Search results for: Nash equilibrium

Authors: M. Ottenbrite, G. Yilmaz, J. Devenish, M. Kang, H. Dan, M. Lin, C. Lau, C. Carrillo, K. Bessonov, J. Nash, E. Topp, J. Guan

Abstract:

Consumption of food contaminated by antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria may lead to the transmission of AR genes in the gut microbiota and cause AR bacterial infection, a significant public health concern. However, information is limited on if and how background microbes from the food matrix (food microbes) may influence resistance transmission. Thus, we assessed the colonization of a β-lactam resistant Salmonella Heidelberg strain (donor) and a β-lactam susceptible S. Typhimurium strain (recipient) and the transfer of the resistance genes in the mouse gut in the presence or absence of food microbes that were derived from washing freshly-harvested carrots. Mice were pre-treated with streptomycin and then inoculated with both donor and recipient bacteria or recipient only. Fecal shedding of the donor, recipient, and transconjugant bacteria was enumerated using selective culture techniques. Transfer of AR genes was confirmed by whole genome sequencing. Gut microbial composition was determined by 16s rRNA amplicon sequencing. Significantly lower numbers of donors and recipients were shed from mice that were inoculated with food microbes compared to those without food microbe inoculation. S. Typhimurium transconjugants were only recovered from mice without inoculation of food microbes. A significantly higher survival rate was in mice with vs. without inoculation of food microbes. The results suggest that the food microbes may compete with both the donor and recipient Salmonella, limit their growth and reduce transmission of the β-lactam resistance gene in the mouse gut.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, gene transfer, gut microbiota, Salmonella infection

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Luciana P. Mazur, Tatiana A. Pozdniakova, Rui A. R. Boaventura, Vitor J. P. Vilar

Abstract:

The principal mechanism of metal ions sequestration by brown algae involves the formation of complexes between the metal ion and functional groups present on the cell wall of the biological material. To understand the role of functional groups on copper(II) uptake by Ascophyllum nodosum, some functional groups were chemically modified. The esterification of carboxylic groups was carried out by suspending the biomass in a methanol/HCl solution under stirring for 48 h and the blocking of the sulfonic groups was performed by repeating the same procedure for 4 cycles of 48 h. The methylation of amines was conducted by suspending the biomass in a formaldehyde/formic acid solution under shaking for 6 h and the chemical modification of sulfhydryl groups on the biomass surface was achieved using dithiodipyridine for 1 h. Equilibrium sorption studies for Cu2+ using the raw and esterified algae were performed at pH 2.0 and 4.0. The experiments were performed using an initial copper concentration of 300 mg/L and algae dose of 1.0 g/L. After reaching the equilibrium, the metal in solution was quantified by atomic absorption spectrometry. The biological material was analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Potentiometric Titration techniques for functional groups identification and quantification, respectively. The results using unmodified algae showed that the maximum copper uptake capacity at pH 4.0 and 2.0 was 1.17 and 0.52 mmol/g, respectively. At acidic pH values most carboxyl groups are protonated and copper sorption suffered a significant reduction of 56%. Blocking the carboxylic, sulfonic, amines and sulfhydryl functional groups, copper uptake decreased by 24/26%, 69/81%, 1/23% and 40/27% at pH 2.0/4.0, respectively, when compared to the unmodified biomass. It was possible to conclude that the carboxylic and sulfonic groups are the main functional groups responsible for copper binding (>80%). This result is supported by the fact that the adsorption capacity is directly related to the presence of carboxylic groups of the alginate polymer, and the second most abundant acidic functional group in brown algae is the sulfonic acid of fucoidan that contributes, to a lower extent, to heavy metal binding, particularly at low pH.

Keywords: biosorption, brown marine macroalgae, copper, ion-exchange

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Deepa Kundu, Prabhakar Sharma, Sayan Bhattacharya, Jianying Shang

Abstract:

The discharge of dye-containing effluents in the water bodies has raised concern due to the potential hazards related to their toxicity in the environment. There are various treatment technologies available for the removal of dyes from wastewaters. The use of biosorbent to remove dyes from wastewater is one of the effective and inexpensive techniques. In the study, the adsorption of phenothiazine dye methylene blue onto biosorbent prepared from Lantana camara L. has been studied in aqueous solutions. The batch adsorption experiments were conducted and the effects of various parameters such as pH (3-12), contact time, adsorbent dose (100-400 mg/L), initial dye concentration (5-20 mg/L), and temperature (303, 313 and 323 K) were investigated. The prepared leaf (BCL600) and shoot (BCS600) biochar of Lantana were characterized using FTIR, SEM, elemental analysis, and zeta potential (pH~7). A comparison between the adsorption potential of both the biosorbent was also evaluated. The results indicated that the amount of methylene blue dye (mg/g) adsorbed onto the surface of biochar was highly dependent on the pH of the dye solutions as it increased with an increase in pH from 3 to 12. It was observed that the dye treated with BCS600 and BCL600 attained an equilibrium within 60 and 100 minutes, respectively. The rate of the adsorption process was determined by performing the Lagergren pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetics. It was found that dye treated with both BCS600 and BCL600 followed pseudo-second-order kinetics implying the multi-step nature of the adsorption process involving external adsorption and diffusion of dye molecules into the interior of the adsorbents. The data obtained from batch experiments were fitted well with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms (R² > 0.98) to indicate the multilayer adsorption of dye over the biochar surfaces. The thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption process is favourable, spontaneous, and endothermic in nature. Based on the results, the inexpensive and easily available Lantana camara biomass can be used to remove methylene blue dye from wastewater. It can also help in managing the growth of the notorious weed in the environment.

Keywords: adsorption kinetics, biochar, Lantana camara, methylene blue dye, possible mechanism, thermodynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Mohammad Fereidoonnezhad, Seán Leen, Stephen Nash, Patrick McGarry

Abstract:

From the perspective of research innovation, the tidal energy industry is still in its early stages. While a very small number of turbines have progressed to utility-scale deployment, blade breakage is commonly reported due to the enormous hydrodynamic loading applied to devices. The aim of this study is the development of computer simulation technologies for the design of next-generation fibre-reinforced composite tidal turbines. This will require significant technical advances in the areas of tidal turbine testing and multi-scale computational modelling. The complex turbine blade profiles are designed to incorporate non-linear distributions of airfoil sections to optimize power output and self-starting capability while reducing power fluctuations. A number of candidate blade geometries are investigated, ranging from spiral geometries to parabolic geometries, with blades arranged in both cylindrical and spherical configurations on a vertical axis turbine. A combined blade element theory (BET-start-up model) is developed in MATLAB to perform computationally efficient parametric design optimisation for a range of turbine blade geometries. Finite element models are developed to identify optimal fibre-reinforced composite designs to increase blade strength and fatigue life. Advanced fluid-structure-interaction models are also carried out to compute blade deflections following design optimisation.

Keywords: tidal turbine, composite materials, fluid-structure-interaction, start-up capability

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Nuri Başpınar, Abdullah Başoğlu, Özgür Özdemir, Çağlayan Özel, FundaTerzi, Özgür Yaman

Abstract:

Current research is targeting new molecular mechanisms that underlie non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and associated metabolic disorders like nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Forty New Zealand White rabbits have been used and fed a high protein (HP) and energy diet based on grains and containing 11.76 MJ/kg. Boron added to 3 experimental groups’ drinking waters (30 mg boron/L) as boron compounds. Biochemical analysis including boron levels, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics evaluation, and mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) family were performed. LDL-cholesterol concentrations alone were decreased in all the experimental groups. Boron levels in serum and feces were increased. Content of acetate was in about 2x higher for anhydrous borax group, at least 3x higher for boric acid group. PPARα mRNA expression was significantly decreased in boric acid group. Anhydrous borax attenuated mRNA levels of PPARα, which was further suppressed by boric acid. Boron supplementation decreased the degenerative alterations in hepatocytes. Except borax group other boron groups did not have a pronounced change in tubular epithels of kidney. In conclusion, high protein and energy diet leads hepatocytes’ degenerative changes which can be prevented by boron supplementation. Boric acid seems to precede in this effectiveness.

Keywords: high protein and energy diet, boron, metabolomics, transcriptomic

Procedia PDF Downloads 624

Authors: Zuliani Mahmood, Thirumulu Ponnuraj Kannan, Yean Yean Chan, Salahddin A. Al-Hudhairy

Abstract:

Caries is the most common childhood disease which develops due to disturbances in the physiological equilibrium in the dental plaque resulting in demineralization of tooth structures. Plaque and dentine samples were collected from three different tooth surfaces representing caries progression (intact, over carious lesion and dentine) in children with early childhood caries (ECC, n=36). In caries free (CF) children, plaque samples were collected from sound tooth surfaces at baseline and after one year (n=12). The genomic DNA was extracted from all samples and subjected to 16S rRNA PCR amplification. The end products were cloned into pCR®2.1-TOPO® Vector. Five randomly selected positive clones collected from each surface were sent for sequencing. Identification of the bacterial clones was performed using BLAST against GenBank database. In the ECC group, the frequency of Lactobacillus sp. detected was significantly higher in the dentine surface (p = 0.031) than over the cavitated lesion. The highest frequency of bacteria detected in the intact surfaces was Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. polymorphum (33.3%) while Streptococcus mutans was detected over the carious lesions and dentine surfaces at a frequency of 33.3% and 52.7% respectively. Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. polymorphum was also found to be highest in the CF group (41.6%). Follow up at the end of one year showed that the frequency of Corynebacterium matruchotii detected was highest in those who remained caries free (16.6%), while Porphyromonas catoniae was highest in those who developed caries (25%). In conclusion, Streptococcus mutans and Porphyromonas catoniae are strongly associated with caries progression, while Lactobacillus sp. is restricted to deep carious lesions. Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. polymorphum and Corynebacterium matruchotii may play a role in sustaining the healthy equilibrium in the dental plaque. These identified bacteria show promise as potential biomarkers in diagnosis which could help in the management of dental caries in children.

Keywords: early childhood caries, genotypic identification, oral bacteria, 16S rRNA

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Warda L. Panondi, Norihiro Izumi

Abstract:

Sedimentation is a significant threat to the sustainability of reservoirs and their watershed. In the Philippines, the Pulangi watershed experienced a high sediment loss mainly due to land conversions and plantations that showed critical erosion rates beyond the tolerable limit of -10 ton/ha/yr in all of its sub-basin. From this event, the prediction of runoff volume and sediment yield is essential to examine using the country's soil conservation techniques realistically. In this research, the Pulangi watershed was modeled using the soil water assessment tool (SWAT) to predict its watershed basin's annual runoff and sediment yield. For the calibration and validation of the model, the SWAT-CUP was utilized. The model was calibrated with monthly discharge data for 1990-1993 and validated for 1994-1997. Simultaneously, the sediment yield was calibrated in 2014 and validated in 2015 because of limited observed datasets. Uncertainty analysis and calculation of efficiency indexes were accomplished through the SUFI-2 algorithm. According to the coefficient of determination (R2), Nash Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), King-Gupta efficiency (KGE), and PBIAS, the calculation of streamflow indicates a good performance for both calibration and validation periods while the sediment yield resulted in a satisfactory performance for both calibration and validation. Therefore, this study was able to identify the most critical sub-basin and severe needs of soil conservation. Furthermore, this study will provide baseline information to prevent floods and landslides and serve as a useful reference for land-use policies and watershed management and sustainability in the Pulangi watershed.

Keywords: Pulangi watershed, sediment yield, streamflow, SWAT model

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Ozan Kahraman, Hao Feng

Abstract:

Ultrasonic atomization (UA) is a useful technique for producing a liquid spray for various processes, such as spray drying. Ultrasound generates small droplets (a few microns in diameter) by disintegration of the liquid via cavitation and/or capillary waves, with low range velocity and narrow droplet size distribution. In recent years, UA has been investigated as an alternative for enabling or enhancing ultrasound-mediated unit operations, such as evaporation, separation, and purification. The previous studies on the UA separation of a solvent from a bulk solution were limited to ethanol-water systems. More investigations into ultrasound-mediated separation for other liquid systems are needed to elucidate the separation mechanism. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of the operational parameters on the ultrasound-mediated separation of three miscible liquid pairs: ethanol-, methanol-, and butanol-water. A 2.4 MHz ultrasonic mister with a diameter of 18 mm and rating power of 24 W was installed on the bottom of a custom-designed cylindrical separation unit. Air was supplied to the unit (3 to 4 L/min.) as a carrier gas to collect the mist. The effects of the initial alcohol concentration, viscosity, and temperature (10, 30 and 50°C) on the atomization rates were evaluated. The alcohol concentration in the collected mist was measured with high performance liquid chromatography and a refractometer. The viscosity of the solutions was determined using a Brookfield digital viscometer. The alcohol concentration of the atomized mist was dependent on the feed concentration, feed rate, viscosity, and temperature. Increasing the temperature of the alcohol-water mixtures from 10 to 50°C increased the vapor pressure of both the alcohols and water, resulting in an increase in the atomization rates but a decrease in the separation efficiency. The alcohol concentration in the mist was higher than that of the alcohol-water equilibrium at all three temperatures. More importantly, for ethanol, the ethanol concentration in the mist went beyond the azeotropic point, which cannot be achieved by conventional distillation. Ultrasound-mediated separation is a promising non-equilibrium method for separating and purifying alcohols, which may result in significant energy reductions and process intensification.

Keywords: azeotropic mixtures, distillation, evaporation, purification, seperation, ultrasonic atomization

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Sonu Khanal, Mandira Shrestha

Abstract:

Snow and Glaciers are the largest dependable reserved sources of water for the river system originating from the Himalayas so an accurate estimate of the volume of water contained in the snowpack and the rate of release of water from snow and glaciers are, therefore, needed for efficient management of the water resources. This research assess the fusion of energy exchanges between the snowpack, air above and soil below according to mass and energy balance which makes it apposite than the models using simple temperature index for the snow and glacier melt computation. UEBGrid a Distributed energy based model is used to calculate the melt which is then routed by Geo-SFM. The model robustness is maintained by incorporating the albedo generated from the Landsat-7 ETM images on a seasonal basis for the year 2002-2003 and substrate map derived from TM. The Substrate file includes predominantly the 4 major thematic layers viz Snow, clean ice, Glaciers and Barren land. This approach makes use of CPC RFE-2 and MERRA gridded data sets as the source of precipitation and climatic variables. The subsequent model run for the year between 2002-2008 shows a total annual melt of 17.15 meter is generate from the Marshyangdi Basin of which 71% is contributed by the glaciers , 18% by the rain and rest being from the snow melt. The albedo file is decisive in governing the melt dynamics as 30% increase in the generated surface albedo results in the 10% decrease in the simulated discharge. The melt routed with the land cover and soil variables using Geo-SFM shows Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.60 with observed discharge for the study period.

Keywords: Glacier, Glacier melt, Snowmelt, Energy balance

Procedia PDF Downloads 450

Authors: H. Ferfera-Harrar, T. Benhalima, D. Lerari

Abstract:

Contamination of water, due to the discharge of untreated industrial wastewaters into the ecosystem, has become a serious problem for many countries. In this study, bioadsorbents based on chitosan-g-poly(acrylamide) and montmorillonite (MMt) clay (CTS-g-PAAm/MMt) hydrogel nanocomposites were prepared via free‐radical grafting copolymerization and crosslinking of acrylamide monomer (AAm) onto natural polysaccharide chitosan (CTS) as backbone, in presence of various contents of MMt clay as nanofiller. Then, they were hydrolyzed to obtain highly functionalized pH‐sensitive nanomaterials with uppermost swelling properties. Their structure characterization was conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. The adsorption performances of the developed nanohybrids were examined for removal of methylene blue (MB) cationic dye from aqueous solutions. The factors affecting the removal of MB, such as clay content, pH medium, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration and temperature were explored. The adsorption process was found to be highly pH dependent. From adsorption kinetic results, the prepared adsorbents showed remarkable adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate, mainly more than 88% of MB removal efficiency was reached after 50 min in 200 mg L^-1 of dye solution. In addition, the incorporating of various content of clay has enhanced adsorption capacity of CTS-g-PAAm matrix from 1685 to a highest value of 1749 mg g^-1 for the optimized nanocomposite containing 2 wt.% of MMt. The experimental kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model, while the equilibrium data were represented perfectly by Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum Langmuir equilibrium adsorption capacity (q_m) was found to increase from 2173 mg g⁻¹ until 2221 mg g⁻¹ by adding 2 wt.% of clay nanofiller. Thermodynamic parameters revealed the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the process. In addition, the reusability study revealed that these bioadsorbents could be well regenerated with desorption efficiency overhead 87% and without any obvious decrease of removal efficiency as compared to starting ones even after four consecutive adsorption/desorption cycles, which exceeded 64%. These results suggest that the optimized nanocomposites are promising as low cost bioadsorbents.

Keywords: chitosan, clay, dye adsorption, hydrogels nanocomposites

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Kadi-Hanifi Halima

Abstract:

Stipa tenacissima is a plant with a big ecological value (against desertification) and economical stake (paper industry). It is important by its pastoral value due to the inflorescence. It occupied large areas between the Tellian atlas and the Saharian atlas, at the present, these areas of alfa have regressed a lot. This regression is estimated at 1% per year. The principal cause is a human responsibility. The drought is just an aggravating circumstance. The eradication of such a kind of species will have serious consequences upon the equilibrium of all the steppic ecosystem. Thus, we have thought necessary and urgent to know the alfa ecosystem, under all its aspects (climatic, floristic, and edaphic), this diagnostic could direct the fight actions against desertification

Keywords: desertification, anthropic action, soils, Stipa tenacissima

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Namwinwelbere Dabire, Eugene C. Ezin, Adandedji M. Firmin

Abstract:

The prediction of hydrological flows (rainfall-depth or rainfall-discharge) is becoming increasingly important in the management of hydrological risks such as floods. In this study, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, a state-of-the-art algorithm dedicated to time series, is applied to predict the daily water level of Nokoue Lake in Benin. This paper aims to provide an effective and reliable method enable of reproducing the future daily water level of Nokoue Lake, which is influenced by a combination of two phenomena: rainfall and river flow (runoff from the Ouémé River, the Sô River, the Porto-Novo lagoon, and the Atlantic Ocean). Performance analysis based on the forecasting horizon indicates that LSTM can predict the water level of Nokoué Lake up to a forecast horizon of t+10 days. Performance metrics such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), coefficient of correlation (R²), Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) agree on a forecast horizon of up to t+3 days. The values of these metrics remain stable for forecast horizons of t+1 days, t+2 days, and t+3 days. The values of R² and NSE are greater than 0.97 during the training and testing phases in the Nokoué Lake basin. Based on the evaluation indices used to assess the model's performance for the appropriate forecast horizon of water level in the Nokoué Lake basin, the forecast horizon of t+3 days is chosen for predicting future daily water levels.

Keywords: forecasting, long short-term memory cell, recurrent artificial neural network, Nokoué lake

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Nicola Menga, Giuseppe Carbone

Abstract:

Although contact mechanics has been widely focused on the study of contacts between half-space, it has been recently pointed out that in presence of finite thickness elastic layers the results of the contact problem show significant difference in terms of the main contact quantities (e.g. contact area, penetration, mean pressure, etc.). Actually, there exist a wide range of industrial application demanding for this kind of studies, such as seals leakage prediction or pressure-sensitive coatings for electrical applications. In this work, we focus on the contact between a rigid profile and an elastic layer of thickness h confined under two different configurations: rigid constrain and applied uniform pressure. The elastic problem at hand has been formalized following Green’s function method and then numerically solved by means of a matrix inversion. We study different contact conditions, both considering and neglecting adhesive interactions at the interface. This leads to different solution techniques: Adhesive contacts equilibrium solution is found, in term of contact area for given penetration, making stationary the total free energy of the system; whereas, adhesiveless contacts are addressed defining an equilibrium criterion, again on the contact area, relying on the fracture mechanics stress intensity factor KI. In particular, we make the KI vanish at the edges of the contact area, as peculiar for adhesiveless elastic contacts. The results are obtained in terms of contact area, penetration, and mean pressure for both adhesive and adhesiveless contact conditions. As expected, in the case of a uniform applied pressure the slab turns out much more compliant than the rigidly constrained one. Indeed, we have observed that the peak value of the contact pressure, for both the adhesive and adhesiveless condition, is much higher for the rigidly constrained configuration than in the case of applied uniform pressure. Furthermore, we observed that, for little contact area, both systems behave the same and the pull-off occurs at approximately the same contact area and mean contact pressure. This is an expected result since in this condition the ratio between the layers thickness and the contact area is very high and both layer configurations recover the half-space behavior where the pull-off occurrence is mainly controlled by the adhesive interactions, which are kept constant among the cases.

Keywords: contact mechanics, adhesion, friction, thick layer

Procedia PDF Downloads 502

Authors: M. Khaing, A. V. Tkacheva

Abstract:

The work is devoted to solving the problem of temperature stresses, caused by the heating point of the round plate. The plate is made of elastoplastic material, so the Prandtl-Reis model is used. A piecewise-linear condition of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev flow is taken as the loading surface, in which the yield stress depends on the temperature. Piecewise-linear conditions (Treska or Ishlinsky-Ivlev), in contrast to the Mises condition, make it possible to obtain solutions of the equilibrium equation in an analytical form. In the problem under consideration, using the conditions of Tresca, it is impossible to obtain a solution. This is due to the fact that the equation of equilibrium ceases to be satisfied when the two Tresca conditions are fulfilled at once. Using the conditions of plastic flow Ishlinsky-Ivlev allows one to solve the problem. At the same time, there are also no solutions on the edge of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev hexagon in the plane-stressed state. Therefore, the authors of the article propose to jump from the edge to the edge of the mine edge, which gives an opportunity to obtain an analytical solution. At the same time, there is also no solution on the edge of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev hexagon in a plane stressed state; therefore, in this paper, the authors of the article propose to jump from the side to the side of the mine edge, which gives an opportunity to receive an analytical solution. The paper compares solutions of the problem of plate thermal deformation. One of the solutions was obtained under the condition that the elastic moduli (Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio) which depend on temperature. The yield point is assumed to be parabolically temperature dependent. The main results of the comparisons are that the region of irreversible deformation is larger in the calculations obtained for solving the problem with constant elastic moduli. There is no repeated plastic flow in the solution of the problem with elastic moduli depending on temperature. The absolute value of the irreversible deformations is higher for the solution of the problem in which the elastic moduli are constant; there are also insignificant differences in the distribution of the residual stresses.

Keywords: temperature stresses, elasticity, plasticity, Ishlinsky-Ivlev condition, plate, annular heating, elastic moduli

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Schehrazad Selmane

Abstract:

We present a deterministic model which describes the dynamics of tuberculosis in Algerian population where the vaccination program with BCG is in place since 1969 and where the WHO recommendations regarding the DOTS (directly observed treatment, short course) strategy are in application. The impact of an intervention program, targeting recently infected people among all close contacts of active cases and their treatment to prevent endogenous reactivation, on the incidence of tuberculosis, is investigated. We showed that a widespread treatment of latently infected individuals for some years is recommended to shift from higher to lower equilibrium state and thereafter relaxation is recommended.

Keywords: deterministic model, reproduction number, stability, tuberculosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: Hamza Rekab Djabri, Salah Daoud

Abstract:

The present paper deals with the computational of structural and electronic properties of ThC and ThN compounds using density functional theory within generalized-gradient (GGA) apraximation and local density approximation (LDA). We employ the full potential linear muffin-tin orbitals (FP-LMTO) as implemented in the Lmtart code. We have used to examine structure parameter in eight different structures such as in NaCl (B1), CsCl (B2), ZB (B3), NiAs (B8), PbO (B10), Wurtzite (B4) , HCP (A3) βSn (A5) structures . The equilibrium lattice parameter, bulk modulus, and its pressure derivative were presented for all calculated phases. The calculated ground state properties are in good agreement with available experimental and theoretical results.

Keywords: DFT, GGA, LDA, properties structurales, ThC, ThN

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Juraj Londák, Radoslav Vargic, Pavol Podhradský

Abstract:

In this contribution, we focus on the technical and economic aspects of using hybrid storage in microgrids for peak shaving. We perform a feasibility analysis of hybrid storage consisting of conventional supercapacitors and chemical batteries. We use multiple real-life consumption profiles from various industry-oriented microgrids. The primary purpose is to construct a digital twin model for reserved capacity simulation and prediction. The main objective is to find the equilibrium between technical innovations, acquisition costs and energy cost savings

Keywords: microgrid, peak shaving, energy storage, digital twin

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Sahar Abbaszadeh, Sharifah Rafidah Wan Alwi, Colin Webb, Nahid Ghasemi, Ida Idayu Muhamad

Abstract:

Toxic heavy metal discharges into environment due to rapid industrialization is a serious pollution problem that has drawn global attention towards their adverse impacts on both the structure of ecological systems as well as human health. Lead as toxic and bio-accumulating elements through the food chain, is regularly entering to water bodies from discharges of industries such as plating, mining activities, battery manufacture, paint manufacture, etc. The application of conventional methods to degrease and remove Pb(II) ion from wastewater is often restricted due to technical and economic constrains. Therefore, the use of various agro-wastes as low-cost bioadsorbent is found to be attractive since they are abundantly available and cheap. In this study, activated carbon of papaya peel (AC-PP) (as locally available agricultural waste) was employed to evaluate its Pb(II) uptake capacity from single-solute solutions in sets of batch mode experiments. To assess the surface characteristics of the adsorbents, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with energy disperse X-ray (EDX), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis were utilized. The removal amount of Pb(II) was determined by atomic adsorption spectrometry (AAS). The effects of pH, contact time, the initial concentration of Pb(II) and adsorbent dosage were investigated. The pH value = 5 was observed as optimum solution pH. The optimum initial concentration of Pb(II) in the solution for AC-PP was found to be 200 mg/l where the amount of Pb(II) removed was 36.42 mg/g. At the agitating time of 2 h, the adsorption processes using 100 mg dosage of AC-PP reached equilibrium. The experimental results exhibit high capability and metal affinity of modified papaya peel waste with removal efficiency of 93.22 %. The evaluation results show that the equilibrium adsorption of Pb(II) was best expressed by Freundlich isotherm model (R2 > 0.93). The experimental results confirmed that AC-PP potentially can be employed as an alternative adsorbent for Pb(II) uptake from industrial wastewater for the design of an environmentally friendly yet economical wastewater treatment process.

Keywords: activated carbon, bioadsorption, lead removal, papaya peel, wastewater treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Abdelkader Guendouz, Fatima Zohra Adel

Abstract:

Since about two decades, the Algerian government created a new instrument in the field of its fiscal policy, which is the FRR (Fonds de Régulation des Recettes). The FRR is a sovereign fund, which the initial role was saving the surplus generated by the fixation of a referential oil price to establish the state budget in the aim equilibrium between budgetary incomes and public expenditures. After a while, the government turns to use this instrument in boosting the public investment more than keeping for funding a deficit budget in periods of crisis. This lead to ask some justified questions about the efficiency of this sovereign fund and its real role.

Keywords: FRR sovereign fund, public expenditures, public investment, efficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: E. Karami, M. Bohloul, P. Najmadi

Abstract:

The superconducting system is a suitable system for quantum computers. Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon that is key to the power of quantum computers. Quantum entanglement has been studied in different superconducting systems. In this paper, we are investigating a superconducting two-qubit system as a macroscopic system. These systems include two coupled Quantronium circuits. We calculate quantum entanglement and thermalization for system evolution and compare them. We observe, thermalization and entanglement have different behavior, and equilibrium thermal state has maximum entanglement.

Keywords: macroscopic system, quantum entanglement, thermalization, superconducting system

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: B. Bahloul, K. Babesse, A. Dkhira, Y. Bahloul, L. Amirouche

Abstract:

Structural and electronic properties of the rock-salt BaxSr1−xS are calculated using the first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), the local density approximation (LDA) and the virtual-crystal approximation (VCA). The calculated lattice parameters at equilibrium volume for x=0 and x=1 are in good agreement with the literature data. The BaxSr1−xS alloys are found to be an indirect band gap semiconductor. Moreoever, for the composition (x) ranging between [0-1], we think that our results are well discussed and well predicted.

Keywords: semiconductor, Ab initio calculations, rocksalt, band structure, BaxSr1−xS

Procedia PDF Downloads 389

Authors: Nadia Allouache, Mohamed Belmedani

Abstract:

—It is imperative today to further explore alternatives to fossil fuels by promoting in particular renewable sources such as solar energy to produce cold. It is also important to carefully examine its current state as well as its future prospects in order to identify the best conditions to support its optimal development. Technologies linked to this alternative source fascinate their users because they seem magical in their ability to directly transform solar energy into cooling without resorting to polluting fuels such as those derived from hydrocarbons or other toxic substances. In addition, these not only allow significant savings in electricity, but can also help reduce the costs of electrical energy production when applied on a large scale. In this context, our study aims to analyze the performance of solar adsorption cooling systems by selecting the appropriate pair Adsorbent/Adsorbat. This paper presents a model describing the heat and mass transfer in tubular finned adsorber of solar adsorption refrigerating machine. The modelisation of the solar reactor take into account the heat and mass transfers phenomena. The reactor pressure is assumed to be uniform, the reactive reactor is characterized by an equivalent thermal conductivity and assumed to be at chemical and thermodynamic equilibrium. The numerical model is controlled by heat, mass and sorption equilibrium equations. Under the action of solar radiation, the mixture of adsorbent–adsorbate has a transitory behavior. Effect of key parameters on the adsorbed quantity and on the thermal and solar performances are analyzed and discussed. The results show that, The performances of the system that depends on the incident global irradiance during a whole day depends on the weather conditions. For the used working pairs, the increase of the fins number corresponds to the decreasing of the heat losses towards environmental and the increasing of heat transfer inside the adsorber. The system performances are sensitive to the evaporator and condenser temperatures. For the considered data measured for clear type days of may and july 2023 in Algeria and Tunisia, the performances of the cooling system are very significant in Algeria compared to Tunisia.

Keywords: adsorption, adsorbent-adsorbate pair, finned reactor, numerical modeling, solar energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 5

Authors: Shashikant R. Kuchekar, Haribhau R. Aher, Priti M. Dhage

Abstract:

The removal vanadium from aqueous solution using natural exchanger was investigated. The effects of pH, contact time and exchanger dose were studied at ambient temperature (25 ⁰C ± 2 ⁰C). The equilibrium process was described by the Langmuir isotherm model with adsorption capacity for vanadium. The natural exchanger i.e. tamarindus seeds powder was treated with formaldehyde and sulpuric acid to increase the adsorptivity of metals. The maximum exchange level was attained as 80.1% at pH 3 with exchanger dose 5 g and contact time 60 min. Method is applied for removal of vanadium from industrial effluents.

Keywords: industrial effluent, natural ion exchange, Tamarindous indica, vanadium

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Jinhoa Lee

Abstract:

The relationships between environmental quality, energy use and economic output have created growing attention over the past decades among researchers and policy makers. Focusing on the empirical aspects of the role of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy use in affecting the economic output, this paper is an effort to fulfill the gap in a comprehensive case study at a country level using modern econometric techniques. To achieve the goal, this country-specific study examines the short-run and long-run relationships among energy consumption (using disaggregated energy sources: Crude oil, coal, natural gas, and electricity), CO2 emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) for Iran using time series analysis from the year 1980-2010. To investigate the relationships between the variables, this paper employs the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for stationarity, Johansen’s maximum likelihood method for cointegration and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for both short- and long-run causality among the research variables for the sample. All the variables in this study show very strong significant effects on GDP in the country for the long term. The long-run equilibrium in VECM suggests that all energy consumption variables in this study have significant impacts on GDP in the long term. The consumption of petroleum products and the direct combustion of crude oil and natural gas decrease GDP, while the coal and electricity use enhanced the GDP between 1980-2010 in Iran. In the short term, only electricity use enhances the GDP as well as its long-run effects. All variables of this study, except the CO2 emissions, show significant effects on the GDP in the country for the long term. The long-run equilibrium in VECM suggests that the consumption of petroleum products and the direct combustion of crude oil and natural gas use have positive impacts on the GDP while the consumptions of electricity and coal have adverse impacts on the GDP in the long term. In the short run, electricity use enhances the GDP over period of 1980-2010 in Iran. Overall, the results partly support arguments that there are relationships between energy use and economic output, but the associations can be differed by the sources of energy in the case of Iran over period of 1980-2010. However, there is no significant relationship between the CO2 emissions and the GDP and between the CO2 emissions and the energy use both in the short term and long term.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, GDP, Iran, time series analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 589

Authors: Emine Şahin, Murat Soner Balcıoğlu

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the growth hormone (bGH) gene polymorphism in the Holstein cattle growing around Antalya in Turkey. In order to determine the bGH-AluI polymorphism, polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was performed. A 891 bp fragment of bGH was amplified and two types of alleles C and D for bGH were observed. In this study, the frequencies of C and D alleles were 0.8438 and 0.1562, respectively. The genotype frequencies for CC, CD and DD were 0.787, 0.191 and 0.022, respectively. According to the results of the chi-square test, a significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was not determined for the bGH locus in the population.

Keywords: Growth Hormone Gene, Holstein , Polymorphism, RFLP

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Mecabih Zohra

Abstract:

Water is such an important element of many manufacturing processes which that use a big amount of chemical substances, It is likely to cause it contamination of water returning to rivers by industrial discharged. These contaminants can be a high in suspended solid and chemical oxygen demand. In this study, urban wastewater of sidi bel abbes city (Algeria) was treated by adsorption using modified bentonite from Magnia (Algeria) by conducting batch experiments to investigate its equilibrium characteristics and kinetics. Purified bentonite is characterized by; CEC, XRF, BET, FITR, XRD, SEM and 27Al spectroscopy. The results showed the removal of suspended solids exceeds 98.47% and COD up to 99.52%, and regarding of sorption efficiencies (qm), the maximum COD sorption efficiencies (qm) calculated using the Langmuir model is 156.23, 64.47 and 17.19 mg/g respectively, for a pH range of 4 to 9.

Keywords: adsorption, bentonite, COD, wastewater

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Mecabih Zohra

Abstract:

Water is such an important element of many manufacturing processes which that use a big amount of chemical substances, It is likely to cause it contamination of water returning to rivers by industrial discharged. These contaminants can be a high in suspended solid and chemical oxygen demand. In this study, urban wastewater of sidi bel abbes city (Algeria) was treated by adsorption using modified bentonite from Magnia (Algeria) by conducting batch experiments to investigate its equilibrium characteristics and kinetics. Purified bentonite is characterized by; CEC, XRF, BET, FITR, XRD, SEM and 27Al spectroscopy. The results showed the removal of suspended solids exceeds 98.47% and COD up to 99.52%, and regarding of sorption efficiencies (qm), the maximum COD sorption efficiencies (qm) calculated using the Langmuir model is 156.23, 64.47 and 17.19 mg/g respectively, for a pH range of 4 to 9.

Keywords: adsorption, bentonite, COD, wastewater

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Sandeep Singh Waraich

Abstract:

Wireless sensor network (WSN ) consists of a large number of sensor nodes. The disparity in their energy consumption usually lead to the loss of equilibrium in wireless sensor network which may further results in an energy hole problem in wireless network. In this paper, we have considered the inclusion of orphan nodes which usually remain unutilized as intermediate nodes in multi-hop routing. The Orphan Node Inclusion (ONI) Protocol lets the cluster member to bring the orphan nodes into their clusters, thereby saving important resources and increasing network lifetime in critical applications of WSN.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, orphan node, clustering, ONI protocol

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Ginger Egberts, Fred Vermolen, Paul van Zuijlen

Abstract:

One of the common complications in post-burn scars is contractions. Depending on the extent of contraction and the wound dimensions, the contracture can cause a limited range-of-motion of joints. A one-dimensional morphoelastic continuum hypothesis-based model describing post-burn scar contractions is considered. The beauty of the one-dimensional model is the speed; hence it quickly yields new results and, therefore, insight. This model describes the movement of the skin and the development of the strain present. Besides these mechanical components, the model also contains chemical components that play a major role in the wound healing process. These components are fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, the so-called signaling molecules, and collagen. The dermal layer is modeled as an isotropic morphoelastic solid, and pulling forces are generated by myofibroblasts. The solution to the model equations is approximated by the finite-element method using linear basis functions. One of the major challenges in biomechanical modeling is the estimation of parameter values. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive description of skin mechanical parameter values and a sensitivity analysis. Further, since skin mechanical properties change with aging, it is important that the model is feasible for predicting the development of contraction in burn patients of different ages, and hence this study provides a feasibility study. The variability in the solutions is caused by varying the values for some parameters simultaneously over the domain of computation, for which the results of the sensitivity analysis are used. The sensitivity analysis shows that the most sensitive parameters are the equilibrium concentration of collagen, the apoptosis rate of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, and the secretion rate of signaling molecules. This suggests that most of the variability in the evolution of contraction in burns in patients of different ages might be caused mostly by the decreasing equilibrium of collagen concentration. As expected, the feasibility study shows this model can be used to show distinct extents of contractions in burns in patients of different ages. Nevertheless, contraction formation in children differs from contraction formation in adults because of the growth. This factor has not been incorporated in the model yet, and therefore the feasibility results for children differ from what is seen in the clinic.

Keywords: biomechanics, burns, feasibility, fibroblasts, morphoelasticity, sensitivity analysis, skin mechanics, wound contraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Fatima Ghebghoub

Abstract:

The solvent extraction of cobalt (II) from sulfate medium using di(2-ethylhexy1) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA, HL) at 25°C has been investigated. The influence of the following parameters was studied: the equilibrium pH, the concentration of the extractant and the nature of diluent. The effect of the diluent using polar and non-polar solvents in the extraction of nickel(II) is discussed. The extracted nickel (II species were found to be CoL2 in 1-octanol and methyl isobutyl ketone and CoL2.2HL in toluene, dichloromethane, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and cyclohexane. The extraction constants are evaluated for the different diluents.

Keywords: liquid-liquid extraction, cobalt(II), di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid, diluent effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 538