Search results for: binary gas mixture

Authors: Amir Mukhtar, Habib Nasir

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To achieve an enhanced range of large calibre artillery a base bleed unit equipped with ammonium perchlorate and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (AP/HTPB) based composite propellant grain is installed at the bottom of a projectile which produces jet of hot gasses and reduces base drag during flight of the projectile. Upon leaving the muzzle at very high muzzle velocity, due to sudden pressure drop, the propellant grain gets quenched. Therefore, base-bleed unit is equipped with an igniter to ensure ignition as well as reignition of the propellant grain. Pyrotechnic compositions based on Zr/NH₄ClO₄ and Zr/KClO₄ mixtures have been studied for the effect of fuel/oxidizer ratio and oxidizer type on ballistic properties. Calorific values of mixtures were investigated by bomb calorimeter, the average burning rate was measured by fuse wire technique at ambient conditions, and high-pressure closed vessel was used to record pressure-time profile, maximum pressure achieved (Pmax), time to achieve Pmax and differential pressure (dP/dt). It was observed that the 30, 40, 50 and 60 wt.% of Zr has a very significant effect on ballistic properties of mixtures. Compositions with NH₄ClO₄ produced higher values of Pmax, dP/dt and Calorific value as compared to Zr/KClO₄ based mixtures. Composition containing KClO₄ comparatively produced higher burning rate and maximum burning rate was recorded at 8.30 mm/s with 60 wt.% Zr in Zr/KClO₄ pyrotechnic mixture. Zr/KClO₄ with 50 wt. % of Zr was tests fired in igniter assembly by electric initiation method. Igniter assembly was test fired several times and average burning time of 3.5 sec with igniter mass burning rate of 6.85 g/sec was recorded. Igniter was finally fired on static and dynamic level with base bleed unit which gave successful ignition to the base bleed grain and extended range was achieved with 155 mm artillery projectile.

Keywords: base bleed, closed vessel, igniter, zirconium

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Authors: Alexandru-Ion Marinescu

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There exist a plethora of methods in the scientific literature which tackle the well-established task of credit score evaluation. In its most abstract form, a credit scoring algorithm takes as input several credit applicant properties, such as age, marital status, employment status, loan duration, etc. and must output a binary response variable (i.e. “GOOD” or “BAD”) stating whether the client is susceptible to payment return delays. Data imbalance is a common occurrence among financial institution databases, with the majority being classified as “GOOD” clients (clients that respect the loan return calendar) alongside a small percentage of “BAD” clients. But it is the “BAD” clients we are interested in since accurately predicting their behavior is crucial in preventing unwanted loss for loan providers. We add to this whole context the constraint that the algorithm must yield an actual, tractable mathematical formula, which is friendlier towards financial analysts. To this end, we have turned to genetic algorithms and genetic programming, aiming to evolve actual mathematical expressions using specially tailored mutation and crossover operators. As far as data representation is concerned, we employ a very flexible mechanism – LINQ expression trees, readily available in the C# programming language, enabling us to construct executable pieces of code at runtime. As the title implies, they model trees, with intermediate nodes being operators (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or mathematical functions (sin, cos, abs, round, etc.) and leaf nodes storing either constants or variables. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the client properties and the formula variables. The mutation and crossover operators work on a flattened version of the tree, obtained via a pre-order traversal. A consequence of our chosen technique is that we can identify and discard client properties which do not take part in the final score evaluation, effectively acting as a dimensionality reduction scheme. We compare ourselves with state of the art approaches, such as support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and extreme learning machines, to name a few. The data sets we benchmark against amount to a total of 8, of which we mention the well-known Australian credit and German credit data sets, and the performance indicators are the following: percentage correctly classified, area under curve, partial Gini index, H-measure, Brier score and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, respectively. Finally, we obtain encouraging results, which, although placing us in the lower half of the hierarchy, drive us to further refine the algorithm.

Keywords: expression trees, financial credit scoring, genetic algorithm, genetic programming, symbolic evolution

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Authors: Nathalie Elia, Samer Aouad, Jane Estephane, Christophe Poupin, Bilal Nsouli, Edmond Abi Aad

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Carbon dioxide is one of the main contributors to greenhouse effect and hence to climate change. As a result, the methanation reaction CO2(g) + 4H2(g) →CH4(g) + 2H2O (ΔH°298 = -165 kJ/mol), also known as Sabatier reaction, has received great interest as a process for the valorization of the greenhouse gas CO2 into methane which is a hydrogen-carrier gas. The methanation of CO2 is an exothermic reaction favored at low temperature and high pressure. However, this reaction requires a high energy input to activate the very stable CO2 molecule, and exhibits serious kinetic limitations. Consequently, the development of active and stable catalysts is essential to overcome these difficulties. Catalytic methanation of CO2 has been studied using catalysts containing Rh, Pd, Ru, Co and Ni on various supports. Among them, the Ni-based catalysts have been extensively investigated under various conditions for their comparable methanation activity with highly improved cost-efficiency. The addition of promoters are common strategies to increase the performance and stability of Ni catalysts. In this work, a small amount of Ru was used as a promoter for Ni catalysts supported on ceria and tested in the CO2 methanation reaction. The nickel loading was 5 wt. % and ruthenium loading is 0.5wt. %. The catalysts were prepared by successive impregnation method using Ni(NO3)2.6H2O and Ru(NO)(NO3)3 as precursors. The calcined support was impregnated with Ni(NO3)2.6H2O, dried, calcined at 600°C for 4h, and afterward, was impregnated with Ru(NO)(NO3)3. The resulting solid was dried and calcined at 600°C for 4 h. Supported monometallic catalysts were prepared likewise. The prepared solids Ru(0.5%)/CeO2, Ni(5%)/CeO2 and Ru(0.5%)-Ni(5%)/CeO2 were then reduced prior to the catalytic test under a flow of 50% H2/Ar (50 ml/min) for 4h at 500°C. Finally, their catalytic performances were evaluated in the CO2 methanation reaction, in the temperature range of 100–350°C by using a gaseous mixture of CO2 (10%) and H2 (40%) in Ar balanced at a total flow rate of 100 mL/min. The effect of pressure on the CO2 methanation was studied by varying the pressure between 1 and 10 bar. The various catalysts showed negligible CO2 conversion at temperatures lower than 250°C. The conversion of CO2 increases with increasing reaction temperature. The addition of Ru as promoter to Ni/CeO2 improved the CO2 methanation. It was shown that the CO2 conversion increases from 15 to 70% at 350°C and 1 bar. The effect of pressure on CO2 conversion was also studied. Increasing the pressure from 1 to 5 bar increases the CO2 conversion from 70% to 87%, while increasing the pressure from 5 to 10 bar increases the CO2 conversion from 87% to 91%. Ru–Ni catalysts showed excellent catalytic performance in the methanation of carbon dioxide with respect to Ni catalysts. Therefore the addition of Ru onto Ni catalysts improved remarkably the catalytic activity of Ni catalysts. It was also found that the pressure plays an important role in improving the CO2 methanation.

Keywords: CO2, methanation, nickel, ruthenium

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Authors: Geday Elias, Montaigne Etienne, Padilla Martine, Tollossa Degefa

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Smallholder farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain identified as a pathway to get out of poverty trap in Ethiopia. The smallholder dairy activities have a huge potential in poverty reduction through enhancing income, achieving food and nutritional security in the country. However, much less is known about the effects of smallholder’s participation in milk value chain on household food security and nutrition. This paper therefore, aims at evaluating the effects of smallholders’ participation in milk value chain on household food security taking in to account the four pillars of food security measurements (availability, access, utilization and stability). Using a semi-structured interview, a cross sectional farm household data collected from a randomly selected sample of 333 households (170 in Amhara and 163 in Oromia regions).Binary logit and propensity score matching( PSM) models are employed to examine the mechanisms through which smallholder’s participation in the milk value chain affects household food security where crop production, per capita calorie intakes, diet diversity score, and food insecurity access scale are used to measure food availability, access, utilization and stability respectively. Our findings reveal from 333 households, only 34.5% of smallholder farmers are participated in the milk value chain. Limited access to inputs and services, limited access to inputs markets and high transaction costs are key constraints for smallholders’ limited access to the milk value chain. To estimate the true average participation effects of milk value chain for participated households, the outcome variables (food security) of farm households who participated in milk value chain are compared with the outcome variables if the farm households had not participated. The PSM analysis reveals smallholder’s participation in milk value chain has a significant positive effect on household income, food security and nutrition. Smallholder farmers who are participated in milk chain are better by 15 quintals crops production and 73 percent of per capita calorie intakes in food availability and access respectively than smallholder farmers who are not participated in the market. Similarly, the participated households are better in dietary quality by 112 percents than non-participated households. Finally, smallholders’ who are participated in milk value chain are better in reducing household vulnerability to food insecurity by an average of 130 percent than non participated households. The results also shows income earned from milk value chain participation contributed to reduce capital’s constraints of the participated households’ by higher farm income and total household income by 5164 ETB and 14265 ETB respectively. This study therefore, confirms the potential role of smallholders’ participation in food value chain to get out of poverty trap through improving rural household income, food security and nutrition. Therefore, identified the determinants of smallholder participation in milk value chain and the participation effects on food security in the study areas are worth considering as a positive knock for policymakers and development agents to tackle the poverty trap in the study area in particular and in the country in general.

Keywords: effects, food security and nutrition, milk, participation, smallholders, value chain

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Authors: Hui-Chieh Li

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Circular economy promotes greater resource productivity and avoids pollution through greater recycling and re-use which bring benefits for both the environment and the economy. The concept is contrast to a linear economy which is ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production. A well-design reverse logistics service strategy could enhance the willingness of recycling of the users and reduce the related logistics cost as well as carbon emissions. Moreover, the recycle brings the manufacturers most advantages as it targets components for closed-loop reuse, essentially converting materials and components from worn-out product into inputs for new ones at right time and right place. This study considers demand-supply interaction, time-dependent recycle demand, time-dependent surplus value of recycled product and constructs models on recycle service strategy for the recyclable waste collector. A crucial factor in optimizing a recycle service strategy is consumer demand. The study considers the relationships between consumer demand towards recycle and product characteristics, surplus value and user behavior. The study proposes a recycle service strategy which differs significantly from the conventional and typical uniform service strategy. Periods with considerable demand and large surplus product value suggest frequent and short service cycle. The study explores how to determine a recycle service strategy for recyclable waste collector in terms of service cycle frequency and duration and vehicle type for all service cycles by considering surplus value of recycled product, time-dependent demand, transportation economies and demand-supply interaction. The recyclable waste collector is responsible for the collection of waste product for the manufacturer. The study also examines the impacts of utilization rate on the cost and profit in the context of different sizes of vehicles. The model applies mathematical programming methods and attempts to maximize the total profit of the distributor during the study period. This study applies the binary logit model, analytical model and mathematical programming methods to the problem. The model specifically explores how to determine a recycle service strategy for the recycler by considering product surplus value, time-dependent recycle demand, transportation economies and demand-supply interaction. The model applies mathematical programming methods and attempts to minimize the total logistics cost of the recycler and maximize the recycle benefits of the manufacturer during the study period. The study relaxes the constant demand assumption and examines how service strategy affects consumer demand towards waste recycling. Results of the study not only help understanding how the user demand for recycle service and product surplus value affects the logistics cost and manufacturer’s benefits, but also provide guidance such as award bonus and carbon emission regulations for the government.

Keywords: circular economy, consumer demand, product surplus value, recycle service strategy

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Authors: Jackson Andreas Theo Pola, Leksono Mucharam, Hari Oetomo, Budi Susanto, Wisnu Nugraha

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About half of the world oil reserves are located in carbonate reservoirs, where 65% of the total carbonate reservoirs are oil wet and 12% intermediate wet [1]. Oil recovery in oil wet or mixed wet carbonate reservoirs can be increased by dissolving surfactant to injected water to change the rock wettability from oil wet to more water wet. The Wakamuk Field operated by PetroChina International (Bermuda) Ltd. and PT. Pertamina EP in Papua, produces from main reservoir of Miocene Kais Limestone. First production commenced on August, 2004 and the peak field production of 1456 BOPD occurred in August, 2010. It was found that is a complex reservoir system and until 2014 cumulative oil production was 2.07 MMBO, less than 9% of OOIP. This performance is indicative of presence of secondary porosity, other than matrix porosity which is of low average porosity 13% and permeability less than 7 mD. Implementing chemical EOR in this case is the best way to increase oil production. However, the selected chemical must be able to lower the interfacial tension (IFT), reduce oil viscosity, and alter the wettability; thus a special chemical treatment named SeMAR has been proposed. Numerous laboratory tests such as phase behavior test, core compatibility test, mixture viscosity, contact angle measurement, IFT, imbibitions test and core flooding were conducted on Wakamuk field samples. Based on the spontaneous imbibitions results for Wakamuk field core, formulation of SeMAR with compositional S12A gave oil recovery 43.94% at 1wt% concentration and maximum percentage of oil recovery 87.3% at 3wt% concentration respectively. In addition, the results for first scenario of core flooding test gave oil recovery 60.32% at 1 wt% concentration S12A and the second scenario gave 96.78% of oil recovery at concentration 3 wt% respectively. The soaking time of chemicals has a significant effect on the recovery and higher chemical concentrations affect larger areas for wettability and therefore, higher oil recovery. The chemical that gives best overall results from laboratory tests study will also be a consideration for Huff and Puff injections trial (pilot project) for increasing oil recovery from Wakamuk Field

Keywords: Wakamuk field, chemical treatment, oil recovery, viscosity

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Authors: Lukasz Grabowski, Konrad Pietrykowski, Michal Bialy

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This paper presents the results of the research to verify the combustion in aircraft piston engine Asz62-IR. This engine was modernized and a type of ignition system was developed. Due to the high costs of experiments of a nine-cylinder 1,000 hp aircraft engine, a simulation technique should be applied. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics to simulate the combustion process is a reasonable solution. Accordingly, the tests for varied ignition advance angles were carried out and the optimal value to be tested on a real engine was specified. The CFD model was created with the AVL Fire software. The engine in the research had two spark plugs for each cylinder and ignition advance angles had to be set up separately for each spark. The results of the simulation were verified by comparing the pressure in the cylinder. The courses of the indicated pressure of the engine mounted on a test stand were compared. The real course of pressure was measured with an optical sensor, mounted in a specially drilled hole between the valves. It was the OPTRAND pressure sensor, which was designed especially to engine combustion process research. The indicated pressure was measured in cylinder no 3. The engine was running at take-off power. The engine was loaded by a propeller at a special test bench. The verification of the CFD simulation results was based on the results of the test bench studies. The course of the simulated pressure obtained is within the measurement error of the optical sensor. This error is 1% and reflects the hysteresis and nonlinearity of the sensor. The real indicated pressure measured in the cylinder and the pressure taken from the simulation were compared. It can be claimed that the verification of CFD simulations based on the pressure is a success. The next step was to research on the impact of changing the ignition advance timing of spark plugs 1 and 2 on a combustion process. Moving ignition timing between 1 and 2 spark plug results in a longer and uneven firing of a mixture. The most optimal point in terms of indicated power occurs when ignition is simultaneous for both spark plugs, but so severely separated ignitions are assured that ignition will occur at all speeds and loads of engine. It should be confirmed by a bench experiment of the engine. However, this simulation research enabled us to determine the optimal ignition advance angle to be implemented into the ignition control system. This knowledge allows us to set up the ignition point with two spark plugs to achieve as large power as possible.

Keywords: CFD model, combustion, engine, simulation

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Authors: Shailaja Thakur

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Managerial literature abounds with discussions on business strategies, success stories as well as cases of failure, which provide an indication of the parameters that should be considered in gauging the dynamism of an entrepreneur. Neoclassical economics has reduced entrepreneurship to a mere factor of production, driven solely by the profit motive, thus stripping him of all creativity and restricting his decision making to mechanical calculations. His ‘dynamism’ is gauged simply by the amount of profits he earns, marginalizing any discussion on the means that he employs to attain this objective. With theoretical backing, we have developed an Index of Entrepreneurial Dynamism (IED) giving weights to the different moves that the entrepreneur makes during his business journey. Strategies such as changes in product lines, markets and technology are gauged as very important (weighting of 4); while adaptations in terms of technology, raw materials used, upgradations in skill set are given a slightly lesser weight of 3. Use of formal market analysis, diversification in related products are considered moderately important (weight of 2) and being a first generation entrepreneur, employing managers and having plans to diversify are taken to be only slightly important business strategies (weight of 1). The maximum that an entrepreneur can score on this index is 53. A semi-structured questionnaire is employed to solicit the responses from the entrepreneurs on the various strategies that have been employed by them during the course of their business. Binary as well as graded responses are obtained, weighted and summed up to give the IED. This index was tested on about 150 tribal entrepreneurs in Mizoram, a state of India and was found to be highly effective in gauging their dynamism. This index has universal acceptability but is devoid of the socio-cultural context, which is very central to the success and performance of the entrepreneurs. We hypothesize that a society that respects risk taking takes failures in its stride, glorifies entrepreneurial role models, promotes merit and achievement is one that has a conducive socio- cultural environment for entrepreneurship. For obtaining an idea about the social acceptability, we are putting forth questions related to the social acceptability of business to another set of respondents from different walks of life- bureaucracy, academia, and other professional fields. Similar weighting technique is employed, and index is generated. This index is used for discounting the IED of the respondent entrepreneurs from that region/ society. This methodology is being tested for a sample of entrepreneurs from two very different socio- cultural milieus- a tribal society and a ‘mainstream’ society- with the hypothesis that the entrepreneurs in the tribal milieu might be showing a higher level of dynamism than their counterparts in other regions. An entrepreneur who scores high on IED and belongs to society and culture that holds entrepreneurship in high esteem, might not be in reality as dynamic as a person who shows similar dynamism in a relatively discouraging or even an outright hostile environment.

Keywords: index of entrepreneurial dynamism, India, social acceptability, tribal entrepreneurs

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Authors: Pirta Palola, Richard Bailey, Lisa Wedding

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Societies and economies worldwide fundamentally depend on natural capital. Alarmingly, natural capital assets are quickly depreciating, posing an existential challenge for humanity. The development of robust natural capital accounting systems is essential for transitioning towards sustainable economic systems and ensuring sound management of capital assets. However, the accurate, equitable and comprehensive estimation of natural capital asset stocks and their accounting values still faces multiple challenges. In particular, the representation of socio-cultural values held by groups or communities has arguably been limited, as to date, the valuation of natural capital assets has primarily been based on monetary valuation methods and assumptions of individual rationality. People relate to and value the natural environment in multiple ways, and no single valuation method can provide a sufficiently comprehensive image of the range of values associated with the environment. Indeed, calls have been made to improve the representation of multiple types of value (instrumental, intrinsic, and relational) and diverse ontological and epistemological perspectives in environmental valuation. This study addresses this need by establishing a novel valuation framework, Environmental Value Functions (EVF), that allows for the integration of multiple types of value in natural capital accounting systems. The EVF framework is based on the estimation and application of value functions, each of which describes the relationship between the value and quantity (or quality) of an ecosystem component of interest. In this framework, values are estimated in terms of change relative to the current level instead of calculating absolute values. Furthermore, EVF was developed to also support non-marginalist conceptualizations of value: it is likely that some environmental values cannot be conceptualized in terms of marginal changes. For example, ecological resilience value may, in some cases, be best understood as a binary: it either exists (1) or is lost (0). In such cases, a logistic value function may be used as the discriminator. Uncertainty in the value function parameterization can be considered through, for example, Monte Carlo sampling analysis. The use of EVF is illustrated with two conceptual examples. For the first time, EVF offers a clear framework and concrete methodology for the representation of multiple types of value in natural capital accounting systems, simultaneously enabling 1) the complementary use and integration of multiple valuation methods (monetary and non-monetary); 2) the synthesis of information from diverse knowledge systems; 3) the recognition of value incommensurability; 4) marginalist and non-marginalist value analysis. Furthermore, with this advancement, the coupling of EVF and ecosystem modeling can offer novel insights to the study of spatial-temporal dynamics in natural capital asset values. For example, value time series can be produced, allowing for the prediction and analysis of volatility, long-term trends, and temporal trade-offs. This approach can provide essential information to help guide the transition to a sustainable economy.

Keywords: economics of biodiversity, environmental valuation, natural capital, value function

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Authors: H. Yanar, G. Purcek, H. H. Ayar

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The ingredients of composite materials used for the production of composite brake pads play an important role in terms of safety braking performance of automobiles and trains. Therefore, the ingredients must be selected carefully and used in appropriate ratios in the matrix structure of the brake pad materials. In the present study, a non-asbestos organic composite brake pad materials containing binder resin, space fillers, solid lubricants, and friction modifier was developed, and its fillers content was optimized by adding natural rubber with different rate into the specified matrix structure in order to achieve the best combination of tribo-performance and mechanical properties. For this purpose, four compositions with different rubber content (2.5wt.%, 5.0wt.%, 7.5wt.% and 10wt.%) were prepared and then test samples with the diameter of 20 mm and length of 15 mm were produced to evaluate the friction and mechanical behaviors of the mixture. The friction and wear tests were performed using a pin-on-disc type test rig which was designed according to NF-F-11-292 French standard. All test samples were subjected to two different types of friction tests defined as periodic braking and continuous braking (also known as fade test). In this way, the coefficient of friction (CoF) of composite sample with different rubber content were determined as a function of number of braking cycle and temperature of the disc surface. The results demonstrated that addition of rubber into the matrix structure of the composite caused a significant change in the CoF. Average CoF of the composite samples increased linearly with increasing rubber content into the matrix. While the average CoF was 0.19 for the rubber-free composite, the composite sample containing 20wt.% rubber had the maximum CoF of about 0.24. Although the CoF of composite sample increased, the amount of specific wear rate decreased with increasing rubber content into the matrix. On the other hand, it was observed that the CoF decreased with increasing temperature generated in-between sample and disk depending on the increasing rubber content. While the CoF decreased to the minimum value of 0.15 at 400 °C for the rubber-free composite sample, the sample having the maximum rubber content of 10wt.% exhibited the lowest one of 0.09 at the same temperature. Addition of rubber into the matrix structure decreased the hardness and strength of the samples. It was concluded from the results that the composite matrix with 5 wt.% rubber had the best composition regarding the performance parameters such as required frictional and mechanical behavior. This composition has the average CoF of 0.21, specific wear rate of 0.024 cm³/MJ and hardness value of 63 HRX.

Keywords: brake pad composite, friction and wear, rubber, friction materials

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Authors: Abhay Asthana, Gyati Shilakari Asthana

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It’s the patient compliance and stability in combination with controlled drug delivery and biocompatibility that forms the core feature in present research and development of sustained biodegradable patch formulation intended for wound healing. The aim was to impart sustained degradation, sterile formulation, significant folding endurance, elasticity, biodegradability, bio-acceptability and strength. The optimized formulation was developed using component including polymers including Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, Ethylcellulose, and Gelatin, and Citric Acid PEG Citric acid (CPEGC) triblock dendrimers and active Curcumin. Polymeric mixture dissolved in geometric order in suitable medium through continuous stirring under ambient conditions. With continued stirring Curcumin was added with aid of DCM and Methanol in optimized ratio to get homogenous dispersion. The dispersion was sonicated with optimum frequency and for given time and later casted to form a patch form. All steps were carried out under under strict aseptic conditions. The formulations obtained in the acceptable working range were decided based on thickness, uniformity of drug content, smooth texture and flexibility and brittleness. The patch kept on stability using butter paper in sterile pack displayed folding endurance in range of 20 to 23 times without any evidence of crack in an optimized formulation at room temperature (RT) (24 ± 2°C). The patch displayed acceptable parameters after stability study conducted in refrigerated conditions (8±0.2°C) and at RT (24 ± 2°C) upto 90 days. Further, no significant changes were observed in critical parameters such as elasticity, biodegradability, drug release and drug content during stability study conducted at RT 24±2°C for 45 and 90 days. The drug content was in range 95 to 102%, moisture content didn’t exceeded 19.2% and patch passed the content uniformity test. Percentage cumulative drug release was found to be 80% in 12h and matched the biodegradation rate as drug release with correlation factor R2>0.9. The biodegradable patch based formulation developed shows promising results in terms of stability and release profiles.

Keywords: sustained biodegradation, wound healing, polymers, stability

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Authors: Rakesh Mishra

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India’s Demography has always amazed the world because of its unprecedented outcomes in the presence of multifaceted socioeconomic and geographical characteristics. Being the first one to implement family panning in 1952, it occupies 2nd largest population of the world, with some of its state like Uttar Pradesh contributing 5th largest population to the world population surpassing Brazil. Being the one with higher in number it is more prone to the demographic disparity persisting into its territories brought upon by the inequalities in availability, accessibility and attainability of socioeconomic and various other resources. Fifth goal of Millennium Development Goal emphasis to improve maternal and child health across the world as Children’s development is very important for the overall development of society and the best way to develop national human resources is to take care of children. The target is to reduce the infant deaths by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. Child health status depends on the care and delivery by trained personnel, particularly through institutional facilities which is further associated with the status of the mother. However, delivery in institutional facilities and delivery by skilled personnel are rising slowly in India. The main objective of the present study is to measure the child health status on based on the educational and occupational background of the women in India. Study indicates that women education plays a very crucial role in deciding the health of the new born care and access to family planning, but the women autonomy indicates to have mixed results in different states of India. It is observed that rural women are 1.61 times more likely to exclusive breastfed their children compared to urban women. With respect to Hindu category, women belonging to other religious community were 21 percent less likely to exclusive breastfed their child. Taking scheduled caste as reference category, the odds of exclusive breastfeeding is found to be decreasing in comparison to other castes, and it is found to be significant among general category. Women of high education status have higher odds of using family planning methods in most of the southern states of India. By and large, girls and boys are about equally undernourished. Under nutrition is generally lower for first births than for subsequent births and consistently increases with increasing birth order for all measures of nutritional status. It is to be noted that at age 12-23 months, when many children are being weaned from breast milk, 30 percent of children are severely stunted and around 21 percent are severely underweight. So, this paper presents the evidence on the patterns of prevailing child health status in India and its states with reference to the mother socioeconomics and biological characteristics and examines trends in these, and discusses plausible explanations.

Keywords: immunization, exclusive breastfeeding, under five mortality, binary logistic regression, ordinal regression and life table

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Authors: Sireetorn Kuharat, Anwar Beg

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In this study, multi-mode heat transfer characteristics of spacecraft solar collectors are investigated computationally. Two-dimensional steady-state incompressible laminar Newtonian viscous convection-radiative heat transfer in a rectangular solar collector geometry. The ANSYS FLUENT finite volume code (version 17.2) is employed to simulate the thermo-fluid characteristics. Several radiative transfer models are employed which are available in the ANSYS workbench, including the classical Rosseland flux model and the more elegant P1 flux model. Mesh-independence tests are conducted. Validation of the simulations is conducted with a computational Harlow-Welch MAC (Marker and Cell) finite difference method and excellent correlation. The influence of aspect ratio, Prandtl number (Pr), Rayleigh number (Ra) and radiative flux model on temperature, isotherms, velocity, the pressure is evaluated and visualized in color plots. Additionally, the local convective heat flux is computed and solutions are compared with the MAC solver for various buoyancy effects (e.g. Ra = 10,000,000) achieving excellent agreement. The P1 model is shown to better predict the actual influence of solar radiative flux on thermal fluid behavior compared with the limited Rosseland model. With increasing Rayleigh numbers the hot zone emanating from the base of the collector is found to penetrate deeper into the collector and rises symmetrically dividing into two vortex regions with very high buoyancy effect (Ra >100,000). With increasing Prandtl number (three gas cases are examined respectively hydrogen gas mixture, air and ammonia gas) there is also a progressive incursion of the hot zone at the solar collector base higher into the solar collector space and simultaneously a greater asymmetric behavior of the dual isothermal zones. With increasing aspect ratio (wider base relative to the height of the solar collector geometry) there is a greater thermal convection pattern around the whole geometry, higher temperatures and the elimination of the cold upper zone associated with lower aspect ratio.

Keywords: thermal convection, radiative heat transfer, solar collector, Rayleigh number

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Authors: Fahad Al Yahyaey, Ihab Shaat, Russell Bush

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This study was conducted at the Livestock Research Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Oman, on two local goat breeds (Jabbali and Sahrawi) due to their importance to Omani livestock production and food security. The Jabbali is characterized by increased growth rates and a higher twinning rate, while the Sahrawi has increased milk production. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of Spirulina supplementation on live weight (BWT), average daily gain (ADG), and body conformation measurements; chest girth (CG), wither height (WH), body length (BL), and body condition score (BCS). Thirty-six males (approximately nine-months-old and 16.44 ± 0.33 kg average of initial body weight) were used across an eleven-week study from November–February 2019-2020. Each breed was divided into three groups (n = 6/group) and fed one of three rations: (1) concentrate mixture (Control) with crude protein 14% and energy 11.97% MJ/kg DM; (2) the same concentrate feed with the addition of 2 gm /capita daily Spirulina platensis (Treatment 1) and (3) the same concentrate feed with the addition of 4 gm /capita daily Spirulina platensis (Treatment 2). Analysis of weekly data collections for all traits indicated a significant effect of feeding Spirulina on all the studied traits except WH and BL. Analysis of variance for fixed effects in this study (damage and kid birth type i.e., single, twin or triple) were not significant for all studied traits. However, the breed effect was highly significant (P < 0.001) on BWT, ADG, BCS, and CG traits. On the other hand, when the analysis was done for the treatment effect within breeds for ADG, the Sahrawi breed had a significant effect (P < 0.05) at 56.52, 85.51, and 85.50 g/day for control, treatment 1 and treatment 2, respectively. This is a 51% difference between the control and treatment 1 (2 gm /capita). Whereas for the Jabbali breed, the treatment effect was not significant for ADG (P =0.55), and the actual ADG was 104.59, 118.84, and 114.25 g/day for control, treatment 1, and treatment 2, respectively, providing a 14% difference between the control group and the treated group (4 gm /capita). These findings indicate using Spirulina supplementation in Omani goat diets is recommended at 2 gm per capita as there was no benefit in feeding at 4 gm per capita for either breed. Farmers feeding Spirulina supplementation to kids after weaning at six-months could increase their herd performance and growth rate and facilitate buck selection at an earlier age.

Keywords: body conformation, goats, live weight, spirulina

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the hybrid living typologies which are brought about due to the Global Crisis. Mixing of the generations and the groups of people, mingling the functions of living with working and socializing, merging the act of living in synergy with the urban realm and its constituent elements will be the springboard of proposing an essential sustainable housing approach and the respective urban development. The thematic will be based on methodologies developed both on the academic, educational environment including participation of students’ research and on the practical aspect of architecture including case studies executed by the author in the island of Cyprus. Both paths of the research will deal with the explorative understanding of the hybrid ways of living, testing the limits of its autonomy. The evolution of the living typologies into substantial hybrid entities, will deal with the understanding of new ways of living which include among others: re-introduction of natural phenomena, accommodation of the activity of work and services in the living realm, interchange of public and private, injections of communal events into the individual living territories. The issues and the binary questions raised by what is natural and artificial, what is private and what public, what is ephemeral and what permanent and all the in-between conditions are eloquently traced in the everyday life in the island. Additionally, given the situation of Cyprus with the eminent scar of the dividing ‘Green line’ and the waiting of the ‘ghost city’ of Famagusta to be resurrected, the conventional way of understanding the limits and the definitions of the properties is irreversibly shaken. The situation is further aggravated by the unprecedented phenomenon of the crisis on the island. All these observations set the premises of reexamining the urban development and the respective sustainable housing in a synergy where their characteristics start exchanging positions, merge into each other, contemporarily emerge and vanish, changing from permanent to ephemeral. This fluidity of conditions will attempt to render a future of the built- and unbuilt realm where the main focusing point will be redirected to the human and the social. Weather and social ritual scenographies together with ‘spontaneous urban landscapes’ of ‘momentary relationships’ will suggest a recipe for emerging urban environments and sustainable living. Thus, the paper will aim at opening a discourse on the future of the sustainable living merged in a sustainable urban development in relation to the imminent solution of the division of island, where the issue of property became the main obstacle to be overcome. At the same time, it will attempt to link this approach to the global need for a sustainable evolution of the urban and living realms.

Keywords: social ritual scenographies, spontaneous urban landscapes, substantial hybrid entities, re-introduction of natural phenomena

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Katielly Vianna Polkowski, Rodrigo Denizarte de Oliveira Polkowski, Cristiano Grings Herbert

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The use of nanomaterials in the formulation of polymeric materials modifies their molecular structure, offering an infinite range of possibilities for the development of smart products, being of great importance for science and contemporary industry. Shape memory polymers are generally lightweight, have high shape recovery capabilities, they are easy to process and have properties that can be adapted for a variety of applications. Shape memory materials are active materials that have attracted attention due to their superior damping properties when compared to conventional structural materials. The development of methodologies capable of preparing new materials, which use graphene in their structure, represents technological innovation that transforms low-cost products into advanced materials with high added value. To obtain an improvement in the shape memory effect (SME) of polymeric materials, it is possible to use graphene in its composition containing low concentration by mass of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), graphene oxide (GO) or other functionalized graphene, via different mixture process. As a result, there was an improvement in the SME, regarding the increase in the values of maximum strain. In addition, the use of graphene contributes to obtaining nanocomposites with superior electrical properties, greater crystallinity, as well as resistance to material degradation. The methodology used in the research is Systematic Review, scientific investigation, gathering relevant studies on influence of nanomaterials on the properties of shape memory polymeric, using the literature database as a source and study methods. In the present study, a systematic reviewwas performed of all papers published from 2014 to 2022 regarding graphene and shape memory polymeric througha search of three databases. This study allows for easy identification of themost relevant fields of study with respect to graphene and shape memory polymeric, as well as the main gaps to beexplored in the literature. The addition of graphene showed improvements in obtaining higher values of maximum deformation of the material, attributed to a possible slip between stacked or agglomerated nanostructures, as well as an increase in stiffness due to the increase in the degree of phase separation that results in a greater amount physical cross-links, referring to the formation of shortrange rigid domains.

Keywords: graphene, shape memory, smart materials, polymers, nanomaterials

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: Sivakumar Kottapalli, Abdesselam Abdelouas, Christoph Hartnack

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Spent nuclear fuel generates a mixed field of ionizing radiation to the water. This radiation field is generally dominated by gamma rays and a limited flux of fast neutrons. The fuel cladding effectively attenuates beta and alpha particle radiation. Small fraction of the spent nuclear fuel exhibits some degree of fuel cladding penetration due to pitting corrosion and mechanical failure. Breaches in the fuel cladding allow the exposure of small volumes of water in the cask to alpha and beta ionizing radiation. The safety of the transport of radioactive material is assured by the package complying with the IAEA Requirements for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material SSR-6. It is of high interest to avoid generation of hydrogen inside the cavity which may to an explosive mixture. The risk of hydrogen production along with other radiation gases should be analyzed for a typical spent fuel for safety issues. This work aims to perform a realistic study of the production of hydrogen by radiolysis assuming most penalizing initial conditions. It consists in the calculation of the radionuclide inventory of a pellet taking into account the burn up and decays. Westinghouse 17X17 PWR fuel has been chosen and data has been analyzed for different sets of enrichment, burnup, cycles of irradiation and storage conditions. The inventory is calculated as the entry point for the simulation studies of hydrogen production by radiolysis kinetic models by MAKSIMA-CHEMIST. Dose rates decrease strongly within ~45 μm from the fuel surface towards the solution(water) in case of alpha radiation, while the dose rate decrease is lower in case of beta and even slower in case of gamma radiation. Calculations are carried out to obtain spectra as a function of time. Radiation dose rate profiles are taken as the input data for the iterative calculations. Hydrogen yield has been found to be around 0.02 mol/L. Calculations have been performed for a realistic scenario considering a capsule containing the spent fuel rod. Thus, hydrogen yield has been debated. Experiments are under progress to validate the hydrogen production rate using cyclotron at > 5MeV (at ARRONAX, Nantes).

Keywords: radiolysis, spent fuel, hydrogen, cyclotron

Procedia PDF Downloads 494

Authors: Manaranjan Pradhan, Shailaja Grover, U. Dinesh Kumar

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Farming community in India, as well as other parts of the world, is one of the highly stressed communities due to reasons such as increasing input costs (cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticide), droughts, reduced revenue leading to farmer suicides. Lack of integrated farm advisory system in India adds to the farmers problems. Farmers need right information during the early stages of crop’s lifecycle to prevent damage and loss in revenue. In this paper, we use deep learning techniques to develop an early warning system for detection of crop diseases using images taken by farmers using their smart phone. The research work leads to building a smart assistant using analytics and big data which could help the farmers with early diagnosis of the crop diseases and corrective actions. The classical approach for crop disease management has been to identify diseases at crop level. Recently, ImageNet Classification using the convolutional neural network (CNN) has been successfully used to identify diseases at individual plant level. Our model uses convolution filters, max pooling, dense layers and dropouts (to avoid overfitting). The models are built for binary classification (healthy or not healthy) and multi class classification (identifying which disease). Transfer learning is used to modify the weights of parameters learnt through ImageNet dataset and apply them on crop diseases, which reduces number of epochs to learn. One shot learning is used to learn from very few images, while data augmentation techniques are used to improve accuracy with images taken from farms by using techniques such as rotation, zoom, shift and blurred images. Models built using combination of these techniques are more robust for deploying in the real world. Our model is validated using tomato crop. In India, tomato is affected by 10 different diseases. Our model achieves an accuracy of more than 95% in correctly classifying the diseases. The main contribution of our research is to create a personal assistant for farmers for managing plant disease, although the model was validated using tomato crop, it can be easily extended to other crops. The advancement of technology in computing and availability of large data has made possible the success of deep learning applications in computer vision, natural language processing, image recognition, etc. With these robust models and huge smartphone penetration, feasibility of implementation of these models is high resulting in timely advise to the farmers and thus increasing the farmers' income and reducing the input costs.

Keywords: analytics in agriculture, CNN, crop disease detection, data augmentation, image recognition, one shot learning, transfer learning

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Authors: Thomas Chinedu Aniokete, Gordian Onyebuchukwu Mbah, Michael Daramola

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A sustainable NaOH integrated hydrothermal protocol was developed for the synthesis of waste-derived hydroxy sodalite catalysts for transesterification of waste animal fat (WAF) with a high per cent free fatty acid (FFA) to biodiesel. In this work, hydroxy sodalite catalyst was synthesized from two complex waste materials namely coal fly ash (CFA) and waste industrial brine (WIB). Measured amounts of South African CFA and WIB obtained from a coal mine field were mixed with NaOH solution at different concentrations contained in secured glass vessels equipped with magnetic stirrers and formed consistent slurries after aging condition at 47 oC for 48 h. The slurries were then subjected to hydrothermal treatments at 140 oC for 48 h, washed thoroughly and separated by the action of a centrifuge on the mixture. The resulting catalysts were calcined in a muffle furnace for 2 h at 200 oC and subsequently characterized for different effects using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and Bennett Emmet Teller (BET) adsorption-desorption techniques. The produced animal fat methyl ester (AFME) was analyzed using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Results of the investigation indicate profoundly an enhanced catalyst purity, textural property and desired morphology due to the action of NaOH. Similarly, the performance evaluation with respect to catalyst activity reveals a high catalytic conversion efficiency of 98 % of the high FFA WAF to biodiesel under the following reaction conditions; a methanol-to-WAF ratio of 15:1, amount of SOD catalyst of 3 wt % with a stirring speed of 300-500 rpm, a reaction temperature of 60 oC and a reaction time of 8 h. There was a recovered 96 % stable catalyst after reactions and potentially recyclable, thus contributing to the economic savings to the process that had been a major bottleneck to the production of biodiesel. This NaOH route for synthesizing waste-derived hydroxy sodalite (SOD) catalyst is a sustainable and eco-friendly technology that speaks directly to the global quest for renewable-fossil fuel controversy enforcing sustainable development goal 7.

Keywords: coal fly ash, waste industrial brine, waste-derived hydroxy sodalite catalyst, sodium hydroxide, biodiesel, transesterification, biomass conversion

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Authors: Mauricio A. Sarabia-Vallejos, Carmen M. Gonzalez-Henriquez, Adolfo Del Campo-Garcia, Aitzibier L. Cortajarena, Juan Rodriguez-Hernandez

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In this study, it was explored the formation and the morphological differences between wrinkled hydrogel patterns obtained via generation of surface instabilities. The slight variations in the polymerization conditions produce important changes in the material composition and pattern structuration. The compounds were synthesized using three main components, i.e. an amphiphilic monomer, hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), a hydrophobic monomer, trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFMA), and a hydrophilic crosslinking agent, poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA). The first part of this study was related to the formation of wrinkled surfaces using only HEMA and PEGDA and varying the amount of water added in the reaction. The second part of this study involves the gradual insertion of TFMA into the hydrophilic reaction mixture. Interestingly, the manipulation of the chemical composition of this hydrogel affects both surface morphology and physicochemical characteristics of the patterns, inducing transitions from one particular type of structure (wrinkles or ripples) to different ones (creases, folds, and crumples). Contact angle measurements show that the insertion of TFMA produces a slight decrease in surface wettability of the samples, remaining however highly hydrophilic (contact angle below 45°). More interestingly, by using confocal Raman spectroscopy, important information about the wrinkle formation mechanism is obtained. The procedure involving two consecutive thermal and photopolymerization steps lead to a “pseudo” two-layer system. Thus, upon photopolymerization, the surface is crosslinked to a higher extent than the bulk and water evaporation drives the formation of wrinkled surfaces. Finally, cellular, and bacterial proliferation studies were performed to the samples, showing that the amount of TFMA included in each sample slightly affects the proliferation of both (bacteria and cells), but in the case of bacteria, the morphology of the sample also plays an important role, importantly reducing the bacterial proliferation.

Keywords: antibiofouling properties, hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance, morphologic characterization, wrinkled hydrogel patterns

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Ernest Gyan Bediako, Petra Dancova, Tomas Vit

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Flow boiling heat transfer remains an important area of research due to its relevance in thermal management systems and other applications. Despite the enormous work done in the field of flow boiling heat transfer over the years to understand how flow parameters such as mass flux, heat flux, saturation conditions and tube geometries influence the characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer, there are still many contradictions and lack of agreement on the actual mechanisms controlling heat transfer and how flow parameters impact the heat transfer. This work thus seeks to experimentally investigate the heat transfer characteristics and flow patterns at low mass fluxes, low heat fluxes and low saturation pressure conditions which are of less attention in literature but prevalent in refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump applications. In this study, flow boiling experiment was conducted for R134a working fluid in a 5 mm internal diameter stainless steel horizontal smooth tube with mass flux ranging from 80- 100 kg/m2 s, heat fluxes ranging from 3.55kW/m2 - 25.23 kW/m2 and saturation pressure of 460 kPa. Vapor quality ranged from 0 to 1. A well-known flow pattern map created by Wojtan et al. was used to predict the flow patterns noticed during the study. The experimental results were correlated with well-known flow boiling heat transfer correlations in literature. The findings show that, heat transfer coefficient was influenced by both mass flux and heat fluxes. However, for an increasing heat flux, nucleate boiling was observed to be the dominant mechanism controlling the heat transfer especially at low vapor quality region. For an increasing mass flux, convective boiling was the dominant mechanism controlling the heat transfer especially in the high vapor quality region. Also, the study observed an unusual high heat transfer coefficient at low vapor qualities which could be due to periodic wetting of the walls of the tube due to slug flow pattern and stratified wavy flow patterns. The flow patterns predicted by Wojtan et al. flow pattern map were mixture of slug and stratified wavy, purely stratified wavy and dry out. Statistical assessment of the experimental data with various well-known correlations from literature showed that, none of the correlations reported in literature could predicted the experimental data with enough accuracy.

Keywords: flow boiling, heat transfer coefficient, mass flux, heat flux.

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Diptoshi Roy, G. Sreevidya Varma, S. Asokan, Chandasree Das

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Germanium Telluride based quaternary thin film switching devices with composition Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag_24, have been deposited in sandwich geometry on glass substrate with aluminum as top and bottom electrodes. The bulk glassy form of the said composition is prepared by melt quenching technique. In this technique, appropriate quantity of elements with high purity are taken in a quartz ampoule and sealed under a vacuum of 10^-5 mbar. Then, it is allowed to rotate in a horizontal rotary furnace for 36 hours to ensure homogeneity of the melt. After that, the ampoule is quenched into a mixture of ice - water and NaOH to get the bulk ingot of the sample. The sample is then coated on a glass substrate using flash evaporation technique at a vacuum level of 10^-6 mbar. The XRD report reveals the amorphous nature of the thin film sample and Energy - Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) confirms that the film retains the same chemical composition as that of the base sample. Electrical switching behavior of the device is studied with the help of Keithley (2410^c) source-measure unit interfaced with Lab VIEW 7 (National Instruments). Switching studies, mainly SET (changing the state of the material from amorphous to crystalline) operation is conducted on the thin film form of the sample. This device is found to manifest memory switching as the device remains 'ON' even after the removal of the electric field. Also it is found that amorphous Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag₂₄ thin film unveils clean memory type of electrical switching behavior which can be justified by the absence of fluctuation in the I-V characteristics. The I-V characteristic also reveals that the switching is faster in this sample as no data points could be seen in the negative resistance region during the transition to on state and this leads to the conclusion of fast phase change during SET process. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies are performed on the chosen sample to study the structural changes at the time of switching. SEM studies on the switched Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag₂₄ sample has shown some morphological changes at the place of switching wherein it can be explained that a conducting crystalline channel is formed in the device when the device switches from high resistance to low resistance state. From these studies it can be concluded that the material may find its application in fast switching Non-Volatile Phase Change Memory (PCM) Devices.

Keywords: Chalcogenides, Vapor deposition, Electrical switching, PCM.

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: Bharti Jain, Rajeev Jain, Abuzar Kabir, Torki Zughaibi, Shweta Sharma

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Drug-facilitated crimes (DFCs) entail the use of a single drug or a mixture of drugs to render a victim unable. Traditionally, biological samples have been gathered from victims and conducted analysis to establish evidence of drug administration. Nevertheless, the rapid metabolism of various drugs and delays in analysis can impede the identification of such substances. For this, the present article describes a rapid, sustainable, highly efficient and miniaturized protocol for the identification and quantification of three sedative-hypnotic drugs, namely diazepam, chlordiazepoxide and ketamine in alcoholic beverages and complex food samples (cream of biscuit, flavored milk, juice, cake, tea, sweets and chocolate). The methodology involves utilizing fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) to extract diazepam (DZ), chlordiazepoxide (CDP), and ketamine (KET). Subsequently, the extracted samples are subjected to analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Several parameters, including the type of membrane, pH, agitation time and speed, ionic strength, sample volume, elution volume and time, and type of elution solvent, were screened and thoroughly optimized. Sol-gel Carbowax 20M (CW-20M) has demonstrated the most effective extraction efficiency for the target analytes among all evaluated membranes. Under optimal conditions, the method displayed linearity within the range of 0.3–10 µg mL–¹ (or µg g–¹), exhibiting a coefficient of determination (R2) ranging from 0.996–0.999. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) for liquid samples range between 0.020-0.069 µg mL-¹ and 0.066-0.22 µg mL-¹, respectively. Correspondingly, the LODs for solid samples ranged from 0.056-0.090 µg g-¹, while the LOQs ranged from 0.18-0.29 µg g-¹. Notably, the method showcased better precision, with repeatability and reproducibility both below 5% and 10%, respectively. Furthermore, the FPSE-GC-MS method proved effective in determining diazepam (DZ) in forensic food samples connected to drug-facilitated crimes (DFCs). Additionally, the proposed method underwent evaluation for its whiteness using the RGB12 algorithm.

Keywords: drug facilitated crime, fabric phase sorptive extraction, food forensics, white analytical chemistry

Procedia PDF Downloads 40

Authors: Shreya Srivastava, Sagnik Dey

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Aerosol direct radiative forcing (ADRF) refers to the alteration of the Earth's energy balance from the scattering and absorption of solar radiation by aerosol particles. India experiences substantial ADRF due to high aerosol loading from various sources. These aerosols' radiative impact depends on their physical characteristics (such as size, shape, and composition) and atmospheric distribution. Quantifying ADRF is crucial for understanding aerosols’ impact on the regional climate and the Earth's radiative budget. In this study, we have taken radiation data from Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES, spatial resolution=1ox1o) for 22 years (2000-2021) over the Indian subcontinent. Except for a few locations, the short-wave DARF exhibits aerosol cooling at the TOA (values ranging from +2.5 W/m2 to -22.5W/m2). Cooling due to aerosols is more pronounced in the absence of clouds. Being an aerosol hotspot, higher negative ADRF is observed over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). Aerosol Forcing Efficiency (AFE) shows a decreasing seasonal trend in winter (DJF) over the entire study region while an increasing trend over IGP and western south India during the post-monsoon season (SON) in clear-sky conditions. Analysing atmospheric heating and AOD trends, we found that only the aerosol loading is not governing the change in atmospheric heating but also the aerosol composition and/or their vertical profile. We used a Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) Level-2 Version 23 aerosol products to look into aerosol composition. MISR incorporates 74 aerosol mixtures in its retrieval algorithm based on size, shape, and absorbing properties. This aerosol mixture information was used for analysing long-term changes in aerosol composition and dominating aerosol species corresponding to the aerosol forcing value. Further, ADRF derived from this method is compared with around 35 studies across India, where a plane parallel Radiative transfer model was used, and the model inputs were taken from the OPAC (Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds) utilizing only limited aerosol parameter measurements. The result shows a large overestimation of TOA warming by the latter (i.e., Model-based method).

Keywords: aerosol radiative forcing (ARF), aerosol composition, MISR, CERES, SBDART

Procedia PDF Downloads 26

Authors: Govind Kumar

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The concept of ‘e-governance’ that was brought about by the new wave of reforms, namely ‘LPG’ in the early 1990s, has been enabling governments across the globe to digitally transform themselves. Digital transformation is leading the governments with qualitative decisions, optimization in rational use of resources, facilitation of cost-benefit analyses, and elimination of redundancy and corruption with the help of ICT-based applications interface. ICT-based applications/technologies have enormous potential for impacting positive change in the social lives of the global citizenry. Supercomputers test and analyze millions of drug molecules for developing candidate vaccines to combat the global pandemic. Further, e-commerce portals help distribute and supply household items and medicines, while videoconferencing tools provide a visual interface between the clients and hosts. Besides, crop yields are being maximized with the help of drones and machine learning, whereas satellite data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing help governments with the detection of illegal mining, tackling deforestation, and managing freshwater resources. Such e-applications have the potential to take governance an extra mile by achieving 5 Es (effective, efficient, easy, empower, and equity) of e-governance and six Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign and remanufacture) of sustainable development. If such digital transformation gains traction within the government framework, it will replace the traditional administration with the digitalization of public administration. On the other hand, it has brought in a new set of challenges, like the digital divide, e-illiteracy, technological divide, etc., and problems like handling e-waste, technological obsolescence, cyber terrorism, e-fraud, hacking, phishing, etc. before the governments. Therefore, it would be essential to bring in a rightful mixture of technological and humanistic interventions for addressing the above issues. This is on account of the reason that technology lacks an emotional quotient, and the administration does not work like technology. Both are self-effacing unless a blend of technology and a humane face are brought in into the administration. The paper will empirically analyze the significance of the technological framework of digital transformation within the government set up for the digitalization of public administration on the basis of the synthesis of two case studies undertaken from two diverse fields of administration and present a future framework of the study.

Keywords: digital transformation, electronic governance, public administration, knowledge framework

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: F. Pires, V. Geraldo, O. N. Oliveira Jr., M. Raposo

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Catechins are powerful antioxidants which have attractive properties useful for tumor therapy. Considering their antioxidant activity, these molecules can act as a scavenger of the reactive oxygen species (ROS), alleviating the damage of cell membrane induced by oxidative stress. The complexity and dynamic nature of the cell membrane compromise the analysis of the biophysical interactions between drug and cell membrane and restricts the transport or uptake of the drug by intracellular targets. To avoid the cell membrane complexity, we used biomimetic systems as liposomes and Langmuir monolayers to study the interaction between catechin and membranes at the molecular level. Liposomes were formed after the dispersion of anionic 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-[phospho-rac-(1-glycerol)(sodium salt) (DPPG) phospholipids in an aqueous solution, which mimic the arrangement of lipids in natural cell membranes and allows the entrapment of catechins. Langmuir monolayers were formed after dropping amphiphilic molecules, DPPG phospholipids, dissolved in an organic solvent onto the water surface. In this work, we mixed epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) with DPPG liposomes and exposed them to ultra-violet radiation in order to evaluate the antioxidant potential of these molecules against oxidative stress induced by radiation. The presence of EGCG in the mixture decreased the rate of lipid peroxidation, proving that EGCG protects membranes through the quenching of the reactive oxygen species. Considering the high amount of hydroxyl groups (OH groups) on structure of EGCG, a possible mechanism to these molecules interact with membrane is through hydrogen bonding. We also investigated the effect of EGCG at various concentrations on DPPG Langmuir monolayers. The surface pressure isotherms and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) results corroborate with absorbance results preformed on liposome-model, showing that EGCG interacts with polar heads of the monolayers. This study elucidates the physiological action of EGCG which can be incorporated in lipid membrane. These results are also relevant for the improvement of the current protocols used to incorporate catechins in drug delivery systems.

Keywords: catechins, lipid membrane, anticancer agent, molecular interactions

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Authors: Ali Kadivar, Kaveh Niayesh

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This work simulates the voltage drop and resistance of the explosion of copper wires of diameters 25, 40, and 100 µm surrounded by 1 bar nitrogen exposed to a 150 A current and before plasma formation. The absorption of electrical energy in an exploding wire is greatly diminished when the plasma is formed. This study shows the importance of considering radiation and heat conductivity in the accuracy of the circuit simulations. The radiation of the dense plasma formed on the wire surface is modeled with the Net Emission Coefficient (NEC) and is mixed with heat conductivity through PLASIMO® software. A time-transient code for analyzing wire explosions driven by a slow current rise rate is developed. It solves a circuit equation coupled with one-dimensional (1D) equations for the copper electrical conductivity as a function of its physical state and Net Emission Coefficient (NEC) radiation. At first, an initial voltage drop over the copper wire, current, and temperature distribution at the time of expansion is derived. The experiments have demonstrated that wires remain rather uniform lengthwise during the explosion and can be simulated utilizing 1D simulations. Data from the first stage are then used as the initial conditions of the second stage, in which a simplified 1D model for high-Mach-number flows is adopted to describe the expansion of the core. The current was carried by the vaporized wire material before it was dispersed in nitrogen by the shock wave. In the third stage, using a three-dimensional model of the test bench, the streamer threshold is estimated. Electrical breakdown voltage is calculated without solving a full-blown plasma model by integrating Townsend growth coefficients (TdGC) along electric field lines. BOLSIG⁺ and LAPLACE databases are used to calculate the TdGC at different mixture ratios of nitrogen/copper vapor. The simulations show both radiation and heat conductivity should be considered for an adequate description of wire resistance, and gaseous discharges start at lower voltages than expected due to ultraviolet radiation and the exploding shocks, which may have ionized the nitrogen.

Keywords: exploding wire, Townsend breakdown mechanism, streamer, metal vapor, shock waves

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Dolly Kumari, H. Lhungdim

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Maternal health is one of the crucial health indicators for any country. 5th goal of Millennium Development Goals is also emphasising on improvement of maternal health. Soon after Independence government of India realizing the importance of maternal and child health care services, and took steps to strengthen in 1st and 2nd five year plans. In past decade the other health indicator which is life expectancy at birth has been observed remarkable improvement. But still maternal mortality is high in India and in some states it is observe much higher than national average. Government of India pour lots of fund and initiate National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005 to improve maternal health in country by providing affordable and accessible health care services. Accredited Social Heath Activist (ASHA) is one of the key components of the NRHM. Mainly ASHAs are selected female aged 25-45 years from village itself and accountable for the monitoring of maternal health care for the same village. ASHA are trained to works as an interface between the community and public health system. This study tries to assess the role of ASHA in utilizing maternal health care services and to see the level of awareness about benefits given under JSY scheme and utilization of those benefits by eligible women. For the study concurrent evaluation data from National Rural health Mission (NRHM), initiated by government of India in 2005 has been used. This study is based on 78205 currently married women from 70 different districts of India. Descriptive statistics, chi2 test and binary logistic regression have been used for analysis. The probability of institutional delivery increases by 2.03 times (p<0.001) while if ASHA arranged or helped in arranging transport facility the probability of institutional delivery is increased by 1.67 times (p<0.01) than if she is not arranging transport facility. Further if ASHA facilitated to get JSY card to the pregnant women probability of going for full ANC is increases by 1.36 times (p<0.05) than reference. However if ASHA discuses about institutional delivery and approaches to get register than probability of getting TT injection is 1.88 and 1.64 times (p<0.01) higher than that if she did not discus. Further, Probability of benefits from JSY schemes is 1.25 times (p<0.001) higher among women who get married after 18 years. The probability of benefits from JSY schemes is 1.25 times (p<0.001) higher among women who get married after 18 year of age than before 18 years, it is also 1.28 times (p<0.001) and 1.32 times (p<0.001) higher among women have 1 to 8 year of schooling and with 9 and above years of schooling respectively than the women who never attended school. Those women who are working have 1.13 times (p<0.001) higher probability of getting benefits from JSY scheme than not working women. Surprisingly women belongs to wealthiest quintile are .53times (P<0.001) less aware about JSY scheme. Results conclude that work done by ASHA has great influence on maternal health care utilization in India. But results also show that still substantial numbers of needed population are far from utilization of these services. Place of delivery is significantly influenced by referral and transport facility arranged by ASHA.

Keywords: institutional delivery, JSY beneficiaries, referral faculty, public health

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Authors: Alicia Ettlin

Abstract:

Amid the rise of neoliberalism to the leading economic policy model in Western societies in the 1980s, people have started to internalise a neoliberal way of thinking, whereby the human body has become an entity that can and needs to be precisely managed through free yet rational decision-making processes. The neoliberal citizen has consequently become an entrepreneur of the self who is free, independent, rational, productive and responsible for themselves, their health and wellbeing as well as their appearance. The focus on individuals as entrepreneurs who manage their bodies through the rationally thinking mind has, however, become increasingly criticised for viewing the social actor as ‘disembodied’, as a detached, social actor whose powerful mind governs over the passive body. On the other hand, the discourse around embodiment seeks to connect rational decision-making processes to the dominant neoliberal discourse which creates an embodied understanding that the body, just as other areas of people’s lives, can and should be shaped, monitored and managed through cognitive and rational thinking. This perspective offers an understanding of the body regarding its connections with the social environment that reaches beyond the debates around mind-body binary thinking. Hence, following this argument, body management should not be thought of as either solely guided by embodied discourses nor as merely falling into a mind-body dualism, but rather, simultaneously and inseparably as both at once. The descriptive, qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with young Australian amateur athletes between the age of 18 and 24 has shown that most participants are interested in measuring and managing their body to create self-knowledge and self-improvement. The participants thereby connected self-improvement to weight loss, muscle gain or simply staying fit and healthy. Self-knowledge refers to body measurements including weight, BMI or body fat percentage. Self-management and self-knowledge that are reliant on one another to take rational and well-thought-out decisions, are both characteristic values of the neoliberal doctrine. A neoliberal way of thinking and looking after the body has also by many been connected to rewarding themselves for their discipline, hard work or achievement of specific body management goals (e.g. eating chocolate for reaching the daily step count goal). A few participants, however, have shown resistance against these neoliberal values, and in particular, against the precise monitoring and management of the body with the help of self-tracking devices. Ultimately, however, it seems that most participants have internalised the dominant discourses around self-responsibility, and by association, a sense of duty to discipline their body in normative ways. Even those who have indicated their resistance against body work and body management practices that follow neoliberal thinking and measurement systems, are aware and have internalised the concept of the rational operating mind that needs or should decide how to look after the body in terms of health but also appearance ideals. The discussion around the collected data thereby shows that embodiment and the mind/body dualism constitute two connected, rather than two separate or opposing concepts.

Keywords: dualism, embodiment, mind, neoliberalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Navid Kaboudi, Ali Shayanfar

Abstract:

Introduction: Feeding infants with safe milk from the beginning of their life is an important issue. Drugs which are used by mothers can affect the composition of milk in a way that is not only unsuitable, but also toxic for infants. Consuming permeable drugs during that sensitive period by mother could lead to serious side effects to the infant. Due to the ethical restrictions of drug testing on humans, especially women, during their lactation period, computational approaches based on structural parameters could be useful. The aim of this study is to develop mechanistic models to predict the M/P ratio of drugs during breastfeeding period based on their structural descriptors. Methods: Two hundred and nine different chemicals with their M/P ratio were used in this study. All drugs were categorized into two groups based on their M/P value as Malone classification: 1: Drugs with M/P>1, which are considered as high risk 2: Drugs with M/P>1, which are considered as low risk Thirty eight chemical descriptors were calculated by ACD/labs 6.00 and Data warrior software in order to assess the penetration during breastfeeding period. Later on, four specific models based on the number of hydrogen bond acceptors, polar surface area, total surface area, and number of acidic oxygen were established for the prediction. The mentioned descriptors can predict the penetration with an acceptable accuracy. For the remaining compounds (N= 147, 158, 160, and 174 for models 1 to 4, respectively) of each model binary regression with SPSS 21 was done in order to give us a model to predict the penetration ratio of compounds. Only structural descriptors with p-value<0.1 remained in the final model. Results and discussion: Four different models based on the number of hydrogen bond acceptors, polar surface area, and total surface area were obtained in order to predict the penetration of drugs into human milk during breastfeeding period About 3-4% of milk consists of lipids, and the amount of lipid after parturition increases. Lipid soluble drugs diffuse alongside with fats from plasma to mammary glands. lipophilicity plays a vital role in predicting the penetration class of drugs during lactation period. It was shown in the logistic regression models that compounds with number of hydrogen bond acceptors, PSA and TSA above 5, 90 and 25 respectively, are less permeable to milk because they are less soluble in the amount of fats in milk. The pH of milk is acidic and due to that, basic compounds tend to be concentrated in milk than plasma while acidic compounds may consist lower concentrations in milk than plasma. Conclusion: In this study, we developed four regression-based models to predict the penetration class of drugs during the lactation period. The obtained models can lead to a higher speed in drug development process, saving energy, and costs. Milk/plasma ratio assessment of drugs requires multiple steps of animal testing, which has its own ethical issues. QSAR modeling could help scientist to reduce the amount of animal testing, and our models are also eligible to do that.

Keywords: logistic regression, breastfeeding, descriptors, penetration

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