Search results for: HCV viral load

Authors: Alper Akin, Ibrahim Aydogdu

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This study presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to obtain optimum designs for steel space buildings. The optimum design problem of three-dimensional steel frames is mathematically formulated according to provisions of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance factor design of American Institute of Steel Construction). Design constraints such as the strength requirements of structural members, the displacement limitations, the inter-story drift and the other structural constraints are derived from LRFD-AISC specification. In this study, a hybrid algorithm by using teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) and harmony search (HS) algorithms is employed to solve the stated optimum design problem. These algorithms are two of the recent additions to metaheuristic techniques of numerical optimization and have been an efficient tool for solving discrete programming problems. Using these two algorithms in collaboration creates a more powerful tool and mitigates each other’s weaknesses. To demonstrate the powerful performance of presented hybrid algorithm, the optimum design of a large scale steel building is presented and the results are compared to the previously obtained results available in the literature.

Keywords: optimum structural design, hybrid techniques, teaching-learning based optimization, harmony search algorithm, minimum weight, steel space frame

Procedia PDF Downloads 546

Authors: Moon Byung Woo, Seok Chang-Sung, Koo Jae-Mean, Kim Sang-Young, Choi Jae Gu, Huh Nam-Su

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Recently, the occurrence of the earthquake has increased sharply and many of the casualties have occurred worldwide, due to the influence of earthquakes. Especially, the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident which was caused by the earthquake in 2011 has significantly increased the fear of people and the demand for the safety of the nuclear power plant. Thus, in order to prevent the earthquake accident at nuclear power plant, it is important to evaluate the fracture toughness considering the seismic loading rate. To obtain fracture toughness for the safety evaluation of nuclear power plant, it is desirable to perform experiments with a real scale pipe which is expensive and hard to perform. Therefore, many researchers have proposed various test specimens to replicate the fracture toughness of a real scale pipe. Since such specimens have several problems, the equivalent stress gradient (ESG) specimen has been recently suggested. In this study, in order to consider the effects of the dynamic loading speed on fracture toughness, the experiment was conducted by applying five different kinds of test speeds using an ESG specimen. In addition, after we performed the fracture toughness test under dynamic loading with different speeds using an ESG specimen and a standard specimen, we compared them with the test results under static loading.

Keywords: dynamic loading speed, fracture toughness, load-ratio-method, equivalent stress gradient (ESG) specimen

Procedia PDF Downloads 311

Authors: Frimpong Kyeremeh, Albert Y. Appiah, Ben B. K. Ayawli

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Energy storage system (ESS) is an essential part of a microgrid (MG) because of its immense benefits to the economics and the stability of MG. For a direct current (DC) MG (DCMG) in which the generating units are mostly variable renewable energy generators, DC bus voltage fluctuation is inevitable; hence ESS is vital in managing the mismatch between load demand and generation. Besides, to accrue the maximum benefits of ESS in the microgrid, there is the need for proper sizing and location of the ESSs. In this paper, a performance comparison is made between two configurations of ESS; distributed battery energy storage system (D-BESS) and an aggregated (centralized) battery energy storage system (A-BESS), on the basis of stability and operational cost for a DCMG. The configuration consists of four households with rooftop PV panels and a wind turbine. The objective is to evaluate and analyze the technical efficiencies, cost effectiveness as well as controllability of each configuration. The MG is first modelled with MATLAB Simulink then, a mathematical model is used to determine the optimal size of the BESS that minimizes the total operational cost of the MG. The performance of the two configurations would be tested with simulations. The two configurations are expected to reduce DC bus voltage fluctuations, but in the cases of voltage stability and optimal cost, the best configuration performance will be determined at the end of the research. The work is in progress, and the result would help MG designers and operators to make the best decision on the use of BESS for DCMG configurations.

Keywords: aggregated energy storage system, DC bus voltage, DC microgrid, distributed battery energy storage, stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Jitendra Narayan Panda, Jayashree Bijwe, Raj K. Pandey

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PAEK (Polyaryl ether ketone) being a high-performance polymer, is currently being explored for its tribo-potential by incorporating various fibers, solid lubricants. In this work, influence of amount (30 and 40 %) of short glass fibers (GF) in two composites containing PAEK (60 and 50 %) and synthetic graphite (10 %) on mechanical and tribological behaviour was studied. The composites were developed by injection molding and evaluated in adhesive wear mode (pin on disc configuration) against mild steel disc. The load and speed were selected as variable input parameters while coefficient of friction (µ), specific wear rate (K0) and PVlimit (pressure × velocity) values were selected as output parameters for performance evaluation. Although higher amount of GF lead to better mechanical properties, tribological properties were not in tune to this. Overall, µ and K0 for both composites were in the range 0.04-0.08 and 3-8x 10-16 m3/Nm respectively and decreased with increase in applied PV values till failure was observed. PVlimit was indicated by 112 and 100 MPa m/s. Such high PVlimit values are not reported for any polymer composites running in dry conditions in the literature. The mechanical properties of the C40 composite (40 % GF) proved superior to C30 composite (30 % GF). However, all tribological properties of C40 were inferior to C30. It exhibited higher µ, higher K0 and slightly lower PVlimit value. The higher % fibers proved detrimental for tribo-performance and worn surface analysis by SEM & EDAX was done on the discs & pins to understand wear mechanisms.

Keywords: PAEK composites, pin-on-disk, PV limit, friction

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Deepak Loura

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Production and productivity of several crops in the country continue to be adversely affected by biotic (e.g., Insect-pests and diseases) and abiotic (e.g., water temperature and salinity) stresses. Over-dependence on pesticides and other chemicals is economically non-viable for the resource-poor farmers of our country. Further, pesticides can potentially affect human and environmental safety. While traditional breeding techniques and proper- management strategies continue to play a vital role in crop improvement, we need to judiciously use biotechnology approaches for the development of genetically modified crops addressing critical problems in the improvement of crop plants for sustainable agriculture. Modern biotechnology can help to increase crop production, reduce farming costs, and improve food quality and the safety of the environment. Genetic engineering is a new technology which allows plant breeders to produce plants with new gene combinations by genetic transformation of crop plants for improvement of agronomic traits. Advances in recombinant DNA technology have made it possible to have genes between widely divergent species to develop genetically modified or genetically engineered plants. Plant genetic engineering provides the strength to harness useful genes and alleles from indigenous microorganisms to enrich the gene pool for developing genetically modified (GM) crops that will have inbuilt (inherent) resistance to insect pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses. Plant biotechnology has made significant contributions in the past 20 years in the development of genetically engineered or genetically modified crops with multiple benefits. A variety of traits have been introduced in genetically engineered crops which include (i) herbicide resistance. (ii) pest resistance, (iii) viral resistance, (iv) slow ripening of fruits and vegetables, (v) fungal and bacterial resistance, (vi) abiotic stress tolerance (drought, salinity, temperature, flooding, etc.). (vii) quality improvement (starch, protein, and oil), (viii) value addition (vitamins, micro, and macro elements), (ix) pharmaceutical and therapeutic proteins, and (x) edible vaccines, etc. Multiple genes in transgenic crops can be useful in developing durable disease resistance and a broad insect-control spectrum and could lead to potential cost-saving advantages for farmers. The development of transgenic to produce high-value pharmaceuticals and the edible vaccine is also under progress, which requires much more research and development work before commercially viable products will be available. In addition, molecular-aided selection (MAS) is now routinely used to enhance the speed and precision of plant breeding. Newer technologies need to be developed and deployed for enhancing and sustaining agricultural productivity. There is a need to optimize the use of biotechnology in conjunction with conventional technologies to achieve higher productivity with fewer resources. Therefore, genetic modification/ engineering of crop plants assumes greater importance, which demands the development and adoption of newer technology for the genetic improvement of crops for increasing crop productivity.

Keywords: biotechnology, plant genetic engineering, genetically modified, biotic, abiotic, disease resistance

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: M. Hadi Kusuma, Nandy Putra, Anhar Riza Antariksawan, Ficky Augusta Imawan

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Heat pipe is considered to be applied as a passive system to remove residual heat that generated from reactor core when incident occur or from spent fuel storage pool. The objectives are to characterized the heat transfer phenomena, performance of heat pipe, and as a model for large heat pipe will be applied as passive cooling system on nuclear spent fuel pool storage. In this experimental wickless heat pipe or two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is used. Variation of heat flux are 611.24 Watt/m² - 3291.29 Watt/m². Variation of filling ratio are 45 - 70%. Variation of initial pressure are -62 to -74 cm Hg. Demineralized water is used as working fluid in the TPCT. The results showed that increasing of heat load leads to an increase of evaporation of the working fluid. The optimum filling ratio obtained for 60% of TPCT evaporator volume, and initial pressure variation gave different TPCT wall temperature characteristic. TPCT showed best performance with 60% filling ratio and can be consider to be applied as passive residual heat removal system or passive cooling system on spent fuel storage pool.

Keywords: two-phase closed term syphon, heat pipe, passive cooling, spent fuel storage pool

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Gabriel Cucato, Marilia Correia, Wagner Domingues, Aline Palmeira, Paulo Longano, Nelson Wolosker, Raphael Ritti-Dias

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Women with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) present lower walking capacity in comparison with men. However, whether cardiovascular regulation is also different between genders is unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare walking capacity and cardiovascular regulation between men and women with PAD. A total of 23 women (66±7 yrs) and 31 men (64±9 yrs) were recruited. Patients performed a 6-minute test and the onset claudication distance and total walking distance were measured. Additionally, cardiovascular regulation was assessed by arterial stiffness (pulse wave velocity and augmentation index) and heart rate variability (frequency domain). Independent T test or Mann-Whitney U test were performed. In comparison with men, women present lower onset claudication distance (108±66m vs. 143±50m; P=0.032) and total walking distance (286±83m vs. 361±91 m, P=0.007). Regarding cardiovascular regulation, there were no differences in heart rate variability SDNN (72±160ms vs. 32±22ms, P=0.587); RMSSD (75±209 vs. 25±22ms, P=0.726); pNN50 (11±17ms vs. 8±14ms, P=0.836) in women and men, respectively. Moreover, there were no difference in augmentation index (39±10% vs. 34±11%, P=0.103); pulse pressure (59±17mmHg vs. 56±19mmHg, P=0.593) and pulse wave velocity (8.6±2.6m\s vs. 9.0±2.7m/s, P=0.580). In conclusion, women have impaired walking capacity compared to men. However, sex differences were not observed on cardiovascular regulation in patients with PAD.

Keywords: exercise, intermittent claudication, cardiovascular load, arterial stiffness

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Ngoc Trung Ngo, Buddhima Indraratna, Cholachat Rujikiathmakjornr

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For several hundred years, the design of railway tracks has practically remained unchanged. Traditionally, rail tracks are placed on a ballast layer due to several reasons, including economy, rapid drainage, and high load bearing capacity. The primary function of ballast is to distributing dynamic track loads to sub-ballast and subgrade layers, while also providing lateral resistance and allowing for rapid drainage. Upon repeated trainloads, the ballast becomes fouled due to ballast degradation and the intrusion of fines which adversely affects the strength and deformation behaviour of ballast. This paper presents the use of three-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) in studying the shear behaviour of the fouled ballast subjected to direct shear loading. Irregularly shaped particles of ballast were modelled by grouping many spherical balls together in appropriate sizes to simulate representative ballast aggregates. Fouled ballast was modelled by injecting a specified number of miniature spherical particles into the void spaces. The DEM simulation highlights that the peak shear stress of the ballast assembly decreases and the dilation of fouled ballast increases with an increase level of fouling. Additionally, the distributions of contact force chain and particle displacement vectors were captured during shearing progress, explaining the formation of shear band and the evolutions of volumetric change of fouled ballast.

Keywords: railway ballast, coal fouling, discrete element modelling, discrete element method

Procedia PDF Downloads 453

Authors: M. Tomaschko

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The integration of technology in educational settings has gained a lot of interest. Especially the use of mobile devices and accompanying mobile applications can offer great potentials to complement traditional education with new technologies and enrich students’ learning in various ways. Nevertheless, the usability of the deployed mathematics application is an indicative factor to exploit the full potential of technology enhanced learning because directing cognitive load toward using an application will likely inhibit effective learning. For this reason, the purpose of this research study is the identification of possible usability issues of the mobile GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application. Therefore, eye tracking in combination with task scenarios, think aloud method, and a SUS questionnaire were used. Based on the revealed usability issues, the mobile application was iteratively redesigned and assessed in order to verify the success of the usability improvements. In this paper, the identified usability issues are presented, and recommendations on how to overcome these concerns are provided. The main findings relate to the conception of a mathematics keyboard and the interaction design in relation to an equation editor, as well as the representation of geometrical construction tools. In total, 12 recommendations were formed to improve the usability of a mobile graphing calculator application. The benefit to be gained from this research study is not only the improvement of the usability of the existing GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application but also to provide helpful hints that could be considered from designers and developers of mobile math applications.

Keywords: GeoGebra, graphing calculator, math education, smartphone, usability

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Rosalie Menon, Angela Reid

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Building integrated photovoltaic systems with air collectors (hybrid PV-T) have proved successful however there are few examples of their application in the UK. The opportunity to pull heat from behind the PV system to contribute to a building’s heating system is an efficient use of waste energy and its potential to improve the performance of the PV array is well documented. As part of Glasgow School of Art’s estate expansion, the purchase and redevelopment of an existing 1950’s college building was used as a testing vehicle for the hybrid PV-T system as an integrated element of the upper floor and roof. The primary objective of the feasibility study was to determine if hybrid PV-T was technically and financially suitable for the refurbished building. The key consideration was whether the heat recovered from the PV panels (to increase the electrical efficiency) can be usefully deployed as a heat source within the building. Dynamic thermal modelling (IES) and RetScreen Software were used to carry out the feasibility study not only to simulate overshadowing and optimise the PV-T locations but also to predict the atrium temperature profile; predict the air load for the proposed new 4 No. roof mounted air handling units and to predict the dynamic electrical efficiency of the PV element. The feasibility study demonstrates that there is an energy reduction and carbon saving to be achieved with each hybrid PV-T option however the systems are subject to lengthy payback periods and highlights the need for enhanced government subsidy schemes to reward innovation with this technology in the UK.

Keywords: building integrated, photovoltatic thermal, pre-heat air, ventilation

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Kreso Ivandic, Filip Dodigovic, Damir Stuhec

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The paper deals with the proposed 'Material' and 'Action-resistance factor' design methods in designing the embedded retaining walls. The parametric analysis of evaluating the differences of the output values mutually and compared with classic approach computation was performed. There is a challenge with the criteria for choosing the proposed calculation design methods in Eurocode 7 with respect to current technical regulations and regular engineering practice. The basic criterion for applying a particular design method is to ensure minimum an equal degree of reliability in relation to the current practice. The procedure of combining the relevant partial coefficients according to design methods was carried out. The use of mentioned partial coefficients should result in the same level of safety, regardless of load combinations, material characteristics and problem geometry. This proposed approach of the partial coefficients related to the material and/or action-resistance should aimed at building a bridge between calculations used so far and pure probability analysis. The measure to compare the results was to determine an equivalent safety factor for each analysis. The results show a visible wide span of equivalent values of the classic safety factors.

Keywords: action-resistance factor design, classic approach, embedded retaining wall, Eurocode 7, limit states, material factor design

Procedia PDF Downloads 231

Authors: Shaymaa Kennedy, Sam Clark, Paul Shaply

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With the upcoming construction of high-speed rail HS2 in the UK, a number of issues surrounding the construction technology and track design need to be answered. In this paper performance of subsoil subjected to dynamic loads were studied. The material of study is Mudrock backfill, a weak prevalent rock which response under indicative loading of high-speed rail line is unknown. This paper aims to investigate the use of different track types and the influence they will have on the underlying soil, in order to evaluate the behaviour of it. Ballstless track is a well-established concept in Europe, and the investigation the benefit of the form of construction due to its known savings in maintenance costs. Physical test using a triaxial cyclic loading machine was conducted to assess the expected mechanical behaviour of mudrock under a range of dynamic loads which could be generated beneath different track constructions. Some further parameters are required to frame the problem including determining the stress change with depth and cyclic response are vital to determine the residual plastic strain which is a major concern. In addition, Stress level is discussed in this paper, which are applied to recreate conditions of soil in the laboratory. Results indicate that stress levels are highly influential on the performance of soil at shallower depth and become insignificant with increasing depth.

Keywords: stress level, dynamic load, residual plastic strain, high speed railway

Procedia PDF Downloads 247

Authors: W. T. A. Mohammed, M. Eltaeb, R. Kashani

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The first bending modes of tall asymmetric structures in the two lateral X and Y-directions have two different natural frequencies. To add tuned damping to these bending modes, one needs to either a) use two pendulum-tuned mass dampers (PTMDs) with one tuning frequency, each PTMD targeting one of the bending modes, or b) use one PTMD with two tuning frequencies (one in each lateral directions). Option (a), being more massive, requiring more space, and being more expensive, is less attractive than option (b). Considering that the tuning frequency of a pendulum depends mainly on the pendulum length, one way of realizing option (b) is by constraining the swinging length of the pendulum in one direction but not in the other; such PTMD is dubbed passive Bi-PTMD. Alternatively, option (b) can be realized by actively setting the tuning frequencies of the PTMD in the two directions. In this work, accurate physical models of passive Bi-PTMD and active PTMD are developed and incorporated into the numerical model of a tall asymmetric structure. The model of PTMDs plus structure is used for a)synthesizing such PTMDs for particular applications and b)evaluating their damping effectiveness in mitigating the dynamic lateral responses of their target asymmetric structures, perturbed by wind load in X and Y-directions. Depending on how elaborate the control scheme is, the active PTMD can either be made to yield the same damping effectiveness as the passive Bi-PTMD of the same size or the passive Bi-TMD twice as massive as the active PTMD.

Keywords: active tuned mass damper, high-rise building, multi-frequency tuning, vibration control

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Sun-Hee Lee, Amanda Kraley

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The “MeToo” movement is a social movement against sexual abuse and harassment. Though the hashtag went viral in 2017 following different cultural flashpoints in different countries, the initial response was quiet in South Korea. This radically changed in January 2018, when a high-ranking senior prosecutor, Seo Ji-hyun, gave a televised interview discussing being sexually assaulted by a colleague. Acknowledging public anger, particularly among women, on the long-existing problems of sexual harassment and abuse, the South Korean media have focused on several high-profile cases. Analyzing the media representation of these cases is a window into the evolving South Korean discourse around “MeToo.” This study presents a linguistic analysis of “MeToo” discourse in South Korea by utilizing a corpus-based approach. The term corpus (pl. corpora) is used to refer to electronic language data, that is, any collection of recorded instances of spoken or written language. A “MeToo” corpus has been collected by extracting newspaper articles containing the keyword “MeToo” from BIGKinds, big data analysis, and service and Nexis Uni, an online academic database search engine, to conduct this language analysis. The corpus analysis explores how Korean media represent accusers and the accused, victims and perpetrators. The extracted data includes 5,885 articles from four broadsheet newspapers (Chosun, JoongAng, Hangyore, and Kyunghyang) and 88 articles from two Korea-based English newspapers (Korea Times and Korea Herald) between January 2017 and November 2020. The information includes basic data analysis with respect to keyword frequency and network analysis and adds refined examinations of select corpus samples through naming strategies, semantic relations, and pragmatic properties. Along with the exponential increase of the number of articles containing the keyword “MeToo” from 104 articles in 2017 to 3,546 articles in 2018, the network and keyword analysis highlights ‘US,’ ‘Harvey Weinstein’, and ‘Hollywood,’ as keywords for 2017, with articles in 2018 highlighting ‘Seo Ji-Hyun, ‘politics,’ ‘President Moon,’ ‘An Ui-Jeong, ‘Lee Yoon-taek’ (the names of perpetrators), and ‘(Korean) society.’ This outcome demonstrates the shift of media focus from international affairs to domestic cases. Another crucial finding is that word ‘defamation’ is widely distributed in the “MeToo” corpus. This relates to the South Korean legal system, in which a person who defames another by publicly alleging information detrimental to their reputation—factual or fabricated—is punishable by law (Article 307 of the Criminal Act of Korea). If the defamation occurs on the internet, it is subject to aggravated punishment under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. These laws, in particular, have been used against accusers who have publicly come forward in the wake of “MeToo” in South Korea, adding an extra dimension of risk. This corpus analysis of “MeToo” newspaper articles contributes to the analysis of the media representation of the “MeToo” movement and sheds light on the shifting landscape of gender relations in the public sphere in South Korea.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, MeToo, newspapers, South Korea

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Hanen Filali, Mohamed Hachicha

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Treated grey water (TGW) reuse emerged as an alternative resource to meet the growing demand for water for agricultural irrigation and reduce the pressure on limited existing fresh water. However, this reuse needs adapted management in order to avoid environmental and health risks. In this work, the treatment of grey water (GW) was studied from a cyclic treatment system that we designed and implemented in the greenhouse of National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forests (INRGREF). This system is composed of three levels for treatment (TGW 1, TGW 2, and TGW 3). Each level includes a sandy soil box. The use of grey water was moderated depending on the chemical and microbiological quality obtained. Different samples of soils and treated grey water were performed and analyzed for 14 irrigation cycles. TGW through cyclic treatment showed physicochemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity (EC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5) in the range of 7,35-7,91, 1,69-5,03 dS/m, 102,6-54,2 mgO2/l, and 31,33-15,74 mgO2/l, respectively. Results showed a reduction in the pollutant load with a significant effect on the three treatment levels; however, an increase in salinity was observed during all irrigation cycles. Microbiological results showed good grey water treatment with low health risk on irrigated soil. Treated water quality was below permissible Tunisian standards (NT106.03), and treated water is suitable for non-potable options.

Keywords: treated grey water, irrigation, cyclic treatment, soils, physico-chemical parameters, microbiological parameters

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Ellen Van Den Oord, Julien Marie Jan Ferdinand Van Campen

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This article introduces a computationally efficient method for stacking sequence blending of composite structures. The computational efficiency makes the presented method especially interesting for composite structures with a large number of design regions. Optimization of composite structures with an unequal load distribution may lead to locally optimized thicknesses and ply orientations that are incompatible with one another. Blending constraints can be enforced to achieve structural continuity. In literature, many methods can be found to implement structural continuity by means of stacking sequence blending in one way or another. The complexity of the problem makes the blending of a structure with a large number of adjacent design regions, and thus stacking sequences, prohibitive. In this work the local stacking sequence optimization is preconditioned using a method found in the literature that couples the mechanical behavior of the laminate, in the form of lamination parameters, to blending constraints, yielding near-optimal easy-to-blend designs. The preconditioned design is then fed to the scheme using cellular automata that have been developed by the authors. The method is applied to the benchmark 18-panel horseshoe blending problem to demonstrate its performance. The computational efficiency of the proposed method makes it especially suited for composite structures with a large number of design regions.

Keywords: composite, blending, optimization, lamination parameters

Procedia PDF Downloads 229

Authors: Venkat Garigapati

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Cell-based therapies are limited due to underlying host immune system activity. Microencapsulation of living cells to overcome this issue has some serious drawbacks, such as limitations of nutrient and oxygen diffusion, which pose a threat to the function and longevity of cells. The conformal coating could overcome the issues which are generally involved in traditional microencapsulation. Some of the theoretical advantages of conformal coating include superior nutrient and oxygen supply to cells, prolonged lifespan, improved drug-secreting cell functionality and an opportunity to load high cell doses in small volumes. Despite several advantages to the conformal coating, there are no suitable methods available to apply to living cells. The ultra-thin conformal coating was achieved utilizing click-reactive methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymers, which are capable of specifically reacting one polymer to another at neutral pH in the aqueous isotonic system at the desired temperature suitable for living cells without the need of deleterious initiators. ARPE-19 (Adult Retinal Pigment Epithelial cell line-19) cell-spheroids and rat pancreatic islets were used in the formulation studies. The in vitro studies of coated ARPE-19 cell-spheroids and rat islets indicate that the coat was intact; cells were viable and functioning. The in vitro study results revealed that the conformal coating technology seems promising and in vivo studies are being planned.

Keywords: cells, hydrogel, conformal coating, microencapsulation, insulin

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Snehal Mevada, Darshana Bhatt, Aryan Kalthiya, Neel Parmar, Vishal Baraiya, Dhruvit Bhanderi, Tisha Patel

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In multi-storeyed framed buildings, damage occurring from earthquake ground motion generally initiates at locations of structural weaknesses present in the lateral load-resisting frame. In some cases, these weaknesses may be created by discontinuities in stiffness, mass, plan, and torsion. Such discontinuity between storeys is often associated with sudden variations in the vertical geometric irregularities and plan irregularities. Vertical irregularities are structures with a soft storey that can further be broken down into the different types of irregularities as well as their severity for a more refined assessment tool pushover analysis which is one of the methods available for evaluating building against earthquake loads. So, it is very necessary to analyse and understand the seismic performance of the irregular structure in order to reduce the damage which occurs during an earthquake. In this project, a multi-storey (G+4) RCC building with four irregularities (stiffness, mass, plan, torsion) is studied for earthquake loads using the response spectrum method (dynamic analysis) and STADD PRO. All analyses have been done for seismic zone IV and for Medium Soil. In this study effects of different irregularities are analysed based on storey displacement, storey drift, and storey shear.

Keywords: comparison of regular and irregular structure, dynamic analysis, mass irregularity, plan irregularity, response spectrum method, stiffness irregularity, seismic performance, torsional irregularity, STAAD PRO

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Nirupama Dixit, Anyaa Mittal, Neeru Sood

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive form of dementia, contributing to up to 70% of cases, mostly observed in elderly but is not restricted to old age. The pathophysiology of the disease is characterized by specific pathological changes in brain. The changes (i.e. accumulation of metal ions in brain, formation of extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide aggregates and tangle of hyper phosphorylated Tau protein inside neurons) damage the neuronal connections irreversibly. The current issues in improvement of life quality of Alzheimer's patient lies in the fact that the diagnosis is made at a late stage of the disease and the medications do not treat the basic causes of Alzheimer's. The targeted delivery of drug through the blood brain barrier (BBB) poses several limitations via traditional approaches for treatment. To overcome these drug delivery limitation, nanoparticles provide a promising solution. This review focuses on current strategies for efficient targeted drug delivery using nanoparticles and improving the quality of therapy provided to the patient. Nanoparticles can be used to encapsulate drug (which is generally hydrophobic) to ensure its passage to brain; they can be conjugated to metal ion chelators to reduce the metal load in neural tissue thus lowering the harmful effects of oxidative damage; can be conjugated with drug and monoclonal antibodies against BBB endogenous receptors. Finally this review covers how the nanoparticles can play a role in diagnosing the disease.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, β-amyloid plaques, blood brain barrier, metal chelators, nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 492

Authors: WonHo Lee, Hyo-Gyoung Kwak

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A numerical model considering slip behavior of steel-concrete composite structure is introduced. This model is based on a linear bond stress-slip relation along the interface. Single node was considered at the interface of steel and concrete member in finite element analysis, and it improves analytical problems of model that takes double nodes at the interface by adopting spring elements to simulate the partial interaction. The slip behavior is simulated by modifying material properties of steel element contacting concrete according to the derived formulation. Decreased elastic modulus simulates the slip occurrence at the interface and decreased yield strength simulates drop in load capacity of the structure. The model is verified by comparing numerical analysis applying this model with experimental studies. Acknowledgment—This research was supported by a grant(13SCIPA01) from Smart Civil Infrastructure Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) of Korea government and Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement(KAIA) and financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) as U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program.

Keywords: bond-slip, composite structure, partial interaction, steel-concrete structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 178

Authors: Hari Krishan Sharma, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Sushil Kumar Swar

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Inadequate transverse reinforcement is considered as the main reason for the beam column joint shear failure observed during recent earthquakes. DSP matrix consists of cement and high content of micro-silica with low water to cement ratio while the aggregates are graded quartz sand. The use of reinforcing fibres leads not only to the increase of tensile/bending strength and specific fracture energy, but also to reduction of brittleness and, consequently, to production of non-explosive ruptures. Besides, fibre-reinforced materials are more homogeneous and less sensitive to small defects and flaws. Recent works on the freeze-thaw durability (also in the presence of de-icing salts) of fibre-reinforced DSP confirm the excellent behaviour in the expected long term service life.DSP materials, including fibre-reinforced DSP and CRC (Compact Reinforced Composites) are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro-silica. Steel fibres with high tensile yield strength of smaller diameter and short length in different fibre volume percentage and aspect ratio tilized to improve the performance by reducing the brittleness of matrix material. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), concrete is dense at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. Beam-column sub-assemblages used as moment resisting constructed using HPDSPC in the joint region with varying quantities of steel fibres, fibre aspect ratio and fibre orientation in the critical section. These HPDSPC in the joint region sub-assemblages tested under cyclic/earthquake loading. Besides loading measurements, frame displacements, diagonal joint strain and rebar strain adjacent to the joint will also be measured to investigate stress-strain behaviour, load deformation characteristics, joint shear strength, failure mechanism, ductility associated parameters, stiffness and energy dissipated parameters of the beam column sub-assemblages also evaluated. Finally a design procedure for the optimum design of HPDSPC corresponding to moment, shear forces and axial forces for the reinforced concrete beam-column joint sub-assemblage proposed. The fact that the implementation of material brittleness measure in the design of RC structures can improve structural reliability by providing uniform safety margins over a wide range of structural sizes and material compositions well recognized in the structural design and research. This lead to the development of high performance concrete for the optimized combination of various structural ratios in concrete for the optimized combination of various structural properties. The structural applications of HPDSPC, because of extremely high strength, will reduce dead load significantly as compared to normal weight concrete thereby offering substantial cost saving and by providing improved seismic response, longer spans, and thinner sections, less reinforcing steel and lower foundation cost. These cost effective parameters will make this material more versatile for use in various structural applications like beam-column joints in industries, airports, parking areas, docks, harbours, and also containers for hazardous material, safety boxes and mould & tools for polymer composites and metals.

Keywords: high performance densified small particle concrete (HPDSPC), steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC), slurry infiltrated concrete (SIFCON), Slurry infiltrated mat concrete (SIMCON)

Procedia PDF Downloads 303

Authors: Abdelkader Anouzla, Soukaina Bouaouda, Roukaya Bouyakhsass, Salah Souabi, Abdeslam Taleb

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During storage and under the combined action of rainwater and natural fermentation, these wastes produce over 800.000 m3 of landfill leachates. Due to population growth and changing global economic activities, the amount of waste constantly generated increases, making more significant volumes of leachate. Leachate, when leaching into the soil, can negatively impact soil, surface water, groundwater, and the overall environment and human life. The leachate must first be treated because of its high pollutant load before being released into the environment. This article reviews the different leachate treatments in September 2022 techniques. Different techniques can be used for this purpose, such as biological, physical-chemical, and membrane methods. Young leachate is biodegradable; in contrast, these biological processes lose their effectiveness with leachate aging. They are characterized by high ammonia nitrogen concentrations that inhibit their activity. Most physical-chemical treatments serve as pre-treatment or post-treatment to complement conventional treatment processes or remove specific contaminants. After the introduction, the different types of pollutants present in leachates and their impacts have been made, followed by a discussion highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the various treatments, whether biological, physicochemical, or membrane. From this work, due to their simplicity and reasonable cost compared to other treatment procedures, biological treatments offer the most suitable alternative to limit the effects produced by the pollutants in landfill leachates.

Keywords: landfill leachate, landfill pollution, impact, wastewater

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Authors: Dr.Vasundhra Misra, Prof. Praveen Vashist

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Purpose: Vitamin A deficiency prevention programmes are at varying stages of development and implementation in all countries. Vitamin A deficiency has been recognized as a public health issue in developing countries like India. Despite achieving a lot of success a load of blindness due to Vitamin A deficiencies is still high. In this regard, a study was conducted to assess the awareness and health-seeking practices about Vitamin A deficiency diseases among the urban slum population of Delhi, India. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the 5 slum clusters from the urban population of South Delhi. A specially designed pre-tested questionnaire schedule was administered. The study sample was comprised of 1552 inhabitants. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 34 ± 12.1 years. A total of 1003 (64.6%) participants out of 1552, had heard of night blindness. Awareness of night blindness was more in the elderly age group and also found significant (p < 0.001). Only 31 (3.1%) knew that night blindness is caused due to deficiency of vitamin A. The awareness of vitamin A prophylaxis programme was significantly higher among elder age (p < 0.05) and females (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings highlighted that even though many of the respondents have heard of night blindness but the awareness about causes and treatment was found low in the community. There is a need for efforts directed to enhance community-level counseling and educational programmes.

Keywords: awareness, health-seeking practices, night blindness, vitamin-A deficiency diseases

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Authors: Josif Figueroa, Kush Bubbar, Greg Young-Morris

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The reliability evaluation of composite generation and bulk transmission systems is crucial for ensuring a reliable supply of electrical energy to significant system load points. However, evaluating adequacy indices using probabilistic methods like sequential Monte Carlo Simulation can be computationally expensive. Despite this, it is necessary when time-varying and interdependent resources, such as renewables and energy storage systems, are involved. Recent advances in solving power network optimization problems and parallel computing have improved runtime performance while maintaining solution accuracy. This work introduces CompositeSystems, an open-source Composite System Reliability Evaluation tool developed in Julia™, to address the current deficiencies of commercial and non-commercial tools. This work introduces its design, validation, and effectiveness, which includes analyzing two different formulations of the Optimal Power Flow problem. The simulations demonstrate excellent agreement with existing published studies while improving replicability and reproducibility. Overall, the proposed tool can provide valuable insights into the performance of transmission systems, making it an important addition to the existing toolbox for power system planning.

Keywords: open-source software, composite system reliability, optimization methods, Monte Carlo methods, optimal power flow

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Authors: Sifatullah Bahij, Safiullah Omary, Francoise Feugeas, Amanullah Faqiri

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Reinforced concrete (RC) is commonly used material in the construction sector, due to its low-cost and durability, and allowed the architectures and designers to construct structural members with different shapes and finishing. Usually, RC members are designed to sustain service loads efficiently without any destruction. However, because of the faults in the design phase, overloading, materials deficiencies, and environmental effects, most of the structural elements will require maintenance and repairing over their lifetime. Therefore, strengthening and repair of the deteriorated and/or existing RC structures are much important to extend their life cycle. Various techniques are existing to retrofit and strengthen RC structural elements such as steel plate bonding, external pre-stressing, section enlargement, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping, etc. Although these configurations can successfully improve the load bearing capacity of the beams, they are still prone to corrosion damage which results in failure of the strengthened elements. Therefore, many researchers used fiber reinforced cementitious materials due to its low-cost, corrosion resistance, and result in improvement of the tensile and fatigue behaviors. Various types of cementitious materials have been used to strengthen or repair structural elements. This paper has summarized to accumulate data regarding on previously published research papers concerning the torsional behaviors of RC beams strengthened by various types of cementitious materials.

Keywords: reinforced concrete beams, strengthening techniques, cementitious materials, torsional strength, twisting angle

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Authors: Davood Niknezhad, Siham Kamali-Bernard

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Concrete durability is one of the most important considerations in the design of new structures in aggressive environments. It is now common knowledge that the transport properties of a concrete, i.e; permeability and chloride diffusion coefficient are important indicators of its durability. The development of microcracking in concrete structures leads to significant permeability and to durability problems as a result. The main objective of the study presented in this paper is to investigate the influence of mineral admixtures and impact of compressive cracks by mechanical uniaxial compression up to 80% of the ultimate strength on transport properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) manufactured with the eco-materials (metakaolin, fly ash, slag HF). The chloride resistance and binding capacity of the different SCCs produced with the different admixtures in damaged and undamaged state are measured using a chloride migration test accelerated by an external applied electrical field. Intrinsic permeability is measured using the helium gas and one permeameter at constant load. Klinkenberg approach is used for the determination of the intrinsic permeability. Based on the findings of this study, the use of mineral admixtures increases the resistance of SCC to chloride ingress and reduces their permeability. From the impact of mechanical damage, we show that the Gas permeability is more sensitive of concrete damaged than chloride diffusion. A correlation is obtained between the intrinsic permeability and chloride migration coefficient according to the damage variable for the four studied mixtures.

Keywords: SCC, concrete durability, transport properties, gas permeability, chloride diffusion, mechanical damage, mineral admixtures

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Authors: M. Ananthakrishnan, Sunil K Patil, Koti Naveen, Inuganti Hemanth Kumar

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State estimation output of EMS forms the base case for all other advanced applications used in real time by a power system operator. Ensuring tuning of state estimator is a repeated process and cannot be left once a good solution is obtained. This paper attempts to demonstrate methods to improve state estimator solution by identifying incorrect modelling and telemetry inputs to the application. In this work, identification of database topology modelling error by plotting static network using node-to-node connection details is demonstrated with examples. Analytical methods to identify wrong transmission parameters, incorrect limits and mistakes in pseudo load and generator modelling are explained with various cases observed. Further, methods used for active and reactive power tuning using bus summation display, reactive power absorption summary, and transformer tap correction are also described. In a large power system, verifying all network static data and modelling parameter on regular basis is difficult .The proposed tuning methods can be easily used by operators to quickly identify errors to obtain the best possible state estimation performance. This, in turn, can lead to improved decision-support capabilities, ultimately enhancing the safety and reliability of the power grid.

Keywords: active power tuning, database modelling, reactive power, state estimator

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Authors: Hadach Mohamed

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Tourism becomes more and more a source of added value for developing countries. In Morocco, the sector contributes at 20% of national GDP, or the effects of this activity become increasingly harmful. The methodology we followed is qualitative, we analyzed the data according to a process-based approach in two longitudinal period from 2001 to 2009 and a period of real time from 2010 to 2014.Through a process-based longitudinal study we analyzed the effects of tourism on the three components of sustainability: economic, environmental and socio-cultural in Essaouira destination in the south west of Morocco. The objective of this paper is to identify among others, harmful effects of mass tourism on fragile destination in terms of load capacity, promotion of youth employment and respect for indigenous traditions. This study also aims to analyze the impact of tourism on the fragile destination, which depends heavily on this activity; it also seeks to test a series of indicators for sustainable development of sensitive areas. Within results, we found that tourism as an activity is very linked to the international situation, tested sustainable development indicators showed us that tourism is environmentally destructive, job creator and changer modes and lives of indigenous. Between the two periods analyzed, the situation becomes more and more vulnerable and the state intervention is becoming more indispensable. We also found that 70% of the population of the destination does not benefit from the income generated by the destination. This raises questions about the fate of the added value of this activity.

Keywords: economic, environmental and socio-cultural, fragile destination, tourism sustainability

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Authors: Amanuel Bekuma, Rebecca Swift, Sarah Jackson, Ben Biddulph

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Economic loss to frost damage is increasing over the past years in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Agronomic, genetic, and climatic works have still found a weak correlation between temperature and frost damage. One possibility that has not been explored within the Australian cropping system is whether ice nucleation active bacteria (INB) either present in situ on crop residue or introduced by rainfall could be responsible for the increased sensitivity of cereal plants to frost at different stages of development. This study investigated upper and lower leaf canopy, stubble, and soil as a potential site of ice nucleation activity (INA) and tracked the changes in INA during the plant development. We found that older leaves of wheat are the primary sites of ice nucleation (-4.7 to -6.3°C) followed by stubble (-5.7 to -6.7°C) which increases the risk of frost damage during heading and flowering (the most susceptible stages). However, healthy and green upper canopy leaves (flag and flag-2) and the soil have lower INA (< -11°C) during the frost-sensitive stage of wheat. We anticipate the higher INA on the stubble and older leaves to be due to the presence of biologically active ice-nucleating bacteria (INB), known to cause frost injury to sensitive plants at -5°C. Stubble retained or applied during the growing season further exacerbates additional frost risk by potentially increasing the INB load. The implications of the result for stubble and frost risk management in a frost-prone landscape will be discussed.

Keywords: frost, ice-nucleation-activity, stubble, wheat

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Authors: Aleš Florian, Lenka Ševelová

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Complex sensitivity analysis of stresses in a concrete slab of the real type of rigid pavement made from recycled materials is performed. The computational model of the pavement is designed as a spatial (3D) model, is based on a nonlinear variant of the finite element method that respects the structural nonlinearity, enables to model different arrangements of joints, and the entire model can be loaded by the thermal load. Interaction of adjacent slabs in joints and contact of the slab and the subsequent layer are modeled with the help of special contact elements. Four concrete slabs separated by transverse and longitudinal joints and the additional structural layers and soil to the depth of about 3m are modeled. The thickness of individual layers, physical and mechanical properties of materials, characteristics of joints, and the temperature of the upper and lower surface of slabs are supposed to be random variables. The modern simulation technique Updated Latin Hypercube Sampling with 20 simulations is used. For sensitivity analysis the sensitivity coefficient based on the Spearman rank correlation coefficient is utilized. As a result, the estimates of influence of random variability of individual input variables on the random variability of principal stresses s1 and s3 in 53 points on the upper and lower surface of the concrete slabs are obtained.

Keywords: concrete, FEM, pavement, sensitivity, simulation

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