Search results for: commercial field

Authors: Mohammad Vahed, Ana Sadeghitohidi, Majid Vahed, Hiroki Takahashi

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In the genomics field, the huge amounts of data have produced by the next-generation sequencers (NGS). Data volumes are very rapidly growing, as it is postulated that more than one billion bases will be produced per year in 2020. The growth rate of produced data is much faster than Moore's law in computer technology. This makes it more difficult to deal with genomics data, such as storing data, searching information, and finding the hidden information. It is required to develop the analysis platform for genomics big data. Cloud computing newly developed enables us to deal with big data more efficiently. Hadoop is one of the frameworks distributed computing and relies upon the core of a Big Data as a Service (BDaaS). Although many services have adopted this technology, e.g. amazon, there are a few applications in the biology field. Here, we propose a new algorithm to more efficiently deal with the genomics big data, e.g. sequencing data. Our algorithm consists of two parts: First is that BDaaS is applied for handling the data more efficiently. Second is that the hybrid method of MapReduce and Fuzzy logic is applied for data processing. This step can be parallelized in implementation. Our algorithm has great potential in computational analysis of genomics big data, e.g. de novo genome assembly and sequence similarity search. We will discuss our algorithm and its feasibility.

Keywords: big data, fuzzy logic, MapReduce, Hadoop, cloud computing

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Authors: Daomao Yang, Qizhi Wang

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Monoterpenoids are mainly found in plant essential oils and they are ideal substrates for biotransformation into oxygen-containing derivatives with important commercial value due to their low price and simple structure. In this paper, eleven strains of endophytic fungi from Praxelis clematidea were used as test strains to conduct the whole cell biotransformation of the monoterpenoids: (+)-limonene, (-)-limonene and myrcene. The fungi were inoculated in 50 ml Sabouraud medium and incubated at 30 ℃ with the agitation of 150 r/min for 6 d, and then 0.5% (v/v) substrates were added into the medium and biotransformed for further 3 d. Afterwards the cultures were filtered, and extracted using equal volume of ethyl acetate. The metabolites were analyzed by GC-MS technique with NIST database. The Total Ion Chromatogram of the extractions from the eleven strains showed that the main product of (+)- and (-)-limonene biotransformation was limonene-1,2-diol, while it is limonene and linalool oxide for biotransformation of myrcene. This work will help screen the microorganisms to biotransform the monoterpenes.

Keywords: endophytic fungi, (+)–limonene, (-)–limonene, myrcene

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Authors: Alena Dadova, Katarina Holla, Anna Cidlinova, Linda Makovicka Osvaldova, Jiri Vala, Samuel Kockar

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Occupational health and safety (ASH) is an area in which procedures and applications are constantly evolving and changing through legislation and new directives and guidelines. In this way, the relevant organizations strive to ensure continuous progress and the advantage of up-to-date information to ensure safety and prevent occupational accidents. Three ESENER surveys have been carried out in the European Union, led by the Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). On the basis of surveys, it was determined how European workplaces manage risks and how they manage the field of safety and health protection at work. Thousands of companies and organizations in the European Union were involved in the surveys. Organizations and businesses were presented with a questionnaire that focused on the following topics: the impact of general risks on the field of OSH and the possibility of their management, psychosocial risks and other factors such as stress, harassment and bullying, and employee participation in OSH procedures. The article is dedicated to the fundamental conclusions from these surveys and their subsequent connection with the strategic intent of the Strategic Framework of European Union for the years 2021 - 2027. In the conclusion, emerging risks are identified and EU will soon have to deal with them.

Keywords: ESENER, emerging risks, strategic framework in OSH, EU

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Authors: Sandro Bartolini, Alessandro Mecocci, Alessio Medaglini

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The growing popularity of systems based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is highlighting their vulnerability, particularly in relation to the positioning system used. Typically, UAV architectures use the civilian GPS, which is exposed to a number of different attacks, such as jamming or spoofing. This is why it is important to develop alternative methodologies to accurately estimate the actual UAV position without relying on GPS measurements only. In this paper, we propose a position estimate method for UAVs based on monocular visual odometry. We have developed a flight control system capable of keeping track of the entire trajectory travelled, with a reduced dependency on the availability of GPS signals. Moreover, the simplicity of the developed solution makes it applicable to a wide range of commercial drones. The final goal is to allow for safer flights in all conditions, even under cyber-attacks trying to deceive the drone.

Keywords: visual odometry, autonomous uav, position measurement, autonomous outdoor flight

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Authors: Jayant Kumar, Aarcha Jayachandran Sasikala, Barry Adrian Shepherd

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Public Distribution System is a flagship welfare programme of the Government of India with both historical and political significance. Targeted at lower sections of society,it is one of the largest supply chain networks in the world. There has been several studies by academics and planning commission about the effectiveness of the system. Our study focuses on applying predictive analytics to aid the central body to keep track of the problem of breach of service level agreement between the two echelons of food supply chain. Each shop breach is leading to a potential additional inventory carrying cost. Thus, through this study, we aim to show that aided with such analytics, the network can be made more cost effective. The methods we illustrate in this study are applicable to other commercial supply chains as well.

Keywords: PDS, analytics, cost effectiveness, Karnataka, inventory cost, service level JEL classification: C53

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Authors: Suruchi Saini, Hitender Kumar Tyagi

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With the rapid progress of the nanotechnology industry, it is becoming increasingly important to have compact semiconductor devices to function and offer the best results at various technology nodes. While performing the scaling of the device, several short-channel effects occur. To minimize these scaling limitations, some device architectures have been developed in the semiconductor industry. FinFET is one of the most promising structures. Also, the double-gate 2D Fin field effect transistor has the benefit of suppressing short channel effects (SCE) and functioning well for less than 14 nm technology nodes. In the present research, the MuGFET simulation tool is used to analyze and explain the electrical behaviour of a double-gate 2D Fin field effect transistor. The drift-diffusion and Poisson equations are solved self-consistently. Various models, such as Fermi-Dirac distribution, bandgap narrowing, carrier scattering, and concentration-dependent mobility models, are used for device simulation. The transfer and output characteristics of the double-gate 2D Fin field effect transistor are determined at 10 nm technology node. The performance parameters are extracted in terms of threshold voltage, trans-conductance, leakage current and current on-off ratio. In this paper, the device performance is analyzed at different structure parameters. The utilization of the Id-Vg curve is a robust technique that holds significant importance in the modeling of transistors, circuit design, optimization of performance, and quality control in electronic devices and integrated circuits for comprehending field-effect transistors. The FinFET structure is optimized to increase the current on-off ratio and transconductance. Through this analysis, the impact of different channel widths, source and drain lengths on the Id-Vg and transconductance is examined. Device performance was affected by the difficulty of maintaining effective gate control over the channel at decreasing feature sizes. For every set of simulations, the device's features are simulated at two different drain voltages, 50 mV and 0.7 V. In low-power and precision applications, the off-state current is a significant factor to consider. Therefore, it is crucial to minimize the off-state current to maximize circuit performance and efficiency. The findings demonstrate that the performance of the current on-off ratio is maximum with the channel width of 3 nm for a gate length of 10 nm, but there is no significant effect of source and drain length on the current on-off ratio. The transconductance value plays a pivotal role in various electronic applications and should be considered carefully. In this research, it is also concluded that the transconductance value of 340 S/m is achieved with the fin width of 3 nm at a gate length of 10 nm and 2380 S/m for the source and drain extension length of 5 nm, respectively.

Keywords: current on-off ratio, FinFET, short-channel effects, transconductance

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Authors: Jun Wang, Tingcun Wei

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The digital pulse width modulator (DPWM) is the crucial building block for digitally-controlled DC-DC switching converter, which converts the digital duty ratio signal into its analog counterpart to control the power MOSFET transistors on or off. With the increase of switching frequency of digitally-controlled DC-DC converter, the DPWM with higher time resolution is required. In this paper, a 15-bits DPWM with three-level hybrid structure is presented; the first level is composed of a7-bits counter and a comparator, the second one is a 5-bits delay line, and the third one is a 3-bits digital dither. The presented DPWM is designed and implemented using the PLL megafunction of FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), and the required frequency of clock signal is 128 times of switching frequency. The simulation results show that, for the switching frequency of 2 MHz, a DPWM which has the time resolution of 15 ps is achieved using a maximum clock frequency of 256MHz. The designed DPWM in this paper is especially useful for high-frequency digitally-controlled DC-DC switching converters.

Keywords: DPWM, digitally-controlled DC-DC switching converter, FPGA, PLL megafunction, time resolution

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Authors: Tatiana L. Avalos-Rendon, Elias A. Pasten Chelala, Carlos J. Mendoza EScobedo, Ignacio A. Figueroa, Victor H. Lara, Luis M. Palacios-Romero

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The cement industry is facing cost increments in energy supply, requirements for reduction of CO₂, and insufficient supply of raw materials of good quality. According to all these environmental issues, cement industry must change its consumption patterns and reduce CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere. This can be achieved by generating environmental consciousness, which encourages the use of industrial by-products and/or recycling for the production of cement, as well as alternate, environment-friendly methods of synthesis which reduce CO₂. Calcination is the conventional method for the obtainment of Portland cement clinker. This method consists of grinding and mixing of raw materials (limestone, clay, etc.) in an adequate dosage. Resulting mix has a clinkerization temperature of 1450 °C so that the formation of the main component occur: alite (Ca₃SiO₅, C₃S). Considering that the energy required to produce C₃S is 1810 kJ kg -1, calcination method for the obtainment of clinker represents two major disadvantages: long thermal treatment and elevated temperatures of synthesis, both of which cause high emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to the atmosphere. Belite Portland clinker is characterized by having a low content of calcium oxide (CaO), causing the presence of alite to diminish and favoring the formation of belite (β-Ca₂SiO₄, C₂S), so production of clinker requires a reduced energy consumption (1350 kJ kg-1), releasing less CO₂ to the atmosphere. Conventionally, β-Ca₂SiO₄ is synthetized by the calcination of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and silicon dioxide (SiO₂) through the reaction in solid state at temperatures greater than 1300 °C. Resulting belite shows low hydraulic reactivity. Therefore, this study concerns a new simple modified combustion method for the synthesis of two belite cements at low temperatures (1000 °C). Silica fume, as subproduct of metallurgic industry and commercial natural zeolite were utilized as raw materials. These are considered low-cost materials and were utilized with no additional purification process. Belite cements properties were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS and BET techniques. Hydration capacity of belite cements was calculated while the mechanical strength was determined in ordinary Portland cement specimens (PC) with a 10% partial replacement of the belite cements obtained. Results showed belite cements presented relatively high surface áreas, at early ages mechanical strengths similar to those of alite cement and comparable to strengths of belite cements obtained by different synthesis methods. Cements obtained in this work present good hydraulic reactivity properties.

Keywords: belite, silica fume, zeolite, hydraulic reactivity

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Authors: Cinzia Federico, Gaetano Giudice, Salvatore Inguaggiato, Marco Liuzzo, Maria Pedone, Fabio Vita, Christoph Kern, Leonardo La Pica, Giovannella Pecoraino, Lorenzo Calderone, Vincenzo Francofonte

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The periods of increased fumarolic activity at La Fossa volcano have been characterized, since early 80's, by changes in the gas chemistry and in the output rate of fumaroles. Excepting the direct measurements of the steam output from fumaroles performed from 1983 to 1995, the mass output of the single gas species has been recently measured, with various methods, only sporadically or for short periods. Since 2008, a scanning DOAS system is operating in the Palizzi area for the remote measurement of the in-plume SO₂ flux. On these grounds, the need of a cross-comparison of different methods for the in situ measurement of the output rate of different gas species is envisaged. In 2015, two field campaigns have been carried out, aimed at: 1. The mapping of the concentration of CO₂, H₂S and SO₂ in the fumarolic plume at 1 m from the surface, by using specific open-path diode tunable lasers (GasFinder Boreal Europe Ltd.) and an Active DOAS for SO₂, respectively; these measurements, coupled to simultaneous ultrasonic wind speed and meteorological data, have been elaborated to obtain the dispersion map and the output rate of single species in the overall fumarolic field; 2. The mapping of the concentrations of CO₂, H₂S, SO₂, H₂O in the fumarolic plume at 0.5 m from the soil, by using an integrated system, including IR spectrometers and specific electrochemical sensors; this has provided the concentration ratios of the analysed gas species and their distribution in the fumarolic field; 3. The in-fumarole sampling of vapour and measurement of the steam output, to validate the remote measurements. The dispersion map of CO₂, obtained from the tunable laser measurements, shows a maximum CO₂ concentration at 1m from the soil of 1000 ppmv along the rim, and 1800 ppmv in the inner slopes. As observed, the largest contribution derives from a wide fumarole of the inner-slope, despite its present outlet temperature of 230°C, almost 200°C lower than those measured at the rim fumaroles. Actually, fumaroles in the inner slopes are among those emitting the largest amount of magmatic vapour and, during the 1989-1991 crisis, reached the temperature of 690°C. The estimated CO₂ and H₂S fluxes are 400 t/d and 4.4 t/d, respectively. The coeval SO₂ flux, measured by the scanning DOAS system, is 9±1 t/d. The steam output, recomputed from CO₂ flux measurements, is about 2000 t/d. The various direct and remote methods (as described at points 1-3) have produced coherent results, which encourage to the use of daily and automatic DOAS SO₂ data, coupled with periodic in-plume measurements of different acidic gases, to obtain the total mass rates.

Keywords: DOAS, fumaroles, plume, tunable laser

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Authors: Sadek Salah

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The determination of the strength characteristics of waste materials is essential when evaluating the stability of waste fills during initial placement and at the time of closure and rehabilitation of the landfill. Significant efforts, mostly experimental, have been deployed to date in attempts to quantify the mechanical properties of municipal wastes various stages of decomposition. Even though the studies and work done so far have helped in setting baseline parameters and characteristics for waste materials, inherent concerns remain as to the scalability of the findings between the laboratory and the field along with questions as to the suitability of the actual test conditions. These concerns are compounded by the complexity of the problem itself with significant variability in composition, placement conditions, and levels of decay of the various constituents of the waste fills. A complimentary, if not necessarily an alternative approach is to rely on field observations of behavior and instability of such materials. This paper describes an effort at obtaining relevant shear strength parameters from back-analyses of failures which have been observed at a major un-engineered waste fill along the Mediterranean shoreline. Results from the limit-equilibrium failure back-analyses are presented and compared to results from laboratory-scale testing on comparable waste materials.

Keywords: solid waste, shear strength, landfills, slope stability

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Authors: Hannah Kuhar

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This paper delves into the attitudes of professional and semi-professional rugby union athletes in regard to socio-emotional vulnerability, or the willingness to express the full spectrum of human emotion in a social context. Like all humans, athletes of all sports regularly experience feelings of shame, powerlessness, and loneliness, and often feel unable to express such feelings due to factors including lack of situational support, absence of adequate expressive language and lack of resource. To this author’s knowledge, however, no previous research has considered the particular demographic of professional rugby union athletes, despite the sport’s immense popularity and economic contribution to global communities. Hence, this paper aims to extend previous research by exploring the experiences of professional rugby union athletes and their unwillingness and inability to express socio-emotional vulnerability. By having a better understanding of vulnerability in rugby and sports, this paper is able to contribute to the growing field of mental health and wellbeing research, particularly towards the emerging themes of resilience and belonging. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted over a period of seven months across France and Australia, via the mechanisms of semi-structured interview and observation, this work uses the field theory framework of Pierre Bourdieu to construct an analysis of multidisciplinary thought. Approaching issues of gender, sexuality, physicality, education, and family, this paper shows that socio-emotional vulnerability is experienced by all players regardless of their background, in a variety of ways. Common themes and responses are drawn to show the universality of rugby’s pitfalls, which have previously been limited to specific demographics in isolation of their broader contexts. With the author themselves a semi-professional athlete, the provision of unique ‘insider’ access facilitates a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of first-hand athlete experiences, often unexplored within the context of the academic arena. The primary contention of this paper is to argue that by celebrating socio-emotional vulnerability, there becomes an opportunity to improve on-field team outcomes. Ultimately, players play better when they feel supported by their teammates, and this logic extends to the outcome of the team when socio-emotional team initiatives are widely embraced. The creation of such a culture requires deliberate and purposeful efforts, where player ownership and buy-in are high. Further study in this field may assist teams to better understand the elements which contribute to strong team culture and to strong results on the pitch.

Keywords: rugby, vulnerability, athletes, France, Bourdieu

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Authors: Carie Cunningham, Krsiten Lynch

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Despite a viewer’s thought that they may be paying attention, many times they are missing out on their surrounds-- a phenomenon referred to as inattentional blindness. Inattention blindness refers to the failure of an individual to orient their attention to a particular item in their visual field. This well-defined in the psychology literature. Similarly, this phenomenon has been evaluated in media types in advertising. In advertising, not comprehending/remembering items in one’s field of vision is known as banner blindness. On the other hand, banner blindness is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals habitually see a banner in a specific area on a webpage, and thus condition themselves to ignore those habitual areas. Another reason that individuals avoid these habitual areas (usually on the top or sides of a webpage) is due to the lack of personal relevance or pertinent information to the viewer. Banner blindness, while a web-based concept, may also relate this inattention blindness. This paper is proposing an analysis of the true similarities and differences between these concepts bridging the two dimensions of thinking together. Forty participants participated in an eye-tracking and post-survey experiment to test attention and memory measures in both a banner blindness and inattention blindness condition. The two conditions were conducted between subjects semi-randomized order. Half of participants were told to search through the content ignoring the advertising banners; the other half of participants were first told to search through the content ignoring the distractor icon. These groups were switched after 5 trials and then 5 more trials were completed. In review of the literature, sustainability communication was found to have many inconsistencies with message production and viewer awareness. For the purpose of this study, we used advertising materials as stimuli. Results suggest that there are gaps between the two concepts and that more research should be done testing these effects in a real world setting versus an online environment. This contributes to theory by exploring the overlapping concepts—inattention blindness and banner blindness and providing the advertising industry with support that viewers can still fall victim to ignoring items in their field of view even if not consciously, which will impact message development.

Keywords: attention, banner blindness, eye movement, inattention blindness

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Authors: T. Damak, O. Kriaa, A. Baccar, M. A. Ben Ayed, N. Masmoudi

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In the last few years, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems have become widely used in the safety, the security, and the commercial aspects. Forethought, several methods and techniques are computing to achieve the better levels in terms of accuracy and real time execution. This paper proposed a computer vision algorithm of Number Plate Localization (NPL) and Characters Segmentation (CS). In addition, it proposed an improved method in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) based on Deep Learning (DL) techniques. In order to identify the number of detected plate after NPL and CS steps, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm is proposed. A DL model is developed using four convolution layers, two layers of Maxpooling, and six layers of fully connected. The model was trained by number image database on the Jetson TX2 NVIDIA target. The accuracy result has achieved 95.84%.

Keywords: ANPR, CS, CNN, deep learning, NPL

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Authors: Solomon Yokamo, Dianjun Lu, Xiaoqin Chen, Huoyan Wang

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The current ‘high input-high output’ nutrient management model based on homogenous spreading over the entire soil surface remains a key challenge in China’s farming systems, leading to low fertilizer use efficiency and environmental pollution. Localized placement of fertilizer (LPF) to crop root zones has been proposed as a viable approach to boost crop production while protecting environmental pollution. To assess the potential benefits of LPF on three major crops—wheat, rice, and maize—a comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted, encompassing 85 field studies published from 2002-2023. We further validated the practicability and feasibility of one-time root zone N management based on LPF for the three field crops. The meta-analysis revealed that LPF significantly increased the yields of the selected crops (13.62%) and nitrogen recovery efficiency (REN) (33.09%) while reducing cumulative nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission (17.37%) and ammonia (NH₃) volatilization (60.14%) compared to the conventional surface application (CSA). Higher grain yield and REN were achieved with an optimal fertilization depth (FD) of 5-15 cm, moderate N rates, combined NPK application, one-time deep fertilization, and coarse-textured and slightly acidic soils. Field validation experiments showed that localized one-time root zone N management without topdressing increased maize (6.2%), rice (34.6%), and wheat (2.9%) yields while saving N fertilizer (3%) and also increased the net economic benefits (23.71%) compared to CSA. A soil incubation study further proved the potential of LPF to enhance the retention and availability of mineral N in the root zone over an extended period. Thus, LPF could be an important fertilizer management strategy and should be extended to other less-developed and developing regions to win the triple benefit of food security, environmental quality, and economic gains.

Keywords: grain yield, LPF, NH₃ volatilization, N₂O emission, N recovery efficiency

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Authors: Sascha E. Oswald, Jan Busch

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The in-situ dechlorination of contamination by chlorinated solvents in groundwater via zero-valent iron (nZVI) is potentially an efficient and prompt remediation method. A key requirement is that nZVI has to be introduced in the subsurface in a way that substantial quantities of the contaminants are actually brought into direct contact with the nZVI in the aquifer. Thus it could be a more flexible and precise alternative to permeable reactive barrier techniques using granular iron. However, nZVI are often limited by fast agglomeration and sedimentation in colloidal suspensions, even more so in the aquifer sediments, which is a handicap for the application to treat source zones or contaminant plumes. Colloid-supported nZVI show promising characteristics to overcome these limitations and Carbo-Iron Colloids is a newly developed composite material aiming for that. The nZVI is built onto finely ground activated carbon of about a micrometer diameter acting as a carrier for it. The Carbo-Iron Colloids are often suspended with a polyanionic stabilizer, and carboxymethyl cellulose is one with good properties for that. We have investigated the transport behavior of Carbo-Iron Colloids (CIC) on different scales and for different conditions to assess its mobility in aquifer sediments as a key property for making its application feasible. The transport properties were tested in one-dimensional laboratory columns, a two-dimensional model aquifer and also an injection experiment in the field. Those experiments were accompanied by non-invasive tomographic investigations of the transport and filtration processes of CIC suspensions. The laboratory experiments showed that a larger part of the CIC can travel at least scales of meters for favorable but realistic conditions. Partly this is even similar to a dissolved tracer. For less favorable conditions this can be much smaller and in all cases a particular fraction of the CIC injected is retained mainly shortly after entering the porous medium. As field experiment a horizontal flow field was established, between two wells with a distance of 5 meters, in a confined, shallow aquifer at a contaminated site in North German lowlands. First a tracer test was performed and a basic model was set up to define the design of the CIC injection experiment. Then CIC suspension was introduced into the aquifer at the injection well while the second well was pumped and samples taken there to observe the breakthrough of CIC. This was based on direct visual inspection and total particle and iron concentrations of water samples analyzed in the laboratory later. It could be concluded that at least 12% of the CIC amount injected reached the extraction well in due course, some of it traveling distances larger than 10 meters in the non-uniform dipole flow field. This demonstrated that these CIC particles have a substantial mobility for reaching larger volumes of a contaminated aquifer and for interacting there by their reactivity with dissolved contaminants in the pore space. Therefore they seem suited well for groundwater remediation by in-situ formation of reactive barriers for chlorinated solvent plumes or even source removal.

Keywords: carbo-iron colloids, chlorinated solvents, in-situ remediation, particle transport, plume treatment

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Authors: I. C. Cho, W. H. Wen, H. Y. Tsai, T. C. Chao, C. J. Tung

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Tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) is a useful instrument used to measure radiation single-event energy depositions in a subcellular target volume. The quantity of measurements is the microdosimetric lineal energy, which determines the relative biological effectiveness, RBE, for radiation therapy or the radiation-weighting factor, WR, for radiation protection. TEPC is generally used in a mixed radiation field, where each component radiation has its own RBE or WR value. To reduce the pile-up effect during radiotherapy measurements, a miniature TEPC (mini TEPC) with cavity size in the order of 1 mm may be required. In the present work, a homemade mini TEPC with a cylindrical cavity of 1 mm in both the diameter and the height was constructed to measure the lineal energy spectrum of a mixed radiation field with high- and low-LET radiations. Instead of using external radiation beams to penetrate the detector wall, mixed radiation fields were produced by the interactions of neutrons with TEPC walls that contained small plugs of different materials, i.e. Li, B, A150, Cd and N. In all measurements, mini TEPC was placed at the beam port of the Tsing Hua Open-pool Reactor (THOR). Measurements were performed using the propane-based tissue-equivalent gas mixture, i.e. 55% C3H8, 39.6% CO2 and 5.4% N2 by partial pressures. The gas pressure of 422 torr was applied for the simulation of a 1 m diameter biological site. The calibration of mini TEPC was performed using two marking points in the lineal energy spectrum, i.e. proton edge and electron edge. Measured spectra revealed high lineal energy (> 100 keV/m) peaks due to neutron-capture products, medium lineal energy (10 – 100 keV/m) peaks from hydrogen-recoil protons, and low lineal energy (< 10 keV/m) peaks of reactor photons. For cases of Li and B plugs, the high lineal energy peaks were quite prominent. The medium lineal energy peaks were in the decreasing order of Li, Cd, N, A150, and B. The low lineal energy peaks were smaller compared to other peaks. This study demonstrated that internally produced mixed radiations from the interactions of neutrons with different plugs in the TEPC wall provided a useful approach for TEPC measurements of lineal energies.

Keywords: TEPC, lineal energy, microdosimetry, radiation quality

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohamed

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This paper will explore the influence of energy sector in Arab Republic of Egypt which has shared its responsibilities of many environmental challenges as the second largest economy in the Middle East (after Iran). Air and water pollution, desertification, inadequate disposal of solid waste and damage to coral reefs are serious problems that influence environmental management in Egypt. The intensive reliance of high population density and strong industrial growth are wearing Egypt's resources, and the rapidly-growing population has forced Egypt to breakdown agricultural land to residential and relevant use of commercial ingestion. The depletion effects of natural resources impose the government to apply innovation techniques in emission control and focus on sustainability. The cogeneration will be presented to control thermal losses and increase efficiency of energy power system.

Keywords: cogeneration, environmental management, power electricity, energy indicators

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Authors: Huseyn Nuraddin Qurbanov

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The reliable food supply of the population of the republic is one of the main directions of the state's economic policy. Grain growing, which is the basis of agriculture, is important in this area. In the cultivation of cereals on the slopes, the application of equal amounts of mineral fertilizers the under the soil before sowing is a very important technological process. The low level of technical equipment in this area prevents producers from providing the country with the necessary quality cereals. Experience in the operation of modern technical means has shown that, at present, there is a need to provide an equal amount of fertilizer on the slopes to under the soil, fully meeting the agro-technical requirements. No fundamental changes have been made to the industrial machines that fertilize the under the soil, and unequal application of fertilizers under the soil on the slopes has been applied. This technological process leads to the destruction of new seedlings and reduced productivity due to intolerance to frost during the winter for the plant planted in the fall. In special climatic conditions, there is an optimal fertilization rate for each agricultural product. The application of fertilizers to the soil is one of the conditions that increase their efficiency in the field. As can be seen, the development of a new technical proposal for fertilizing and plowing the slopes in equal amounts on the slopes, improving the technological and design parameters, and taking into account the physical and mechanical properties of fertilizers is very important. Taking into account the above-mentioned issues, a combined plough was developed in our laboratory. Combined plough carries out pre-sowing technological operation in the cultivation of cereals, providing a smooth equal amount of mineral fertilizers under the soil on the slopes. Mathematical models of a smooth spreader that evenly distributes fertilizers in the field have been developed. Thus, diagrams and graphs obtained without distribution on the 8 partitions of the smooth spreader are constructed under the inclined angles of the slopes. Percentage and productivity of equal distribution in the field were noted by practical and theoretical analysis.

Keywords: combined plough, mineral fertilizer, equal sowing, fertilizer norm, grain-crops, sowing fertilizer

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Authors: A. Al-Rashidi, A. El-Hamalawi

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In this paper, a performance study was conducted to investigate single and dual-axis PV systems to generate electricity in five different sites in Kuwait. Relevant data were obtained by using two sources for validation purposes. A commercial software, PVsyst, was used to analyse the data, such as metrological data and other input parameters, and compute the performance parameters such as capacity factor (CF) and final yield (YF). The results indicated that single and dual-axis PV systems would be very beneficial to electricity generation in Kuwait as an alternative source to conventional power plants, especially with the increased demand over time. The ranges were also found to be competitive in comparison to leading countries using similar systems. A significant increase in CF and YF values around 24% and 28.8% was achieved related to the use of single and dual systems, respectively.

Keywords: single-axis and dual-axis photovoltaic systems, capacity factor, final yield, Kuwait

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Authors: Lianzhong Zhang, Chao Huang

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Sea-land segmentation is a basic step in many tasks such as sea surface monitoring and ship detection. The existing sea-land segmentation algorithms have poor segmentation accuracy, and the parameter adjustments are cumbersome and difficult to meet actual needs. Also, the current sea-land segmentation adopts traditional deep learning models that use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). At present, the transformer architecture has achieved great success in the field of natural images, but its application in the field of radar images is less studied. Therefore, this paper proposes a sea-land segmentation method based on the transformer architecture to strengthen edge supervision. It uses a self-attention mechanism with a gating strategy to better learn relative position bias. Meanwhile, an additional edge supervision branch is introduced. The decoder stage allows the feature information of the two branches to interact, thereby improving the edge precision of the sea-land segmentation. Based on the Gaofen-3 satellite image dataset, the experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the accuracy of sea-land segmentation, especially the accuracy of sea-land edges. The mean IoU (Intersection over Union), edge precision, overall precision, and F1 scores respectively reach 96.36%, 84.54%, 99.74%, and 98.05%, which are superior to those of the mainstream segmentation models and have high practical application values.

Keywords: SAR, sea-land segmentation, deep learning, transformer

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Authors: Domingo Planes Meseguer, Raffaele Danilo Esposito, Maria Del Pilar Dorado Rodriguez

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Monthly quality control checks for a Radiation Therapy Linac may be performed is a simple and efficient way once they have been standardized and protocolized. On the other hand this checks, in spite of being imperatives, require a not negligible execution times in terms of machine time and operators time. Besides it must be taken into account the amount of disposable material which may be needed together with the use of commercial software for their performing. With the aim of optimizing and standardizing mechanical-geometric checks and multi leaves collimator checks, we decided to implement a protocol which makes use of the Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) available on our Linacs. The user is step by step guided by the software during the whole procedure. Acquired images are automatically analyzed by our programs all of them written using only free software.

Keywords: quality control checks, linac, radiation oncology, medical physics, free software

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Authors: Hasan Vural

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In this study, innovation subject is explained firstly. Later the basic concepts of innovation and new food products development in marketing of bee products are investigated. Examples of the application of research results will be presented. Subject will be discussed benefiting from scientific studies based on literature review. Innovation is widely recognised as important to commercial success in the food industry, as both a major source of competitive advantage and the creation of a company’s future. However, the new product development process is described as being fraught with failures, with only approximately 10% of new products remaining on the market within a year of commercialisation. In addition, for every new food product that does reach commercialisation, there are likely to be many concepts that are rejected during the new food product development process. No roadmap exactly describes a route to a goal: exhortations to follow ‘10 Steps to a successful Product’ or use ‘Smith’s Method to Do Successful Products’ are, therefore, all approximations. Roadmaps do not describe the actual journey, only the general direction.

Keywords: innovation, agrofood product development, beekeeping products, honey marketing

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Authors: Elisabet Liljeblad, Tomas Karlsson, Torbjorn Sundberg, Anita Kullen

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The magnetospheric magnetic field data from the MESSENGER spacecraft is investigated to establish the presence of ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves in connection to 131 previously observed nonlinear Kelvin-Helmholtz waves (KHWs) at Mercury. Distinct ULF signatures are detected in 44 out of the 131 magnetospheric traversals prior to or after observing a KHW. In particular, 39 of these 44 ULF events are highly coherent at the frequency of maximum power spectral density. The waves observed at the dayside, which appears mainly at the duskside and naturally following the KHW occurrence asymmetry, are significantly different to the events behind the dawn-dusk terminator and have the following distinct wave characteristics: they oscillate clearly in the perpendicular (azimuthal) direction to the mean magnetic field with a wave normal angle more in the parallel than the perpendicular direction, increase in absolute ellipticity with distance from noon, are almost exclusively right-hand polarized, and are observed mainly for frequencies in the range 0.02-0.04 Hz. These results indicate that the dayside ULF waves are likely to shear Alfvén waves driven by KHWs at the magnetopause, which in turn manifests the importance of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in terms of mass transport throughout the Mercury magnetosphere.

Keywords: ultra-low frequency waves, kelvin-Helmholtz instability, magnetospheric processes, mercury, messenger, energy and momentum transfer in planetary environments

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Authors: A. Mihoc, K. Cater

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On the bridge of a ship the officers are looking for visual aids to guide navigation in order to reconcile the outside world with the position communicated by the digital navigation system. Aids to navigation include: Lighthouses, lightships, sector lights, beacons, buoys, and others. They are designed to help navigators calculate their position, establish their course or avoid dangers. In poor visibility and dense traffic areas, it can be very difficult to identify these critical aids to guide navigation. The paper presents the usage of Augmented Reality (AR) as a means to present digital information about these aids to support navigation. To date, nautical navigation related mobile AR applications have been limited to the leisure industry. If proved viable, this prototype can facilitate the creation of other similar applications that could help commercial officers with navigation. While adopting a user centered design approach, the team has developed the prototype based on insights from initial research carried on board of several ships. The prototype, built on Nexus 9 tablet and Wikitude, features a head-up display of the navigational aids (lights) in the area, presented in AR and a bird’s eye view mode presented on a simplified map. The application employs the aids to navigation data managed by Hydrographic Offices and the tablet’s sensors: GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and camera. Sea trials on board of a Navy and a commercial ship revealed the end-users’ interest in using the application and further possibility of other data to be presented in AR. The application calculates the GPS position of the ship, the bearing and distance to the navigational aids; all within a high level of accuracy. However, during testing several issues were highlighted which need to be resolved as the prototype is developed further. The prototype stretched the capabilities of Wikitude, loading over 500 objects during tests in a major port. This overloaded the display and required over 45 seconds to load the data. Therefore, extra filters for the navigational aids are being considered in order to declutter the screen. At night, the camera is not powerful enough to distinguish all the lights in the area. Also, magnetic interference with the bridge of the ship generated a continuous compass error of the AR display that varied between 5 and 12 degrees. The deviation of the compass was consistent over the whole testing durations so the team is now looking at the possibility of allowing users to manually calibrate the compass. It is expected that for the usage of AR in professional maritime contexts, further development of existing AR tools and hardware is needed. Designers will also need to implement a user-centered design approach in order to create better interfaces and display technologies for enhanced solutions to aid navigation.

Keywords: compass error, GPS, maritime navigation, mobile augmented reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Aarthi Mariappan, Janani Selvaraj, P. B. Harathi, M. Prashanthi Devi

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Anthropogenic modification of the urban environment has largely increased in the recent years in order to sustain the growing human population. Intense industrial activity, permanent and high traffic on the roads, a developed subterranean infrastructure network, land use patterns are just some specific characteristics. Every day, the urban environment is polluted by more or less toxic emissions, organic or metals wastes discharged from specific activities such as industrial, commercial, municipal. When these eventually deposit into the soil, the physical and chemical properties of the surrounding soil is changed, transforming it into a human exposure indicator. Metals are non-degradable and occur cumulative in soil due to regular deposits are a result of permanent human activity. Due to this, metals are a contaminant factor for soil when persistent over a long period of time and a possible danger for inhabitant’s health on prolonged exposure. Metals accumulated in contaminated soil may be transferred to humans directly, by inhaling the dust raised from top soil, or by ingesting, or by dermal contact and indirectly, through plants and animals grown on contaminated soil and used for food. Some metals, like Cu, Mn, Zn, are beneficial for human’s health and represent a danger only if their concentration is above permissible levels, but other metals, like Pb, As, Cd, Hg, are toxic even at trace level causing gastrointestinal and lung cancers. In urban areas, metals can be emitted from a wide variety of sources like industrial, residential, commercial activities. Our study interrogates the spatial distribution of heavy metals in soil in relation to their permissible levels and their association with the health risk to the urban population in Coimbatore, India. Coimbatore region is a high cancer risk zone and case records of gastro intestinal and respiratory cancer patients were collected from hospitals and geocoded in ArcGIS10.1. The data of patients pertaining to the urban limits were retained and checked for their diseases history based on their diagnosis and treatment. A disease map of cancer was prepared to show the disease distribution. It has been observed that in our study area Cr, Pb, As, Fe and Mg exceeded their permissible levels in the soil. Using spatial overlay analysis a relationship between environmental exposure to these potentially toxic elements in soil and cancer distribution in Coimbatore district was established to show areas of cancer risk. Through this, our study throws light on the impact of prolonged exposure to soil contamination in soil in the urban zones, thereby exploring the possibility to detect cancer risk zones and to create awareness among the exposed groups on cancer risk.

Keywords: soil contamination, cancer risk, spatial analysis, India

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Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

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This research aim to study the financial service of the Thailand financial Institution, second is to identify "best practices" offered by four financial institutions, namely, Kasikornthai Bank, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and Thanachart Bank. In-depth interviews with managers of financial institution and borrowers reveal best practices from each financial institution. Close monitoring of and a close relationship with borrowers appear to be important for early detection of any problem. Another aspect that may be important is building up loyalty and developing reliability among members. A close and informal relationship with borrowers may also help in monitoring and early detection of problems that may arise in non-repayment of loans. Other factors that may be considered important to the success of a financial service scheme are cooperation and coordination among various agencies that provide additional support to borrowers. Indirectly, these support systems contribute to the success of a SME in Thailand.

Keywords: best practices, financial service, financial institution, SME in Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 293

Authors: Yogita Patil-Sen

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Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) have become increasingly important materials for separation of specific bio-molecules, drug delivery vehicle, contrast agent for MRI and magnetic hyperthermia for cancer therapy. Hyperthermia is emerging as an alternative cancer treatment to the conventional radio- and chemo-therapy, which have harmful side effects. When subjected to an alternating magnetic field, the magnetic energy of SPIONs is converted into thermal energy due to movement of particles. The ability of SPIONs to generate heat and potentially kill cancerous cells, which are more susceptible than the normal cells to temperatures higher than 41 °C forms the basis of hyerpthermia treatement. The amount of heat generated depends upon the magnetic properties of SPIONs which in turn is affected by their properties such as size and shape. One of the main problems associated with SPIONs is particle aggregation which limits their employability in in vivo drug delivery applications and hyperthermia cancer treatments. Coating the iron oxide core with thermally responsive lipid based nanostructures tend to overcome the issue of aggregation as well as improve biocompatibility and can enhance drug loading efficiency. Herein we report suitability of SPIONs and silica coated core-shell SPIONs, which are further, coated with various lipids for drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia applications. The synthesis of nanoparticles is carried out using the established methods reported in the literature with some modifications. The nanoparticles are characterised using Infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). The heating ability of nanoparticles is tested under alternating magnetic field. The efficacy of the nanoparticles as drug carrier is also investigated. The loading of an anticancer drug, Doxorubicin at 18 °C is measured up to 48 hours using UV-visible spectrophotometer. The drug release profile is obtained under thermal incubation condition at 37 °C and compared with that under the influence of alternating magnetic field. The results suggest that the nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic behaviour, although coating reduces the magnetic properties of the particles. Both the uncoated and coated particles show good heating ability, again it is observed that coating decreases the heating behaviour of the particles. However, coated particles show higher drug loading efficiency than the uncoated particles and the drug release is much more controlled under the alternating magnetic field. Thus, the results demonstrate that lipid coated SPIONs exhibit potential as drug delivery vehicles for magnetic hyperthermia based cancer therapy.

Keywords: drug delivery, hyperthermia, lipids, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONS)

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Sung-Won Seo, Jang-Young Choi

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The rare earth magnets used in synchronous generators offer many advantages, including high efficiency, greatly reduced the size, and weight. The permanent magnet linear synchronous generator (PMLSG) allows for direct drive without the need for a mechanical device. Therefore, the PMLSG is well suited to translational applications, such as wave energy converters and free piston energy converters. This manuscript compares the effects of different magnetization patterns on the characteristics of double-sided PMLSGs in slotless stator structures. The Halbach array has a higher flux density in air-gap than the Vertical array, and the advantages of its performance and efficiency are widely known. To verify the advantage of Halbach array, we apply a finite element method (FEM) and analytical method. In general, a FEM and an analytical method are used in the electromagnetic analysis for determining model characteristics, and the FEM is preferable to magnetic field analysis. However, the FEM is often slow and inflexible. On the other hand, the analytical method requires little time and produces accurate analysis of the magnetic field. Therefore, the flux density in air-gap and the Back-EMF can be obtained by FEM. In addition, the results from the analytical method correspond well with the FEM results. The model of the Halbach array reveals less copper loss than the model of the Vertical array, because of the Halbach array’s high output power density. The model of the Vertical array is lower core loss than the model of Halbach array, because of the lower flux density in air-gap. Therefore, the current density in the Vertical model is higher for identical power output. The completed manuscript will include the magnetic field characteristics and structural features of both models, comparing various results, and specific comparative analysis will be presented for the determination of the best model for application in a wave energy converting system.

Keywords: wave energy converter, permanent magnet linear synchronous generator, finite element method, analytical method

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Authors: Dace Aleksandraviča

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The paper presents a theoretical exploration of the emerging field of 21st-century ecolinguistics, which examines the multi-faceted relationship between language, ecology, and identity in our rapidly changing global landscape. In an era characterized by unprecedented linguistic and cultural hybridity, understanding the interplay between language and environment is paramount. This paper delves into the concept of hybrid identities, examining how individuals negotiate their linguistic and cultural affiliations within diverse ecological contexts based on relevant prior contributions in the field. Drawing upon interdisciplinary perspectives from linguistics, environmental studies, and cultural studies, the research investigates the ways in which language shapes and is shaped by environmental realities. The abstract underscores the importance of ecolinguistic approaches in fostering environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable practices. By acknowledging the intrinsic link between language, culture, and ecology, it becomes possible to cultivate a deeper appreciation for linguistic diversity and empower individuals to navigate their hybrid identities in a rapidly changing world. In line with that, the paper hopes to contribute to the growing body of literature on ecolinguistics and offer insights into how language can serve as a tool for both environmental conservation and cultural revitalization.

Keywords: ecolinguistics, hybrid identities, language, globalization

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, Mohammad Motiee Lahromi

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Recently the two matters of how to evaluate art and what the influencing economic effects on cultural values are have attracted many researchers to investigate them. Therefore, in the present article the researcher made an attempt to answer the above questions. However, the fundamental distinction between this article and the other ones is in comparing the economic value (shown by monetary phrases) with cultural values (that reflects the aesthetic values and the importance of the artist). This article shows a different and trivial distinction that has a very clearly pivotal significance in the process of cultural policy making. The economic activities would be influenced when there are cultural values. The increase of commercial activities is measured by impact assessment. In other words, the value of culture is reflected in the satisfaction of the users of cultural activities. This kind of value is measured by “willingness to pay” researches. The researcher believes that these two values are dominant in the cultural policy but they include many aspects and are presented by different kinds of communities.

Keywords: economic influence, cultural values, monetary phrases, aesthetic values

Procedia PDF Downloads 483