world, with high population density and high rates of poverty and illiteracy. 80% of the country is on low-lying floodplains, leaving the country one of the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change: sea level rise, cyclones and storms, salinity intrusion, rising temperatures and heavy monsoon downpours. Such climatic events already limit Economic Development in the country. Although Bangladesh has had little responsibility in contributing to global climatic change, it is vulnerable to both its direct and indirect impacts. Real threats include reduced agricultural production, worsening food security, increased incidence of flooding and drought, spreading disease and an increased risk of conflict over scarce land and water resources. Currently, 8.3 million Bangladeshis live in cyclone high risk areas. However, by 2050 this is expected to grow to 20.3 million people, if proper adaptive actions are not taken. Under a high emissions scenario, an additional 7.6 million people will be exposed to very high salinity by 2050 compared to current levels. It is also projected that, an average of 7.2 million people will be affected by flooding due to sea level rise every year between 2070-2100 and If global emissions decrease rapidly and adaptation interventions are taken, the population affected by flooding could be limited to only about 14,000 people. To combat the climate change adverse effects, Bangladesh government has initiated many adaptive measures specially in infrastructure and renewable energy sector. Government is investing huge money and initiated many projects which have been proved very success full. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some successful measures initiated by Bangladesh government in its effort to make the country a Climate Resilient. Methodology: Review of operation plan and activities of different relevant Ministries of Bangladesh government. Result: The following initiative projects, programs and activities are considered as best practices for Climate Change adaptation successes for Bangladesh: 1. The Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL); 2. Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit (CCHPU); 3. The Climate Change Trust Fund (CCTF); 4. Community Climate Change Project (CCCP); 5. Health, Population, Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP, 2011-2016)- "Climate Change and Environmental Issues"; 6. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh and WHO Collaboration; - National Adaptation Plan. -"Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through resilient WASH". 7. COP-21 “Climate and health country profile -2015 Bangladesh. Conclusion: Due to a vast coastline, low-lying land and abundance of rivers, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change. Having extensive experience with facing natural disasters, Bangladesh has developed a successful adaptation program, which led to a significant reduction in casualties from extreme weather events. In a low income country setting, Bangladesh had successfully adapted various projects and initiatives to combat future Climate Change challenges.

Keywords: climate, change, success, Bangladesh

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Authors: Soma Ghosh, Balaram Mohapatra, Pinaki Sar, Abhijeet Mukherjee

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Microbial role in arsenic (As) mobilization in the groundwater aquifers of Brahmaputra river basin (BRB) in India, severely threatened by high concentrations of As, remains largely unknown. The present study, therefore, is a molecular and ecophysiological characterization of an indigenous bacterium strain IIIJ3-1 isolated from As contaminated groundwater of BRB and application of this strain in several microcosm set ups differing in their organic carbon (OC) source and terminal electron acceptors (TEA), to understand its role in As dissolution under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Strain IIIJ3-1 was found to be a new facultative anaerobic, gram-positive, endospore-forming strain capable of arsenite (As3+) oxidation and dissimilatory arsenate (As5+) reduction. The bacterium exhibited low genomic (G+C)% content (45 mol%). Although, its 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed a maximum similarity of 99% with Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579(T) but the DNA-DNA relatedness of their genomic DNAs was only 49.9%, which remains well below the value recommended to delimit different species. Abundance of fatty acids iC17:0, iC15:0 and menaquinone (MK) 7 though corroborates its taxonomic affiliation with B. cereus sensu-lato group, presence of hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs), C18:2, MK5 and MK6 marked its uniqueness. Besides being highly As resistant (MTC=10mM As3+, 350mM As5+), metabolically diverse, efficient aerobic As3+ oxidizer; it exhibited near complete dissimilatory reduction of As5+ (1 mM). Utilization of various carbon sources with As5+ as TEA revealed lactate to serve as the best electron donor. Aerobic biotransformation assay yielded a lower Km for As3+ oxidation than As5+ reduction. Arsenic homeostasis was found to be conferred by the presence of arr, arsB, aioB, and acr3(1) genes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis of this bacterium revealed reduction in cell size upon exposure to As and formation of As-rich electron opaque dots following growth with As3+. Incubation of this strain with sediment (sterilised) collected from BRB aquifers under varying OC, TEA and redox conditions revealed that the strain caused highest As mobilization from solid to aqueous phase under anaerobic condition with lactate and nitrate as electron donor and acceptor, respectively. Co-release of highest concentrations of oxalic acid, a well known bioweathering agent, considerable fold increase in viable cell counts and SEM-EDX and X-ray diffraction analysis of the sediment after incubation under this condition indicated that As release is consequent to microbial bioweathering of the minerals. Co-release of other elements statistically proves decoupled release of As with Fe and Zn. Principle component analysis also revealed prominent role of nitrate under aerobic and/or anaerobic condition in As release by strain IIIJ3-1. This study, therefore, is the first to isolate, characterize and reveal As mobilization property of a strain belonging to the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group isolated from highly As contaminated aquifers of Brahmaputra River Basin.

Keywords: anaerobic microcosm, arsenic rich electron opaque dots, Arsenic release, Bacillus strain IIIJ3-1

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Quan Wen, Tianxiao Chang, Shaolu Shi, Yushi Wang, Guangyu Wang

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As a kind of working environment of the fuze, the spin rate decaying law of projectile in exterior trajectory is of great value in the design of the rotation count fixed distance fuze. In addition, it is significant in the field of devices for simulation tests of fuze exterior ballistic environment, flight stability, and dispersion accuracy of gun projectile and opening and scattering design of submunition and illuminating cartridges. Besides, the self-destroying mechanism of the fuze in small-caliber projectile often works by utilizing the attenuation of centrifugal force. In the theory of projectile aerodynamics and fuze design, there are many formulas describing the change law of projectile angular velocity in external ballistic such as Roggla formula, exponential function formula, and power function formula. However, these formulas are mostly semi-empirical due to the poor test conditions and insufficient test data at that time. These formulas are difficult to meet the design requirements of modern fuze because they are not accurate enough and have a narrow range of applications now. In order to provide more accurate ballistic environment parameters for the design of a hemispherical head projectile fuze, the projectile’s spin rate decaying law in exterior trajectory under the effect of air resistance was studied. In the analysis, the projectile shape was simplified as hemisphere head, cylindrical part, rotating band part, and anti-truncated conical tail. The main assumptions are as follows: a) The shape and mass are symmetrical about the longitudinal axis, b) There is a smooth transition between the ball hea, c) The air flow on the outer surface is set as a flat plate flow with the same area as the expanded outer surface of the projectile, and the boundary layer is turbulent, d) The polar damping moment attributed to the wrench hole and rifling mark on the projectile is not considered, e) The groove of the rifle on the rotating band is uniform, smooth and regular. The impacts of the four parts on aerodynamic moment of the projectile rotation were obtained by aerodynamic theory. The surface friction stress of the projectile, the polar damping moment formed by the head of the projectile, the surface friction moment formed by the cylindrical part, the rotating band, and the anti-truncated conical tail were obtained by mathematical derivation. After that, the mathematical model of angular spin rate attenuation was established. In the whole trajectory with the maximum range angle (38°), the absolute error of the polar damping torque coefficient obtained by simulation and the coefficient calculated by the mathematical model established in this paper is not more than 7%. Therefore, the credibility of the mathematical model was verified. The mathematical model can be described as a first-order nonlinear differential equation, which has no analytical solution. The solution can be only gained as a numerical solution by connecting the model with projectile mass motion equations in exterior ballistics.

Keywords: ammunition engineering, fuze technology, spin rate, numerical simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Brian Bacia, Esther Githaiga, Teresia Kabucho, Paul Moses Ndegwa, Lucy Gichohi

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Purpose: The aim of the study is to ensure an appropriate mix of evidence-based prevention strategies geared towards the reduction of new HIV infections and the incidence of Sexually transmitted Illnesses Background: In Nakuru County, more than 90% of all HIV-infected patients are adults and on a single-dose medication-one pill that contains a combination of several different HIV drugs. Nakuru town has been identified as the hardest hit by HIV/Aids in the County according to the latest statistics from the County Aids and STI group, with a prevalence rate of 5.7 percent attributed to the high population and an active urban center. Method: 2 key studies were carried out to provide evidence for the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) when used optimally on preventing sexual transmission of HIV. Discussions based on an examination, assessments of successes in planning, program implementation, and ultimate impact of prevention and treatment were undertaken involving health managers, health workers, community health workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS between February -August 2021. Questionnaires were carried out by a trained duo on ethical procedures at 15 HIV treatment clinics targeting patients on ARVs and caregivers on ARV prevention and treatment of pediatric HIV infection. Findings: Levels of AIDS awareness are extremely high. Advances in HIV treatment have led to an enhanced understanding of the virus, improved care of patients, and control of the spread of drug-resistant HIV. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of people living with HIV having access to life-long antiretroviral drugs (ARV), mostly on generic medicines. Healthcare facilities providing treatment are stressed challenging the administration of the drugs, which require a clinical setting. Women find it difficult to take a daily pill which reduces the effectiveness of the medicine. ART adherence can be strengthened largely through the use of innovative digital technology. The case management approach is useful in resource-limited settings. The county has made tremendous progress in mother-to-child transmission reduction through enhanced early antenatal care (ANC) attendance and mapping of pregnant women Recommendations: Treatment reduces the risk of transmission to the child during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Promote research of medicines through patients and community engagement. Reduce the risk of transmission through breastfeeding. Enhance testing strategies and strengthen health systems for sustainable HIV service delivery. Need exists for improved antenatal care and delivery by skilled birth attendants. Develop a comprehensive maternal reproductive health policy covering equitability, efficient and effective delivery of services. Put in place referral systems.

Keywords: evidence-based prevention strategies, service delivery, human management, integrated approach

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Authors: A. Chávez, A. Rodríguez, F. Pinzón

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Society is concerned about measures of environmental, economic and social impacts generated in the solid waste disposal. These places of confinement, also known as landfills, are locations where problems of pollution and damage to human health are reduced. They are technically designed and operated, using engineering principles, storing the residue in a small area, compact it to reduce volume and covering them with soil layers. Problems preventing liquid (leachate) and gases produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Despite planning and site selection for disposal, monitoring and control of selected processes, remains the dilemma of the leachate as extreme concentration of pollutants, devastating soil, flora and fauna; aggressive processes requiring priority attention. A biological technology is the activated sludge system, used for tributaries with high pollutant loads. Since transforms biodegradable dissolved and particulate matter into CO2, H2O and sludge; transform suspended and no Settleable solids; change nutrients as nitrogen and phosphorous; and degrades heavy metals. The microorganisms that remove organic matter in the processes are in generally facultative heterotrophic bacteria, forming heterogeneous populations. Is possible to find unicellular fungi, algae, protozoa and rotifers, that process the organic carbon source and oxygen, as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus because are vital for cell synthesis. The mixture of the substrate, in this case sludge leachate, molasses and wastewater is maintained ventilated by mechanical aeration diffusers. Considering as the biological processes work to remove dissolved material (< 45 microns), generating biomass, easily obtained by decantation processes. The design consists of an artificial support and aeration pumps, favoring develop microorganisms (denitrifying) using oxygen (O) with nitrate, resulting in nitrogen (N) in the gas phase. Thus, avoiding negative effects of the presence of ammonia or phosphorus. Overall the activated sludge system includes about 8 hours of hydraulic retention time, which does not prevent the demand for nitrification, which occurs on average in a value of MLSS 3,000 mg/L. The extended aeration works with times greater than 24 hours detention; with ratio of organic load/biomass inventory under 0.1; and average stay time (sludge age) more than 8 days. This project developed a pilot system with sludge leachate from Doña Juana landfill - RSDJ –, located in Bogota, Colombia, where they will be subjected to a process of activated sludge and extended aeration through a sequential Bach reactor - SBR, to be dump in hydric sources, avoiding ecological collapse. The system worked with a dwell time of 8 days, 30 L capacity, mainly by removing values of BOD and COD above 90%, with initial data of 1720 mg/L and 6500 mg/L respectively. Motivating the deliberate nitrification is expected to be possible commercial use diffused aeration systems for sludge leachate from landfills.

Keywords: sludge, landfill, leachate, SBR

Procedia PDF Downloads 268

Authors: Carin Chuang, Kuan-Chou Chen

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An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an integrated information system that supports the seamless integration of all the business processes of a company. Implementing an ERP system can increase efficiencies and decrease the costs while helping improve productivity. Many organizations including large, medium and small-sized companies have already adopted an ERP system for decades. Although ERP system can bring competitive advantages to organizations, the lack of proper training approach in ERP implementation is still a major concern. Organizations understand the importance of ERP training to adequately prepare managers and users. The low return on investment, however, for the ERP training makes the training difficult for knowledgeable workers to transfer what is learned in training to the jobs at workplace. Inadequate and inefficient ERP training limits the value realization and success of an ERP system. That is the need to call for a profound change and innovation for ERP training in both workplace at industry and the Information Systems (IS) education in academia. The innovated ERP training approach can improve the users’ knowledge in business processes and hands-on skills in mastering ERP system. It also can be instructed as educational material for IS students in universities. The purpose of the study is to examine the use of ERP simulation games via the ERPsim system to train the IS students in learning ERP implementation. The ERPsim is the business simulation game developed by ERPsim Lab at HEC Montréal, and the game is a real-life SAP (Systems Applications and Products) ERP system. The training uses the ERPsim system as the tool for the Internet-based simulation games and is designed as online student competitions during the class. The competitions involve student teams with the facilitation of instructor and put the students’ business skills to the test via intensive simulation games on a real-world SAP ERP system. The teams run the full business cycle of a manufacturing company while interacting with suppliers, vendors, and customers through sending and receiving orders, delivering products and completing the entire cash-to-cash cycle. To learn a range of business skills, student needs to adopt individual business role and make business decisions around the products and business processes. Based on the training experiences learned from rounds of business simulations, the findings show that learners have reduced risk in making mistakes that help learners build self-confidence in problem-solving. In addition, the learners’ reflections from their mistakes can speculate the root causes of the problems and further improve the efficiency of the training. ERP instructors teaching with the innovative approach report significant improvements in student evaluation, learner motivation, attendance, engagement as well as increased learner technology competency. The findings of the study can provide ERP instructors with guidelines to create an effective learning environment and can be transferred to a variety of other educational fields in which trainers are migrating towards a more active learning approach.

Keywords: business simulations, ERP implementation training, ERPsim, game-based learning, instructional strategy, training innovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Mingqian Zhang

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Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a scanning probe technique for individual objects and structured surfaces investigation that provides a wealth of enhanced spectral information with nanoscale spatial resolution and high detection sensitivity. It has become a powerful and promising chemical and physical information detection method in the nanometer scale. The TERS technique uses a sharp metallic tip regulated in the near-field of a sample surface, which is illuminated with a certain incident beam meeting the excitation conditions of the wave-vector matching. The local electric field, and, consequently, the Raman scattering, from the sample in the vicinity of the tip apex are both greatly tip-enhanced owning to the excitation of localized surface plasmons and the lightning-rod effect. Typically, a TERS setup is composed of a scanning probe microscope, excitation and collection optical configurations, and a Raman spectroscope. In the illumination configuration, an objective lens or a parabolic mirror is always used as the most important component, in order to focus the incident beam on the tip apex for excitation. In this research, a novel TERS setup was built up by introducing a plasmonic lens to the excitation optics as a focusing device. A plasmonic lens with symmetry breaking semi-annular slits corrugated on gold film was designed for the purpose of generating concentrated sub-wavelength light spots with strong longitudinal electric field. Compared to conventional far-field optical components, the designed plasmonic lens not only focuses an incident beam to a sub-wavelength light spot, but also realizes a strong z-component that dominants the electric field illumination, which is ideal for the excitation of tip-enhancement. Therefore, using a PL in the illumination configuration of TERS contributes to improve the detection sensitivity by both reducing the far-field background and effectively exciting the localized electric field enhancement. The FDTD method was employed to investigate the optical near-field distribution resulting from the light-nanostructure interaction. And the optical field distribution was characterized using an scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope to demonstrate the focusing performance of the lens. The experimental result is in agreement with the theoretically calculated one. It verifies the focusing performance of the plasmonic lens. The optical field distribution shows a bright elliptic spot in the lens center and several arc-like side-lobes on both sides. After the focusing performance was experimentally verified, the designed plasmonic lens was used as a focusing component in the excitation configuration of TERS setup to concentrate incident energy and generate a longitudinal optical field. A collimated linearly polarized laser beam, with along x-axis polarization, was incident from the bottom glass side on the plasmonic lens. The incident light focused by the plasmonic lens interacted with the silver-coated tip apex and enhanced the Raman signal of the sample locally. The scattered Raman signal was gathered by a parabolic mirror and detected with a Raman spectroscopy. Then, the plasmonic lens based setup was employed to investigate carbon nanotubes and TERS experiment was performed. Experimental results indicate that the Raman signal is considerably enhanced which proves that the novel TERS configuration is feasible and promising.

Keywords: longitudinal electric field, plasmonics, raman spectroscopy, tip-enhancement

Procedia PDF Downloads 372