Search results for: surface displacement history

Authors: Chien-Hung Liu, Yu-Fen Chen

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This study used triangular laser probe and three-axial direction mobile platform for surface measurement, programmed it and applied it to real-time analytic statistics of different measured data. This structure was used to design a system integration program: using triangular laser probe for scattering or reflection non-contact measurement, transferring the captured signals to the computer through RS-232, and using RS-485 to control the three-axis platform for a wide range of measurement. The data captured by the laser probe are formed into a 3D surface. This study constructed an optical measurement application program in the concept of visual programming language. First, the signals are transmitted to the computer through RS-232/RS-485, and then the signals are stored and recorded in graphic interface timely. This programming concept analyzes various messages, and makes proper presentation graphs and data processing to provide the users with friendly graphic interfaces and data processing state monitoring, and identifies whether the present data are normal in graphic concept. The major functions of the measurement system developed by this study are thickness measurement, SPC, surface smoothness analysis, and analytical calculation of trend line. A result report can be made and printed promptly. This study measured different heights and surfaces successfully, performed on-line data analysis and processing effectively, and developed a man-machine interface for users to operate.

Keywords: laser probe, non-contact measurement, triangulation measurement principle, statistical process control, labVIEW

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Authors: Jesus David Argueta Moreno, Justa Rufina Martel, Edith Gabriela Carrasco

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The Central American Coffee small, medium, and large corporations search for excellence, sustainability, and continuous improvement, triggers in a still unknown scale the Local expansion, crusading, and franchising strategies towards a more suitable commercial opportunity, where the dynamics of the Central American business displacement can be explained through the markets permeability traits. By considering the previously mentioned, the present study aims to evaluate the franchising potentialities offered by Central American Coffee business scenario, in order to explain dynamics of the business demography phenomena and its relevance on the Central American competitiveness landscape.

Keywords: competitiveness, franchising, business demography, Central American Coffee

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Authors: F. A. F. da Ponte, J. Q. Malveira, I. A. Maciel, M. C. G. Albuquerque

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In this work aviation, biofuel production was studied by fatty acids (C6 to C16) esterification. The process variables in heterogeneous catalysis were evaluated using an experimental design. Temperature and reaction time were the studied parameters, and the methyl esters content was the response of the experimental design. An ion exchange resin was used as a heterogeneous catalyst. The process optimization was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) and polynomial model of second order. Results show that the most influential variables on the linear coefficient of each effect studied were temperature and reaction time. The best result of methyl esters conversion in the experimental design was under the conditions: 10% wt of catalyst; 100 °C and 4 hours of reaction. The best-achieved conversion was 96.5% wt of biofuel.

Keywords: esterification, ion-exchange resins, response surface methodology, biofuel

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Authors: Mehmet Sener, Emre Kishali

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The establishment of republic brought radical changes related to the modernization of life in early republican Turkey considering the revolutions in socio-economical, cultural and political aspects. These changes also had many influences on the formation of city planning and architectural medium that the arrangements related with health facility production had an important place amongst them. While the health services were witnessing great transformations with all its sides, socio-cultural and architectural framework of these facilities necessitated the adaption of new conceptual approaches which led to the construction new hospital buildings by the republican state with a name ‘Sample Hospital’. In this period, the state constructed sample hospitals in some cities (Adana, Ankara, Erzurum, İstanbul, Konya, Sivas and Trabzon) for the aim of being a good example for further hospitals sheltering all the characteristics of a contemporary health complex for that day. In this study, these six hospitals will firstly be elucidated considering their historical evaluations and current situations. Then, being one of the most significant modern heritages of republican history, the ways to provide the interrelationship of these complexes with the rapidly evolving current world will be discussed by proposing solutions or approaches coming from the fields of city planning, architectural preservation, engineering and architectural history together with an awareness of the socio-economic conditions, health services and architectural medium of Turkey. These hospitals are complexes composed of building ensembles which have functional relationships with each other. So, some strategies will be proposed for the preservation, renovation, and refurbishment of these complexes with an awareness of the possibility of the conflict between conservation practices and today’s health facility standards. Accordingly, the addition or removal of some elements in the complex or the suggestion of some architectural changes for the modernization of these health facilities will be investigated considering the requirements of the contemporary architectural design of health facilities. Since these hospitals are highly complex structures and have vastly changing design and construction standards, they cannot be used without adopting necessary architectural and technological interventions. So, the adaptive re-use of these buildings instead of demolition or the preservation of their overall characteristics becomes inevitable for the sustaining of these health facility heritages in Turkey. In this context, a multidisciplinary analysis will be made in this study on ‘Sample Hospital’ concept and buildings existing in Turkish modern architectural history within the framework of the adaptive reuse of these health complexes.

Keywords: adaptive re-use, conservation, early republican Turkey, sample hospital

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Authors: Letemariam Gebreslassie Gebrekidan

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Water pollution is one of the most feared problems in modern societies, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Nanoparticles with controlled size and composition are of fundamental and technological interest as they provide solutions to technological and environmental challenges in the areas of solar energy conversion, catalysis, medicine, and water treatment. The synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is an active area of academic and, more importantly, application research in nanotechnology. Adsorption is a process in which pollutants are absorbed on a solid surface. A molecule (pollutant) adhered to the solid surface is called an adsorbate, and the solid surface is an adsorbent. Adsorption is controlled by various parameters such as temperature, the nature of the adsorbate and adsorbent, and the presence of other pollutants along with the experimental conditions (pH, concentration of pollutants, contact time, particle size, and temperature). Depending on the main problem of water pollution, this research is available on the adsorption of wastewater using silver nanoparticles extracted from phytolacca Dodecandra leaf. AgNP was synthesized from a 1mM aqueous solution of silver nitrate (AgNO3) and Phytolacca Dodecandra leaf extract at room temperature. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using UV/visible Spectrometer, FTIR and XRD. In the UV-Vis spectrum, The Surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) peak was observed at 414 nm, which confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs. FTIR spectroscopy, recorded from 4000 cm-1 to 400 cm-1, indicated the presence of a capping agent with the nanoparticles. From the XRD results, the average crystalline size was estimated to be 20 nm Confirming the nanoparticle nature of the obtained sample. Thus, the present method leads to the formation of silver nanoparticles with well-defined dimensions. The effects of different parameters like solution pH, adsorbent dose, contact time and initial concentration of dye were studied. The concentration of MB is 0.01 mg/L and 0.002 mg/L before and after adsorption, respectively. The wastewater containing MB was well purified using AgNP adsorbent.

Keywords: wastewater, silver nanoparticle, Characterization, adsorption, parameter

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Authors: T. Asefi, J. Faiz, M. A. Khan

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This paper introduces dual rotor axial flux machines with surface mounted and spoke type ferrite permanent magnets with concentrated windings; they are introduced as alternatives to a generator with surface mounted Nd-Fe-B magnets. The output power, voltage, speed and air gap clearance for all the generators are identical. The machine designs are optimized for minimum mass using a population-based algorithm, assuming the same efficiency as the Nd-Fe-B machine. A finite element analysis (FEA) is applied to predict the performance, emf, developed torque, cogging torque, no load losses, leakage flux and efficiency of both ferrite generators and that of the Nd-Fe-B generator. To minimize cogging torque, different rotor pole topologies and different pole arc to pole pitch ratios are investigated by means of 3D FEA. It was found that the surface mounted ferrite generator topology is unable to develop the nominal electromagnetic torque, and has higher torque ripple and is heavier than the spoke type machine. Furthermore, it was shown that the spoke type ferrite permanent magnet generator has favorable performance and could be an alternative to rare-earth permanent magnet generators, particularly in wind energy applications. Finally, the analytical and numerical results are verified using experimental results.

Keywords: axial flux, permanent magnet generator, dual rotor, ferrite permanent magnet generator, finite element analysis, wind turbines, cogging torque, population-based algorithms

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Authors: H. Tai Pham, Bae Wisup, Sungmin Jung, Ivan Efriza, Ratna Widyaningsih, Byung Un Min

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The middle-phase-microemulsion in Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) solution and oil play important roles in the success of an ASP flooding process. The high quality microemulsion phase has ultralow interfacial tensions and it can increase oil recovery. The research used optimal experimental design and response-surface-methodology to predict the optimum concentration of chemicals in ASP solution for maximum microemulsion quality. Secondly, this optimal ASP formulation was implemented in core flooding test to investigate the effective injection volume. As the results, the optimum concentration of surfactants in the ASP solution is 0.57 wt.% and the highest effective injection volume is 19.33% pore volume.

Keywords: optimize, ASP, response surface methodology, solubilization ratio

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Authors: Ahmad Umar, Ahmed A. Ibrahim, Mohsen A. Alhamami

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This study introduces a facile synthesis method for synthesizing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets with surface decoration of polyaniline (PANI). The resultant rGO@PANI nanocomposite (NC) exhibit substantial potential as advanced electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors. The strategic integration of PANI onto the rGO surface serves dual purposes, effectively mitigating the agglomeration of rGO films and augmenting their utility in supercapacitor applications. The PANI coating manifests a highly porous and nanosized morphology, fostering increased surface area and optimized mass transport by reducing diffusion kinetics. The nanosized structure of PANI contributes to the maximization of active sites, thereby bolstering the efficacy of the nanocomposites for diverse applications. The inherent conductive nature of the rGO surface significantly expedites electron transport, thereby amplifying the overall electrochemical performance of the nanocomposites. To systematically evaluate the influence of PANI concentration on the electrode performance, varying concentrations of PANI were incorporated. Notably, an elevated PANI concentration was found to enhance the response owing to the unique morphology of PANI. Remarkably, the 5% rGO@PANI NC emerged as the most promising candidate, demonstrating exceptional response characteristics with a specific capacitance of 314.2 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. Furthermore, this catalyst exhibits outstanding long-term stability, retaining approximately 92% of its capacitance even after enduring 4000 cycles. This research underscores the significance of the synergistic integration of rGO and PANI in the design of high-performance supercapacitors. The elucidation of the underlying mechanisms governing the improved electrochemical properties contributes to the fundamental understanding of nanocomposite behavior, thereby paving the way for the rational design of next-generation energy storage materials.

Keywords: reduced graphene oxide, polyaniline, nanocomposites, supercapacitors, energy storage

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Authors: Mohamed Akbi, Aissa Bouchou

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The present work aims to throw light on the effects of arcing in air on the surface state of contact pastilles made of silver-nickel Ag-Ni (60/40). Also, the photoelectric emission from these electrical contacts has been investigated in the spectral range of 196-256 nm. In order to study the effects of arcing on the EWF, the metallic samples were subjected to electrical arcs in air, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, after that, they have been introduced into the vacuum chamber of an experimental UHV set-up for EWF measurements. Both Fowler method of isothermal curves and linearized Fowler plots were used for the measurement of the EWF by the photoelectric effect. It has been found that the EWF varies with the number of applied arcs. Thus, after 500 arcs in air, the observed EWF increasing is probably due to progressive inclusion of oxide on alloy surface. Microscopic examination is necessary to get better understandings on EWF of silver alloys, for both virgin and arced electrical contacts.

Keywords: Ag-Ni contact materials, arcing effects, electron work function, Fowler methods, photoemission

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Authors: James Moir

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The mainstay of Big Data is prediction in that it allows practitioners, researchers, and policy analysts to predict trends based upon the analysis of large and varied sources of data. These can range from changing social and political opinions, patterns in crimes, and consumer behaviour. Big Data has therefore shifted the criterion of success in science from causal explanations to predictive modelling and simulation. The 19th-century science sought to capture phenomena and seek to show the appearance of it through causal mechanisms while 20th-century science attempted to save the appearance and relinquish causal explanations. Now 21st-century science in the form of Big Data is concerned with the prediction of appearances and nothing more. However, this pulls social science back in the direction of a more rule- or law-governed reality model of science and away from a consideration of the internal nature of rules in relation to various practices. In effect Big Data offers us no more than a world of surface appearance and in doing so it makes disappear any context-specific conceptual sensitivity.

Keywords: big data, appearance, disappearance, surface, epistemology

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Authors: Navneetinder Singh, Harprabhjot Singh, Harpreet Singh, Supreet Singh

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Many materials are known to mankind that is widely used for synthesis of corrosion resistant hydrophobic coatings. In the current work, novel hydrophobic composite was synthesized by mixing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and 20 weight% ceria particles followed by sintering. This composite had same hydrophobic behavior as PTFE. Moreover, composite showed better scratch resistance than virgin PTFE. Pits of plasma sprayed Ni₃Al coating were exploited to hold PTFE composite on the substrate as Superni-75 alloy surface through sintering process. Plasma sprayed surface showed good adhesion with the composite coating during scratch test. Potentiodynamic corrosion test showed 100 fold decreases in corrosion rate of coated sample this may be attributed to inert and hydrophobic nature of PTFE and ceria.

Keywords: polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE, ceria, coating, corrosion

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Authors: Chih-Hsin Lin, Shyh-Yuan Lee, Yuan-Min Lin

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For many tissue engineering applications, an important goal is to create functional tissues in-vitro, and such tissues to be viable, they have to be vascularized. Endothelial cells (EC) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) are promising candidates for vascularization. However, both of them have limited expansion capacity and autologous cells currently do not exist for either ECs or EPCs. Therefore, we use bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) as a source material for ECs. Growth supplements are commonly used to induce MSC differentiation, and further improvements in differentiation conditions can be made by modifying the cell's growth environment. An example is pre-treatment of the growth dish with gas plasma, in order to modify the surface functional groups of the material that the cells are seeded on. In this work, we compare the effects of different gas plasmas on the growth and differentiation of MSCs. We treat the dish with different plasmas (CO2, N2, and O2) and then induce MSC differentiation with endothelial growth medium-2 (EGM-2). We find that EGM-2 by itself upregulates EC marker CD31 mRNA expression, but not VEGFR2, CD34, or vWF. However, these additional EC marker expressions were increased for cells seeded on plasma treated substrates. Specifically, for EC markers, we found that N2 plasma treatment upregulated CD31 and VEGFR-2 mRNA expressions; CO2 plasma treatment upregulated CD34 and vWF mRNA expressions. The osteogenic markers ALP and osteopontin mRNA expressions were markedly enhanced on all plasma-treated dishes. We also found that plasma treatment in conjunction with EGM-2 growth medium can enhance MSCs differentiation into endothelial-like cells and osteogenic-like cells. Our work shows that the effect of the growth medium (EGM-2) on MSCs differentiation is influenced by the plasma modified surface chemistry of the substrate. In conclusion, plasma surface modification can enhance EGM-2 effectiveness and induced both endothelial and osteogenic differentiation. Our findings provide a method to enhance EGM-2 based cell differentiation, with consequences for tissue engineering and stem cell biology applications.

Keywords: endothelial differentiation, EGM-2, osteogenesis, plasma treatment, surface modification

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Authors: Temesgen Geremew

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This study investigates the evolution of polythiophene nanoparticles (PThNPs) as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors for Pb²⁺ detection in river water. We analyze the PThNPs' optical, structural, and morphological properties at different stages of their development to understand their SERS performance. Techniques like UV-Vis spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are employed for characterization. The SERS sensitivity towards Pb²⁺ is evaluated by monitoring the peak intensity of a specific Raman band upon increasing metal ion concentration. The study aims to elucidate the relationship between the PThNPs' characteristics and their SERS efficiency for Pb²⁺ detection, paving the way for optimizing their design and fabrication for improved sensing performance in real-world environmental monitoring applications.

Keywords: polythiophene, Pb2+, SERS, nanoparticles

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Authors: Luciano E. Sewaybricker

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Psychology has faced many challenges in order to claim its right to study happiness. Probably the major issue has been to present a clear definition of happiness, which has a long history outside the scientific field and has been used imprecisely in the daily life. Even after years of great improvement, different meanings of happiness still have been seen in academic studies. This scenario allows to question if any definition is consistent enough to sustain the recent findings of the psychological processes behind happiness. Moreover, does it make sense to seek a single definition of happiness? By investigating the history of happiness and the theoretical foundations of Positive Psychology, it can be advocated that it’s proper for happiness to be polysemic. Since Ancient Greece most attempts to outline happiness consists of an appreciation of the "best way to live" and consequently requires a delineation of the most important things in life. Besides this generic definition, it’s hard to find consensus about happiness. In fact, what and how much something will be considered important to happiness depend on social influence. This compels happiness to vary between groups, historical periods, and even for the same person over time. Therefore, the same psychological processes will not necessarily be behind all forms of happiness. Consequently, three assumptions should be considered when studying happiness: it’s intrinsic of happiness to be transitory and socially influenced; happiness refers not only to what is possible in the present, but also to an ideal future; when someone (including a scientist) talks about happiness they describe and prescribe a better way to live. Because any attempt to define happiness will be limited in space and time, it's more suitable to study its variations than its universalities. This may have considerable consequences to political agenda on happiness evaluation and maximization, like Gross National Happiness and utilitarian initiatives. Happiness policies should be understood as an arbitrary choice amongst all kinds of happiness and as prescriptive of what “the best way to live” should be.

Keywords: happiness, politics, positive psychology, well-being

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Authors: Shahid Mahboob, Hafiz Muhammad Ashraf, Salma Sultana, Tayyaba Sultana, Khalid Al-Ghanim, Fahid Al-Misned, Zubair Ahmedd

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There is an increasing need for an effective tool to estimate the risks derived from the large number of pollutants released to the environment by human activities. Typical screening procedures are highly invasive or lethal to the fish. Recent studies show that fish scales biochemically respond to a range of contaminants, including toxic metals, organic compounds, and endocrine disruptors. The present study evaluated the effects of the surface water contaminants on Cyprinus carpio in the Ravi River by comparing DNA extracted non-lethally from their scales to DNA extracted from the scales of fish collected from a controlled fish farm. A single, random sampling was conducted. Fish were broadly categorised into three weight categories (W1, W2 and W3). The experimental samples in the W1, W2 and W3 categories had an average DNA concentration (µg/µl) that was lower than the control samples. All control samples had a single DNA band; whereas the experimental samples in W1 fish had 1 to 2 bands, the experimental samples in W2 fish had two bands and the experimental samples in W3 fish had fragmentation in the form of three bands. These bands exhibit the effects of pollution on fish in the Ravi River. On the basis findings of this study, we propose that fish scales can be successfully employed as a new non-lethal tool for the evaluation of the effect of surface water contaminants.

Keywords: fish scales, Cyprinus carpio, heavy metals, non-invasive, DNA fragmentation

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Authors: S. Shankar Bharathi

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Inspection of surface defects on metallic components has always been challenging due to its specular property. Occurrences of defects such as scratches, rust, pitting are very common in metallic surfaces during the manufacturing process. These defects if unchecked can hamper the performance and reduce the life time of such component. Many of the conventional image processing algorithms in detecting the surface defects generally involve segmentation techniques, based on thresholding, edge detection, watershed segmentation and textural segmentation. They later employ other suitable algorithms based on morphology, region growing, shape analysis, neural networks for classification purpose. In this paper the work has been focused only towards detecting scratches. Global and other thresholding techniques were used to extract the defects, but it proved to be inaccurate in extracting the defects alone. However, this paper does not focus on comparison of different segmentation techniques, but rather describes a novel approach towards segmentation combined with hausdorff dilation distance. The proposed algorithm is based on the distribution of the intensity levels, that is, whether a certain gray level is concentrated or evenly distributed. The algorithm is based on extraction of such concentrated pixels. Defective images showed higher level of concentration of some gray level, whereas in non-defective image, there seemed to be no concentration, but were evenly distributed. This formed the basis in detecting the defects in the proposed algorithm. Hausdorff dilation distance based on mathematical morphology was used to strengthen the segmentation of the defects.

Keywords: metallic surface, scratches, segmentation, hausdorff dilation distance, machine vision

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Authors: Balwinder Singh

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In the current competitive environment, casting industry has several challenges such as production of intricate castings, near net shape castings, decrease lead-time from product design to production, improved casting quality and to control costs. The raw materials used to make ceramic shell play an important role in determining the overall final ceramic shell characteristics. In this work, primary slurries were formulated using various combinations of zircon flour, fused silica and aluminosilicate powders as filler, colloidal silica as binder along with wetting and antifoaming agents (Catalyst). Taguchi’s parameter design strategy has been applied to investigate the effect of primary slurry parameters on the viscosity of the slurry and primary coating of shell. The result reveals that primary coating with low viscosity slurry has produced a rough surface of the shell due to stucco penetration.

Keywords: ceramic shell, primary slurry, filler, slurry viscosity, surface roughness

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Authors: Jain Jyoti, Jain Shorab, Sinha Shishir

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In the field of material engineering, composites are in great concern for their nonbiodegradability and their cost. In order to reduce its cost and weight, plant derived fibers witnessed miraculous triumph. Plant fibers can be of different types like seed fibers, blast fibers, leaf fibers, etc. Composites can be reinforced with exclusively one type of natural fiber or also can be combined with two or more different types of natural or synthetic fibers to boost up their specific properties. Among all natural fibers, wheat straw, bagasse, kenaf, pineapple leaf, banana, coir, ramie, flax, etc. pineapple leaf fibers have very good mechanical properties. Being hydrophilic in nature, pineapple leaf fibers have very less affinity towards all types of polymer matrixes like HDPE, LDPE, PET, epoxy, etc. Surface treatments like alkaline treatment in different concentrations were conducted to improve its adhesion and compatibility towards hydrophobic polymer matrix i.e. epoxy resin. Pineapple leaf fiber epoxy composites have been prepared using hand layup method. Effect of fiber loading and surface treatments have been studied for different mechanical properties i.e. tensile strength, flexural strength and impact properties of pineapple leaf fiber composites. Analysis of fiber morphology has also been studied using FTIR, XRD. Scanning electron microscopy has also been used to study and compare the morphology of untreated and treated fibers. Also, the fracture surface has been reviewed comparing the reported literature of other eminent researchers of this field.

Keywords: composite, mechanical, natural fiber, pineapple leaf fiber

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Authors: Junwu Tian

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Chinese poetics originated in the pre-Qin period, while Western poetics came into being in the Hellenistic period. Although there was no mutual communication and influence between the two kinds of poetics due to both geographical distance and chronological displacement, the Sino-Western thinkers shared much in common, particularly in the social function of literature and art, the pursuit of unified and harmonious aesthetics, the advocacy of poets’ subjective initiative in the creative process of literature and art. In the sphere of rhetoric, the poetics of the pre-Qin scholars and their Greek counterparts also had heterogeneous similarities. By comparing the aesthetic ideas of Confucius, Mencius, Xun Zi, and Deng Xi with those of Plato, Aristotle, and Protagoras, this paper intends to reveal the common concerns of Chinese and Western poetics in the context of heterogeneous cultures and in their respective origin periods.

Keywords: Pre-Qin poetics, ancient Greek poetics, heterogeneous similarity, origin period

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Authors: Mohamad Musa

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The history of mental health practices and services in the Middle East region has been deeply intertwined with its rich cultural, religious, and societal context. Tracing back to ancient times, mental health approaches were heavily influenced by the traditions of major monotheistic religions, with a strong emphasis on spiritual and traditional healing methods. As psychiatric institutions and Western medicine gradually gained a foothold in the region during the 20th century, a notable shift occurred. However, the integration of Western psychiatric practices faced significant challenges due to cultural barriers and deeply rooted beliefs. Families and communities often turned to traditional healers and religious practices as their initial recourse for mental health concerns, viewing Western interventions with skepticism and hesitation. Historically, mental health services in the Middle East have been overshadowed by a focus on physical health and the biomedical model. Mental illness carried substantial stigma, with individuals and families often reluctant to disclose mental health struggles due to fears of societal ostracization and discrimination. This stigma posed a significant barrier to accessing and accepting formal mental health support. Later in the 20th century, governments in the Middle East began recognizing the need for modernizing mental health services and integrating them into the broader healthcare system. However, this process was hindered by several factors, including limited resources, inadequate training for healthcare professionals, and ongoing conflicts and instability in certain regions, which disrupted the delivery of mental health services. As the 21st century progressed, several Middle Eastern nations, particularly those in the Arabian Gulf region, began implementing national mental health strategies and legislative reforms to address the growing need for comprehensive mental health care. These efforts aimed to destigmatize mental illness, protect the rights of individuals with mental health conditions, and promote public awareness and education. Despite these positive developments, the historical legacy of stigma, cultural barriers, and limited resources continues to pose challenges in the provision of accessible and culturally responsive mental health services across the diverse populations of the Middle East.

Keywords: mental health, history, middle east, literature review

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Authors: Yongde Dai

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The recent Chinese military action blockbusters, notably known as, Wolf Warrior/Zhan Lang (2015), Operation Mekong/Mei gong he xing dong (2016), Warrior 2/Zhan Lang 2 (2017) and Operation Red Sea/Hong hai xing dong (2018), have achieved phenomenal box-office successes and in particular, Wolf Warrior 2 became China’s highest-grossing film of all time. However, their yearly presence tends to show a paradigmic shift from China’s primacy of wen manliness (soft) to wu masculinity (hard). With the increasing cinematic exposure of a more muscular image manifesting in both the Chinese heroic soldiers and China itself as a rising global power, the backlash of the Chinese public against the proliferation of the feminized masculinity influenced by the ‘pretty-boy’ pop-culture and China’s harder approach to the current Sino-US tensions have correspondingly emerged and continued to brew. Chinese masculinity imagined in these films is one of the key factors that enable a gendered interpretation of the correlation between the Chinese on-screen fantasy and off-screen reality, that is, China’s public and official discourse about the hegemonic masculinity and non-hegemonic masculinity as well as China’s international profile on cinematic appearance and in today’s Sino-US relation. By reading closely at the four megahits as visual-audio texts with Chinese masculinity studies by Kam Louie and Geng Song, this paper attempts to examine the Chinese construction of manliness with historical accounts and argue why and how the recurrent emphasis of hard/military masculinity (wu) on screen are viewed as China’s contemporary rewriting of the ‘sick-man’ history in the film form. Through this investigation, the paper finds that the rewriting of the ‘sick-man’ history in the cinematic world through heroic brawny soldiers comes to resonate a collective anxiety of China in countering the real-life increasing feminized masculinity on the public appearance, particularly on the male celebrities. In addition, the superpower fantasy about China illuminates a hypermasculine imaginary of China as a global rising power and this coincidently echoes China’s current tougher diplomatic strategy tackling the Sino-US trade war, South China sea dispute and Huawei-US lawsuits.

Keywords: Chinese masculinity, Chinese military action film, feminized masculinity, manhood and nationhood, sick man of Asia

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Authors: M. C. Lin, C. W. Su

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The paper investigates the optimization analysis to the heat exchanger design, mainly with response surface method and genetic algorithm to explore the relationship between optimal fluid flow velocity and temperature of the heat exchanger using field synergy principle. First, finite volume method is proposed to calculate the flow temperature and flow rate distribution for numerical analysis. We identify the most suitable simulation equations by response surface methodology. Furthermore, a genetic algorithm approach is applied to optimize the relationship between fluid flow velocity and flow temperature of the heat exchanger. The results show that the field synergy angle plays vital role in the performance of a true heat exchanger.

Keywords: optimization analysis, field synergy, heat exchanger, genetic algorithm

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Authors: Matthew J. Emes, Azadeh Jafari, Maziar Arjomandi

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Velocity fluctuations of shear-generated turbulence are largest in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL) of nominal 100 m depth, which can lead to dynamic effects such as galloping and flutter on small physical structures on the ground when the turbulence length scales and characteristic length of the physical structure are the same order of magnitude. Turbulence length scales are a measure of the average sizes of the energy-containing eddies that are widely estimated using two-point cross-correlation analysis to convert the temporal lag to a separation distance using Taylor’s hypothesis that the convection velocity is equal to the mean velocity at the corresponding height. Profiles of turbulence length scales in the neutrally-stratified ASL, as predicted by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory in Engineering Sciences Data Unit (ESDU) 85020 for single-point data and ESDU 86010 for two-point correlations, are largely dependent on the aerodynamic roughness length. Field measurements have shown that longitudinal turbulence length scales show significant regional variation, whereas length scales of the vertical component show consistent Obukhov scaling from site to site because of the absence of low-frequency components. Hence, the objective of this experimental study is to compare the similarity theory relationships between the turbulence length scales and aerodynamic roughness length with those calculated using the autocorrelations and cross-correlations of field measurement velocity data at two sites: the Surface Layer Turbulence and Environmental Science Test (SLTEST) facility in a desert ASL in Dugway, Utah, USA and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) wind tower in a rural ASL in Jemalong, NSW, Australia. The results indicate that the longitudinal turbulence length scales increase with increasing aerodynamic roughness length, as opposed to the relationships derived by similarity theory correlations in ESDU models. However, the ratio of the turbulence length scales in the lateral and vertical directions to the longitudinal length scales is relatively independent of surface roughness, showing consistent inner-scaling between the two sites and the ESDU correlations. Further, the diurnal variation of wind velocity due to changes in atmospheric stability conditions has a significant effect on the turbulence structure of the energy-containing eddies in the lower ASL.

Keywords: aerodynamic roughness length, atmospheric surface layer, similarity theory, turbulence length scales

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Authors: Hamdy M. Youssef, Mowffaq Oreijah, Hunaydi S. Alsharif

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In this paper, a three-dimensional model of the generalized thermoelasticity with one relaxation time and variable thermal conductivity has been constructed. The resulting non-dimensional governing equations together with the Laplace and double Fourier transforms techniques have been applied to a three-dimensional half-space subjected to thermal loading with rectangular pulse and traction free in the directions of the principle co-ordinates. The inverses of double Fourier transforms, and Laplace transforms have been obtained numerically. Numerical results for the temperature increment, the invariant stress, the invariant strain, and the displacement are represented graphically. The variability of the thermal conductivity has significant effects on the thermal and the mechanical waves.

Keywords: thermoelasticity, thermal conductivity, Laplace transforms, Fourier transforms

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

Abstract:

The amount of real-time data generated through various mass media has been increasing rapidly. In this study, we had performed topic analysis by using the unstructured text data that is distributed through news article. As one of the most prevalent applications of topic analysis, the issue tracking technique investigates the changes of the social issues that identified through topic analysis. Currently, traditional issue tracking is conducted by identifying the main topics of documents that cover an entire period at the same time and analyzing the occurrence of each topic by the period of occurrence. However, this traditional issue tracking approach has limitation that it cannot discover dynamic mutation process of complex social issues. The purpose of this study is to overcome the limitations of the existing issue tracking method. We first derived core issues of each period, and then discover the dynamic mutation process of various issues. In this study, we further analyze the mutation process from the perspective of the issues categories, in order to figure out the pattern of issue flow, including the frequency and reliability of the pattern. In other words, this study allows us to understand the components of the complex issues by tracking the dynamic history of issues. This methodology can facilitate a clearer understanding of complex social phenomena by providing mutation history and related category information of the phenomena.

Keywords: Data Mining, Issue Tracking, Text Mining, topic Analysis, topic Detection, Trend Detection

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Authors: S. N. Turkmen, A. S. Kipcak, N. Tugrul, E. M. Derun, S. Piskin

Abstract:

Activated carbon is an amorphous carbon chain which has extremely extended surface area. High surface area of activated carbon is due to the porous structure. Activated carbon, using a variety of materials such as coal and cellulosic materials; can be obtained by both physical and chemical methods. The prepared activated carbon can be used for decolorize, deodorize and also can be used for removal of organic and non-organic pollution. In this study, pomegranate peel was subjected to 800W microwave power for 1 to 4 minutes. Also fresh pomegranate peel was used for the reference material. Then ZnCl2 was used for the chemical activation purpose. After the activation process, activated pomegranate peels were used for the adsorption of Zn metal (40 ppm) in the waste water. As a result of the adsorption experiments, removal of heavy metals ranged from 89% to 85%.

Keywords: activated carbon, adsorption, chemical activation, microwave, pomegranate peel

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Authors: Taleb Odeh, Nizar Abu-Jaber, Nour Khries

Abstract:

The southern part of Wadi Al Yarmouk catchment area covers north of Jordan. It locates within latitudes 32° 20’ to 32° 45’N and longitudes 35° 42’ to 36° 23’ E and has an area of about 1426 km2. However, it has high relief topography where the elevation varies between 50 to 1100 meter above sea level. The variations in the topography causes different units of landforms, climatic zones, land covers and plant species. As a results of these different landscapes units exists in that region. Spatial planning is a major challenge in such a vital area for Jordan which could not be achieved without determining landscape units. However, an integrated approach of remote sensing and geographic information Systems (GIS) is an optimized tool to investigate and map landscape units of such a complicated area. Remote sensing has the capability to collect different land surface data, of large landscape areas, accurately and in different time periods. GIS has the ability of storage these land surface data, analyzing them spatially and present them in form of professional maps. We generated a geo-land surface data that include land cover, rock units, soil units, plant species and digital elevation model using ASTER image and Google Earth while analyzing geo-data spatially were done by ArcGIS 10.2 software. We found that there are twenty two different landscape units in the study area which they have to be considered for any spatial planning in order to avoid and environmental problems.

Keywords: landscape, spatial planning, GIS, spatial analysis, remote sensing

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Authors: X. Li, J. Sundquist, C. Sjöstedt, M. Winkleby, K. S. Kendler, K. Sundquist

Abstract:

Aims: This study examines the association between the incidence of drug abuse (DA) and linking (communal) social capital, a theoretical concept describing the amount of trust between individuals and societal institutions. Methods: We present results from an 8-year population-based cohort study that followed all residents in Sweden, aged 15-44, from 2003 through 2010, for a total of 1,700,896 men and 1,642,798 women. Social capital was conceptualized as the proportion of people in a geographically defined neighborhood who voted in local government elections. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and between-neighborhood variance. Results: We found robust associations between linking social capital (scored as a three level variable) and DA in men and women. For men, the OR for DA in the crude model was 2.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.02-2.21] for those living in areas with the lowest vs. highest level of social capital. After accounting for neighborhood-level deprivation, the OR fell to 1.59 (1.51-1-68), indicating that neighborhood deprivation lies in the pathway between linking social capital and DA. The ORs remained significant after accounting for age, sex, family income, marital status, country of birth, education level, and region of residence, and after further accounting for comorbidities and family history of comorbidities and family history of DA. For women, the OR decreased from 2.15 (2.03-2.27) in the crude model to 1.31 (1.22-1.40) in the final model, adjusted for multiple neighborhood-level and individual-level variables. Conclusions: Our study suggests that low linking social capital may have important independent effects on DA.

Keywords: drug abuse, social linking capital, environment, family

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Authors: Rafay Ahmed, Condon Lau

Abstract:

Bone healing is a complex and sequential process involving changes at the molecular level. Raman spectroscopy is a promising technique to study bone mineral and matrix environments simultaneously. In this study, subcritical calvarial defects are used to study bone composition during healing without discomposing the fracture. The model allowed to monitor the natural healing of bone avoiding mechanical harm to the callus. Calvarial defects were created using 1mm burr drill in the parietal bones of Sprague-Dawley rats (n=8) that served in vivo defects. After 7 days, their skulls were harvested after euthanizing. One additional defect per sample was created on the opposite parietal bone using same calvarial defect procedure to serve as control defect. Raman spectroscopy (785 nm) was established to investigate bone parameters of three different skull surfaces; in vivo defects, control defects and normal surface. Principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized for the data analysis and interpretation of Raman spectra and helped in the classification of groups. PCA was able to distinguish in vivo defects from normal surface and control defects. PC1 shows that the major variation at 958 cm⁻¹, which corresponds to ʋ1 phosphate mineral band. PC2 shows the major variation at 1448 cm⁻¹ which is the characteristic band of CH2 deformation and corresponds to collagens. Raman parameters, namely, mineral to matrix ratio and crystallinity was found significantly decreased in the in vivo defects compared to surface and controls. Scanning electron microscope and optical microscope images show the formation of newly generated matrix by means of bony bridges of collagens. Optical profiler shows that surface roughness increased by 30% from controls to in vivo defects after 7 days. These results agree with Raman assessment parameters and confirm the new collagen formation during healing.

Keywords: Raman spectroscopy, principal component analysis, calvarial defects, tissue characterization

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Authors: Yi-Chun Wu, Nai-Yun Chang, Chuan LI

Abstract:

This study investigates a feasible range of composition for the mixture of gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol to form nanofibers by electrospinning. Gelatin, one of the most available naturally derived hydrogels of amino acids, is a popular choice for food additives, cosmetic ingredients, biomedical implants, or dressing of its non-toxic and biodegradable nature. Nevertheless, synthetic hydrogel polyvinyl alcohol has long been used as a thickening agent for adhesion purposes. Many biomedical devices are also containing polyvinyl-alcohol as a major content, such as eye drops and contact lenses. To discover appropriate compositions of gelatin and polyvinyl-alcohol for electrospun nanofibers, polymer solutions of different volumetric ratios between gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol were prepared for electrospinning. The viscosity, surface tension, pH value, and electrical conductance of polymer solutions were measured. On the nanofibers, the vibrational modes of molecular structures in nanofibers were investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The morphologies and surface chemical elements of fibers were examined by the scanning electron microscope and the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The hydrophilicity of nanofiberswas evaluated by the water contact angles on the surface of the fibers. To further test the biotoxicity of nanofibers, an in-vitro 3T3 fibroblasts culture further tested the biotoxicity of the electrospun nanofibers. Throughstatistical analyses of the experimental data, it is found that the polyvinyl-alcohol rich composition (the volumetric ratio of gelatin/polyvinyl-alcohol < 1) would be a preferable choice for the formation of nanofibers by the current setup of electrospinning. These electrospun nanofibers tend to be hydrophilic with no biotoxicity threat to the 3T3 fibroblasts.

Keywords: gelatin, polyvinyl-alcohol, nanofibers, electrospinning, spin coating

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