Search results for: intensive care unit.

Authors: Guguloth Ramesh, T. K. Sunil Kumar

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This paper presents congestion management in deregulated power systems. In a deregulated environment, every buyer wants to buy power from the cheapest generator available, irrespective of relative geographical location of buyer and seller. As a consequence of this, the transmission corridors evacuating the power of cheaper generators would get overloaded if all such transactions are approved. Congestion management is a mechanism to prioritize the transactions and commit to such a schedule which would not overload the network. The congestions in the transmission lines are determined by Optimal Power Flow (OPF) solution, which is carried by primal liner programming method. Congestion in the transmission lines are alleviated by connected Distributed Generation (DG) of micro grid at load bus. A method to determine the optimal location of DG unit has been suggested based on transmission line relief sensitivity based approach. The effectiveness of proposed method has been demonstrated on modified IEEE-14 and 30 bus test systems.

Keywords: Congestion management, Distribution Generation (DG), Transmission Line Relief (TLR) sensitivity index, OPF.

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Authors: Syhalath Xaphakdy, Toshio Nagata, Saykham Phommathat, Pavy Souwannavong, Vilayvanh Srithilat, Phoxay Sengdala, Bounaom Phetarnousone, Boualay Siharath, Xaya Chemcheng

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The National University of Laos (NUOL) invited a group of volunteers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to revise the physics experiments to utilize the materials that were already available to students. The intension was to review and revise the materials regularly utilized in physics class. The project had access to limited materials and a small budget for the class in the unit; however, by developing experimental textbooks related to mechanics, electricity, and wave and vibration, the group found a way to apply them in the classroom and enhance the students teaching activities. The aim was to introduce a way to incorporate the materials and practices in the classroom to enhance the students learning and teaching skills, particularly when they graduate and begin working as high school teachers.

Keywords: NUOL, JICA, physics experiment materials, small budget, mechanics, electricity.

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Authors: U. P. L. Wijayarathne, K. C. Wasalathilake

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This work presents the modelling and simulation of saponification of ethyl acetate in the presence of sodium hydroxide in a plug flow reactor using Aspen Plus simulation software. Plug flow reactors are widely used in the industry due to the non-mixing property. The use of plug flow reactors becomes significant when there is a need for continuous large scale reaction or fast reaction. Plug flow reactors have a high volumetric unit conversion as the occurrence for side reactions is minimum. In this research Aspen Plus V8.0 has been successfully used to simulate the plug flow reactor. In order to simulate the process as accurately as possible HYSYS Peng- Robinson EOS package was used as the property method. The results obtained from the simulation were verified by the experiment carried out in the EDIBON plug flow reactor module. The correlation coefficient (r2) was 0.98 and it proved that simulation results satisfactorily fit for the experimental model. The developed model can be used as a guide for understanding the reaction kinetics of a plug flow reactor.

Keywords: Aspen Plus, Modelling, Plug Flow Reactor, Simulation.

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Authors: Ilham Benali, Nasser Hajji, Nawfal Acha

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Given the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is a commonly studied sector in the context of innovation, the majority of innovation research is devoted to the developed markets known by high research and development (R&D) assets and intensive innovation. In contrast, in developing countries where R&D assets are very low, there is relatively little research to mention in the area of pharmaceutical sector innovation, characterized mainly by two principal elements which are the presence of foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals. With the scarcity of research in this field, this paper attempts to study the effect of these two elements on the firms’ innovation tendencies. Other traditional factors that influence innovation, which are the age and the size of the firm, the R&D activities and the market structure, revealed in the literature review, will be included in the study in order to try to make this work more exhaustive. The study starts by examining innovation tendency in pharmaceutical firms located in developing countries before analyzing the effect of foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals on technological, organizational and marketing innovation. Based on the related work and on the theoretical framework developed, there is a probability that foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals have a negative influence on technological innovation. The opposite effect is possible in the case of organizational and marketing innovation.

Keywords: Developing countries, foreign owned firms, innovation, licensed manufacturing agreements, pharmaceutical industry.

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Authors: Liu Xuedong, Liu Hanpeng, Zhou Ling

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Study fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of microchannel in a primary Cross-corrugated(CC) surface recuperators with corrugations and without corrugations, using CFD method. The pitch-over-height ratios P/H of Cross-corrugated (CC) surface is from 1.5 to 4.0, included angles β=75º. The study was performed using CFD software FLUENT to create unit model and simulate fluid temperature, velocity, heat transfer coefficient and other parameters. The results from these simulations were compared to experimental data. It is concluded that, when the Reynolds number is constant, if increase P/H, j/f will decrease, also the decreasing trend will become weak. Under the condition of P/H=2.2, if increase the inlet velocity j/f will decrease; in addition, the heat transfer performance in surface with corrugation will increase 10% compared to that without corrugation. The study results can provide the basis to optimize the design, select the type of heat transfer surface, the scale structure, and heat-transfer surface arrangement for recuperators.

Keywords: Cross-corrugated surface, Primary surface, Numerical simulation, Heat transfer.

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Authors: C. T. Cheung, R. K. P. Ng, T. Y. Lo, Zhou Jinyun

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This paper aims at manipulating loop alignment in knitting a three-dimensional (3D) shape by its geometry. Two loop alignment methods are introduced to handle a surface with positive Gaussian curvature. As weft knitting is a two-dimensional (2D) knitting mechanism that the knitting cam carrying the feeders moves in two directions only, left and right, the knitted fabric generated grows in width and length but not in depth. Therefore, a 3D shape is required to be flattened to a 2D plane with surface area preserved for knitting. On this flattened plane, dimensional measurements are taken for loop alignment. The way these measurements being taken derived two different loop alignment methods. In this paper, only plain knitted structure was considered. Each knitted loop was taken as a basic unit for loop alignment in order to achieve the required geometric dimensions, without the inclusion of other stitches which give textural dimensions to the fabric. Two loop alignment methods were experimented and compared. Only one of these two can successfully preserve the dimensions of the shape.

Keywords: 3D knitting, 3D shape, loop alignment, positive Gaussian curvature.

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Authors: Okan Özgönenel

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This paper presents the development of a wavelet based algorithm, for distinguishing between magnetizing inrush currents and power system fault currents, which is quite adequate, reliable, fast and computationally efficient tool. The proposed technique consists of a preprocessing unit based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in combination with an artificial neural network (ANN) for detecting and classifying fault currents. The DWT acts as an extractor of distinctive features in the input signals at the relay location. This information is then fed into an ANN for classifying fault and magnetizing inrush conditions. A 220/55/55 V, 50Hz laboratory transformer connected to a 380 V power system were simulated using ATP-EMTP. The DWT was implemented by using Matlab and Coiflet mother wavelet was used to analyze primary currents and generate training data. The simulated results presented clearly show that the proposed technique can accurately discriminate between magnetizing inrush and fault currents in transformer protection.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, discrete wavelet transform, fault detection, magnetizing inrush current.

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Authors: A. Goel, S.C. Gupta, S.K.Wasan

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Testable software has two inherent properties – observability and controllability. Observability facilitates observation of internal behavior of software to required degree of detail. Controllability allows creation of difficult-to-achieve states prior to execution of various tests. In this paper, we describe COTT, a Controllability and Observability Testing Tool, to create testable object-oriented software. COTT provides a framework that helps the user to instrument object-oriented software to build the required controllability and observability. During testing, the tool facilitates creation of difficult-to-achieve states required for testing of difficultto- test conditions and observation of internal details of execution at unit, integration and system levels. The execution observations are logged in a test log file, which are used for post analysis and to generate test coverage reports.

Keywords: Controllability, Observability, Test Coverage and Testing Tool.

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Authors: R. U. Hamzah, H. L. Muhammad, A. Sayyadi, M. B Busari, R. Garba, M. B. Umar, A. N Abubakar

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Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) are toxic, non-essential transition metals that pose many health risks for both humans and animals. They are environmental toxicants which contribute to testicular damage resulting to infertility problem among male populace worldwide. Chelating agents used for lead and cadmium toxicity are not readily available, toxic, expensive and unable to mop up most of the toxic metals accumulated in various organs. In this study, the effect of crude extract (CE), ethyl acetate fraction (EF) and acetone fraction (AF) of Pterocarpus mildbraedii leaf extract was assessed on cadmium-lead chloride induced testicular damaged in male albino Wistar rats. CE of the leaf was obtained by extracting in absolute methanol which was further subjected to solvent partitioning via vacuum liquid chromatographic (VLC) techniques using ethyl acetate, acetone and 70% methanol. A preliminary phytochemical screening and in vitro antioxidants guided activities on the CE and fractions were determined using standard methods. EF, AF and CE which exhibited significant in vitro activity were subjected to an in vivo study using Wistar rats. In vivo antioxidant markers, male reproductive hormones, testicular enzymes and DNA damage markers were analyzed on the rats’ testes supernatant. AF had the highest quantities of phenols (319.00 mg/g), flavonoids (8.87 mg/g) and tannins (8.87 mg/g) while methanol and EFs were richer in saponins (135.32 µg/g) and alkaloids (38.34 µg/g) respectively. A dose dependent 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and lipid peroxidation were observed in all the extract with high antioxidants power in CE and AF. Administration of lead-cadmium chloride solution significantly (p > 0.05) decreases the testicular superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity to 6.82 unit/mg protein, Catalase (CAT) activity to 8.07 of H2O2 consumed/unit/mg protein and Glutathione (GSH) concentration to 31.30 ug/mg protein. There was a concomitant increase in the level of Malondialdehyde (MDA) to a value of 23.70 mmol/mg protein. In addition, lead-cadmium chloride solution significantly (p > 0.05) increases the testicular marker enzymes (Alkaline phosphatase (119.57 u/L), lactate dehydrogenase (357.05 u/L), Acid phosphatase (98.65 u/L)) and DNA damage markers (conjugated dienes (93.39 nmol/mg protein), carbonyl protein (35.39 nmol/mg protein), DNA fragmentation percentage (32.12%)) with lowered testicular hormones (Testosterone (3.1 ng/mL), Follicle stimulating (0.35 IU/mL) and Luteinizing hormones (0.15 IU/mL)) of the animals in negative control group when compared with other treated groups. Treatment with Pterocarpus mildbraedii leaf extract reverts the observed changes with the best activities found in the CE and AFs in a dose dependent manner. Pterocarpus mildbraedii leaf extract ameliorated the lead/cadmium induced testicular damage in male albino rats. The restoration of the aforementioned parameters by some of the extract dosages were comparable to the standard drug with higher activities in the crude and AF. Therefore, Pterocarpus mildbraedii leaf extract can be explored further for the management of lead/cadmium induced toxicity.

Keywords: Cadmium, lead, Pterocarpus mildbraedii, testicular damage.

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Authors: Zixian Zhang, Shanliang Yao, Zile Huang, Zhaodong Wu, Xiaohui Zhu, Yong Yue, Jieming Ma

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Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) hold significant value for their capacity to undertake hazardous and labor-intensive operations over aquatic environments. Object detection tasks are significant in these applications. Nonetheless, the efficacy of USVs in object detection is impeded by several intrinsic challenges, including the intricate dispersal of obstacles, reflections emanating from coastal structures, and the presence of fog over water surfaces, among others. To address these problems, this paper provides a fusion method for USVs to effectively detect objects in the inland surface environment, utilizing vision sensors and 3+1D Millimeter-wave radar. The MMW radar is a complementary tool to vision sensors, offering reliable environmental data. This approach involves the conversion of the radar’s 3D point cloud into a 2D radar pseudo-image, thereby standardizing the format for radar and vision data by leveraging a point transformer. Furthermore, this paper proposes the development of a multi-source object detection network, named RV-YOLOX, which leverages radar-vision integration specifically tailored for inland waterway environments. The performance is evaluated on our self-recording waterways dataset. Compared with the YOLOX network, our fusion network significantly improves detection accuracy, especially for objects with bad light conditions.

Keywords: Inland waterways, object detection, YOLO, sensor fusion, self-attention, deep learning.

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Authors: Dominik Böhm, Konrad Czerski

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A customized two-stage model has been developed to simulate, analyse, and visualize distillation of actinides as a useful alternative low-pressure separation method in the nuclear recycling cases. Under the most optimal conditions of idealized thermodynamic equilibrium stages and under total reflux of distillate the investigated cases of chloride systems for the separation of such actinides are (A) UCl4-CsCl-PuCl3 and (B) ThCl4-NaCl-PuCl3. Simulatively, uranium tetrachloride in case A is successfully separated by distillation into a six-stage distillation column, and thorium tetrachloride from case B into an eight-stage distillation column. For this, a permissible mole fraction value of 1E-06 has been assumed for the residual impurification degree. With further separation effort of eleven to seventeen required separation stages, the monochlorides of plutonium trichloride from both systems A and B are simulatively shown to be separated as high pure distillation products.

Keywords: Conceptual design of a pyroprocessing unit, molten salt recovery, simulation of total-reflux distillation column, used nuclear fuel reprocessing.

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Authors: V. G. Sangam, Balasaheb M. Patre

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In this paper we have proposed a methodology to develop an amperometric biosensor for the analysis of glucose concentration using a simple microcontroller based data acquisition system. The work involves the development of Detachable Membrane Unit (enzyme based biomembrane) with immobilized glucose oxidase on the membrane and interfacing the same to the signal conditioning system. The current generated by the biosensor for different glucose concentrations was signal conditioned, then acquired and computed by a simple AT89C51-microcontroller. The optimum operating parameters for the better performance were found and reported. The detailed performance evaluation of the biosensor has been carried out. The proposed microcontroller based biosensor system has the sensitivity of 0.04V/g/dl, with a resolution of 50mg/dl. It has exhibited very good inter day stability observed up to 30 days. Comparing to the reference method such as HPLC, the accuracy of the proposed biosensor system is well within ± 1.5%. The system can be used for real time analysis of glucose concentration in the field such as, food and fermentation and clinical (In-Vitro) applications.

Keywords: Biosensor, DMU, Glucose oxidase andMicrocontroller.

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Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

Abstract:

Asphalt concrete pavements gradually lose their skid resistance causing safety problems especially under wet conditions and high driving speeds. In order to enact the actual field polishing and wearing process of asphalt pavement surfaces in a laboratory setting, several laboratory-scale accelerated polishing devices were developed by different agencies. To mimic the actual process, friction and texture measuring devices are needed to quantify surface deterioration at different polishing intervals that reflect different stages of the pavement life. The test could still be considered lengthy and to some extent labor-intensive. Therefore, there is a need to come up with another method that can assist in investigating the bituminous pavement surface characteristics in a practical and time-efficient test procedure.

The purpose of this paper is to utilize a well-developed image analysis technique to characterize asphalt pavement surfaces without the need to use conventional friction and texture measuring devices in an attempt to shorten and simplify the polishing procedure in the lab.

Promising findings showed the possibility of using image analysis in lieu of the labor-sensitive-variable-in-nature friction and texture measurements. It was found that the exposed aggregate surface area of asphalt specimens made from limestone and gravel aggregates produced solid evidence of the validity of this method in describing asphalt pavement surfaces. Image analysis results correlated well with the British Pendulum Numbers (BPN), Polish Values (PV) and Mean Texture Depth (MTD) values.

Keywords: Friction, Image Analysis, Polishing, Statistical Analysis, Texture.

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Authors: O. M. Omar, A. M. Heniegal, G. D. Abd Elhameed, H. A. Mohamadien

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Local steel slag is produced as a by-product during the oxidation of steel pellets in an electric arc furnace. Using local steel slag waste as a hundred substitutes of crashed stone in construction materials would resolve the environmental problems caused by the large-scale depletion of the natural sources of crashed stone. This paper reports the experimental study to investigate the influence of a hundred replacement of crashed stone as a coarse aggregate with local steel slag, on the fresh and hardened geopolymer concrete properties. The investigation includes traditional testing of hardening concrete, for selected mixes of cement and geopolymer concrete. It was found that local steel slag as a coarse aggregate enhanced the slump test of the fresh state of cement and geopolymer concretes. Nevertheless, the unit weight of concretes was affected. Meanwhile, the good performance was observed when fly ash used as geopolymer concrete based.

Keywords: Geopolymer, molarity, steel slag, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate.

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Authors: G. Gürsel, K. H. Gülkesen, N. Zayim, A. Arifoğlu, O. Saka

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User satisfaction is one of the most used success indicators in the research of information system (IS). Literature shows user expectations have great influence on user satisfaction. Both expectation and satisfaction of users are important for Hospital Information Systems (HIS). Education, IS experience, age, attitude towards change, business title, sex and working unit of the hospital, are examined as the potential determinant of the medical users’ expectations. Data about medical user expectations are collected by the “Expectation Questionnaire” developed for this study. Expectation data are used for calculating the Expectation Meeting Ratio (EMR) with the evaluation framework also developed for this study. The internal consistencies of the answers to the questionnaire are measured by Cronbach´s Alpha coefficient. The multivariate analysis of medical user’s EMRs of HIS is performed by forward stepwise binary logistic regression analysis. Education and business title is appeared to be the determinants of expectations from HIS.

Keywords: Evaluation, Fuzzy Logic, Hospital Information System, User Expectation.

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Authors: Prachi Singh

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This paper presents a low-cost, eco-friendly and reproducible microbe mediated biosynthesis of TiO₂ nanoparticles. TiO₂ nanoparticles synthesized using the bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, from titanium as a precursor, were confirmed by TEM analysis. The morphological characteristics state spherical shape, with the size of individual or aggregate nanoparticles, around 30-40 nm. Microbial resistance represents a challenge for the scientific community to develop new bioactive compounds. Here, the antibacterial effect of TiO₂ nanoparticles on Escherichia coli was investigated, which was confirmed by CFU (Colony-forming unit). Further, growth curve study of E. coli Hb101 in the presence and absence of TiO₂ nanoparticles was done. Optical density decrease was observed with the increase in the concentration of TiO₂. It could be attributed to the inactivation of cellular enzymes and DNA by binding to electron-donating groups such as carboxylates, amides, indoles, hydroxyls, thiols, etc. which cause little pores in bacterial cell walls, leading to increased permeability and cell death. This justifies that TiO₂ nanoparticles have efficient antibacterial effect and have potential to be used as an antibacterial agent for different purposes.

Keywords: Antibacterial effect, CFU, Escherichia coli Hb101, growth curve, TEM, TiO2 nanoparticle, toxicity, UV-Vis.

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Authors: Ali Dehghani, Mojtaba Hakimzadeh, Amir Habibi, Navid Mehdizadeh Afroozi

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In this paper an isolated wind-diesel hybrid power system has been considered for reactive power control study having an induction generator for wind power conversion and synchronous alternator with automatic voltage regulator (AVR) for diesel unit is presented. The dynamic voltage stability evaluation is dependent on small signal analysis considering a Static VAR Compensator (SVC) and IEEE type -I excitation system. It's shown that the variable reactive power source like SVC is crucial to meet the varying demand of reactive power by induction generator and load and to acquire an excellent voltage regulation of the system with minimum fluctuations. Integral square error (ISE) criterion can be used to evaluate the optimum setting of gain parameters. Finally the dynamic responses of the power systems considered with optimum gain setting will also be presented.

Keywords: SVC, Small Signal Stability, Reactive Power, Control, Hybrid System.

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Authors: A. C. Sarmah

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The Al-MoO3-P-CdTe-Al MOS sandwich structures were fabricated by vacuum deposition method on cleaned glass substrates. Capacitance versus voltage measurements were performed at different frequencies and sweep rates of applied voltages for oxide and semiconductor films of different thicknesses. In the negative voltage region of the C-V curve a high differential capacitance of the semiconductor was observed and at high frequencies (<10 kHz) the transition from accumulation to depletion and further to deep depletion was observed as the voltage was swept from negative to positive. A study have been undertaken to determine the value of acceptor density and some depletion layer parameters such as depletion layer capacitance, depletion width, impurity concentration, flat band voltage, Debye length, flat band capacitance, diffusion or built-in-potential, space charge per unit area etc. These were determined from C-V measurements for different oxide and semiconductor thicknesses.

Keywords: Debye length, Depletion width, flat band capacitance, impurity concentration.

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Authors: Sanjoy Mukherjee

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Discussions on concepts of Single Axis Tracker (SAT) are becoming more and more apt for developing countries like India not just as an advancement in racking technology but due to the utmost necessity of reaching at the lowest Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) targets. With this increasing competition and significant fall in feed-in tariffs of solar PV projects, developers are under constant pressure to secure investment for their projects and eventually earn profits from them. Moreover, being the second largest populated country, India suffers from scarcity of land because of higher average population density. So, to mitigate the risk of this dual edged sword with reducing trend of unit (kWh) cost at one side and utilization of land on the other, tracking evolved as the call of the hour. Therefore, the prime objectives of this paper are not only to showcase how STT proves to be an effective mechanism to get more gain in Global Incidence in collector plane (G_inc) with respect to traditional mounting systems but also to introduce Seasonally Tilted Tracker (STT) technology as a possible option for high latitude locations.

Keywords: Tracking system, grid-connected PV systems, cost reduction.

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Authors: Soichi Ogishima, Takeshi Hase, So Nakagawa, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanaka

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To understand life as biological system, evolutionary understanding is indispensable. Protein interactions data are rapidly accumulating and are suitable for system-level evolutionary analysis. We have analyzed yeast protein interaction network by both mathematical and biological approaches. In this poster presentation, we inferred the evolutionary birth periods of yeast proteins by reconstructing phylogenetic profile. It has been thought that hub proteins that have high connection degree are evolutionary old. But our analysis showed that hub proteins are entirely evolutionary new. We also examined evolutionary processes of protein complexes. It showed that member proteins of complexes were tend to have appeared in the same evolutionary period. Our results suggested that protein interaction network evolved by modules that form the functional unit. We also reconstructed standardized phylogenetic trees and calculated evolutionary rates of yeast proteins. It showed that there is no obvious correlation between evolutionary rates and connection degrees of yeast proteins.

Keywords: Protein interaction network, evolution, modularity, evolutionary rate, connection degrees.

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Authors: Katleho D. Makatjane, Kalebe M. Kalebe

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The present paper used time-varying parameters which are based on the score function of a probability density at time t to model volatility of saving rate. We used a scaled likelihood function to update the parameters of the model overtime. Our results revealed high diligence of time-varying since the location parameter is greater than zero. Furthermore, we discovered a leptokurtic condition on saving rate’s distribution. Kapetanios, Shin-Shell Nonlinear Augmented Dickey-Fuller (KSS-NADF) test showed that the saving rate has a nonlinear unit root; therefore, it can be modeled by a generalised autoregressive score (GAS) model. Additionally, value at risk (VaR) and conditional tail expectation (CTE) indicate that 99% of the time people in Lesotho are saving more than spending. This puts the economy in high risk of not expanding. Therefore, the monetary policy committee (MPC) of Lesotho should revise their monetary policies towards this high saving rates risk.

Keywords: Generalized autoregressive score, time-varying, saving rate, Lesotho.

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Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Yehia Manawi

Abstract:

Qatar’s primary source of fresh water is through seawater desalination. Amongst the major processes that are commercially available on the market, the most common large scale techniques are Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi Effect distillation (MED), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Although commonly used, these three processes are highly expensive down to high energy input requirements and high operating costs allied with maintenance and stress induced on the systems in harsh alkaline media. Beside that cost, environmental footprint of these desalination techniques are significant; from damaging marine eco-system, to huge land use, to discharge of tons of GHG and huge carbon footprint. Other less energy consuming techniques based on membrane separation are being sought to reduce both the carbon footprint and operating costs is membrane distillation (MD). Emerged in 1960s, MD is an alternative technology for water desalination attracting more attention since 1980s. MD process involves the evaporation of a hot feed, typically below boiling point of brine at standard conditions, by creating a water vapor pressure difference across the porous, hydrophobic membrane. Main advantages of MD compared to other commercially available technologies (MSF and MED) and specially RO are reduction of membrane and module stress due to absence of trans-membrane pressure, less impact of contaminant fouling on distillate due to transfer of only water vapor, utilization of low grade or waste heat from oil and gas industries to heat up the feed up to required temperature difference across the membrane, superior water quality, and relatively lower capital and operating cost. To achieve the objective of this study, state of the art flat-sheet cross-flow DCMD bench scale unit was designed, commissioned, and tested. The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics and morphology of the membrane suitable for DCMD through SEM imaging and contact angle measurement and to study the water quality of distillate produced by DCMD bench scale unit. Comparison with available literature data is undertaken where appropriate and laboratory data is used to compare a DCMD distillate quality with that of other desalination techniques and standards. Membrane SEM analysis showed that the PTFE membrane used for the study has contact angle of 127º with highly porous surface supported with less porous and bigger pore size PP membrane. Study on the effect of feed solution (salinity) and temperature on water quality of distillate produced from ICP and IC analysis showed that with any salinity and different feed temperature (up to 70ºC) the electric conductivity of distillate is less than 5 μS/cm with 99.99% salt rejection and proved to be feasible and effective process capable of consistently producing high quality distillate from very high feed salinity solution (i.e. 100000 mg/L TDS) even with substantial quality difference compared to other desalination methods such as RO and MSF.

Keywords: Membrane Distillation, Waste Heat, Seawater Desalination, Membrane, Freshwater, Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

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Authors: H. Buluthan Cetintas, M. Nejat Ozupek

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Communication is an important factor and a prop in directing corporate activities efficiently, in ensuring the flow of knowledge which is necessary for the continuity of the institution, in creating a common language in the institution, in transferring corporate culture and ultimately in corporate success. The idea of transmitting the knowledge among the workers in a healthy manner has revived knowledge communication. Knowledge communication can be defined as the act of mutual creation and communication of intuitions, assessments, experiences and capabilities, as long as maintained effectively, can provide advantages such as corporate continuity, access to corporate objectives and making true administrative decisions. Although the benefits of the knowledge communication to corporations are known, and the necessary worth and care is given, some hardships may arise which makes it difficult or even block it. In this article, difficulties that prevent knowledge communication will be discussed and solutions will be proposed.

Keywords: Corporate knowledge communication, knowledge communication, knowledge communication barriers

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Authors: G. Parmar, S. Mukherjee, R. Prasad

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The authors present an algorithm for order reduction of linear time invariant dynamic systems using the combined advantages of the eigen spectrum analysis and the error minimization by particle swarm optimization technique. Pole centroid and system stiffness of both original and reduced order systems remain same in this method to determine the poles, whereas zeros are synthesized by minimizing the integral square error in between the transient responses of original and reduced order models using particle swarm optimization technique, pertaining to a unit step input. It is shown that the algorithm has several advantages, e.g. the reduced order models retain the steady-state value and stability of the original system. The algorithm is illustrated with the help of two numerical examples and the results are compared with the other existing techniques.

Keywords: Eigen spectrum, Integral square error, Orderreduction, Particle swarm optimization, Stability.

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Authors: S. Himran, B. Mire, N. Salam, L. Sule

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This study was carried out experimentally and analytically about the performance of solar cell panel system for operating the pump coupled by dc-motor. The solar cell panel with total area 1.9848 m2 consists of three modules of 80 Wp each. The small centrifugal pump powered by dc-motor is operated to lift water from 1m to 7m heads in sequence and gives the amount of water pumped over the whole day from 08.00 to 16.00 h are 11988, 10851, 8874, 7695, 5760, 3600, 2340 L/d respectively. The hourly global solar radiation during the day is an average of 506 W/m2. This study also presents the I-V characteristics of the panel at global radiations 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 W/m2 matched with the operation of the pump at the above lifting heads. It proves that the only solar radiations 800 and 1000 W/m2 could provide lifting head from 1m to 7m. The analysis shows the best efficiency point of the performance of solar cell panel system occurs at the pumping head 2.89 m.

Keywords: Solar cell, dc- motor-pump, I-V characteristics, best efficiency point.

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Authors: M.Takeuchi, T.Kitagaki, Y.Noguchi, T. Washiya

Abstract:

A high performance clarification system has been discussed for advanced aqueous reprocessing of FBR spent fuel. Dissolver residue gives the cause of troubles on the plant operation of reprocessing. In this study, the new clarification system based on the hybrid of centrifuge and filtration was proposed to get the high separation ability of the component of whole insoluble sludge. The clarification tests of simulated solid species were carried out to evaluate the clarification performance using small-scale test apparatus of centrifuge and filter unit. The density effect of solid species on the collection efficiency was mainly evaluated in the centrifugal clarification test. In the filtration test using ceramic filter with pore size of 0.2μm, on the other hand, permeability and filtration rate were evaluated in addition to the filtration efficiency. As results, it was evaluated that the collection efficiency of solid species on the new clarification system was estimated as nearly 100%. In conclusion, the high clarification performance of dissolver liquor can be achieved by the hybrid of the centrifuge and filtration system.

Keywords: Centrifuge, Clarification, FBR dissolver liquor, Filtration

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Authors: Somorjeet Sharma Shamurailatpam, Rabindra Das, A. Suchitra Devi

Abstract:

Computer and video display users might complain about Asthenopia, burning, dry eyes etc. The management of dry eyes is often not in the lines of severity. Following systematic evaluation and grading, dry eye disease is one condition that can be practiced at all levels of ophthalmic care. In the present study, different spectrum causing dry eye and prevalence of dry eye disease in computer users of Manipur, India are determined with 600 individuals (300 cases and 300 control). Individuals between 15 and 50 years who used computers for more than 3 hrs a day for 1 year or more were included. Tear break up time (TBUT) and Schirmer’s test were conducted. It shows that 33 (20.4%) out of 164 males and 47 (30.3%) out of 136 females have dry eye. Possible explanation for the observed result is discussed.

Keywords: Asthenopia, computer vision syndrome, dry eyes, Schirmer’s test, tear breakup time.

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Authors: José A. D. Machuca, Bernabé Escobar-Pérez, Pedro Garrido Vega, Darkys E. Lujan García

Abstract:

Starting with an analysis of the financial and operational indicators that can be found in the specialised literature, this study aims to contribute to improvements in the performance measurement systems used when the unit of analysis is the manufacturing plant. For this a search was done in the highest impact Journals of Production and Operations Management and Management Accounting , with the aim of determining the financial and operational indicators used to evaluate performance when Advanced Production Practices have been implemented, more specifically when the practices implemented are Total Quality Management, JIT/Lean Manufacturing and Total Productive Maintenance. This has enabled us to obtain a classification of the two types of indicators based on how much each is used. For the financial indicators we have also prepared a proposal that can be adapted to manufacturing plants- accounting features. In the near future we will propose a model that links practices implementation with financial and operational indicators and these two last with each other. We aim to will test this model empirically with the data obtained in the High Performance Manufacturing Project.

Keywords: Advanced Production Practices, Financial Indicators, Non-Financial Indicators

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Authors: M. Boumaza, Y. Bakhabkhi

Abstract:

Water recycling represents an important challenge for many countries, in particular in countries where this natural resource is rare. On the other hand, in many operations, water is used as a cooling medium, as a high proportion of water consumed in industry is used for cooling purposes. Generally this water is rejected directly to the nature. This reject will cause serious environment damages as well as an important waste of this precious element.. On way to solve these problems is to reuse and recycle this warm water, through the use of natural cooling medium, such as air in a heat exchanger unit, known as a cooling tower. A poor performance, design or reliability of cooling towers will result in lower flow rate of cooling water an increase in the evaporation of water, an hence losses of water and energy. This paper which presents an experimental investigate of thermal and hydraulic performances of a mechanical cooling tower, enables to show that the water evaporation rate, Mev, increases with an increase in the air and water flow rates, as well as inlet water temperature and for fixed air flow rates, the pressure drop (ΔPw/Z) increases with increasing , L, due to the hydrodynamic behavior of the air/water flow.

Keywords: water, recycle, performance, cooling tower

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Authors: N. R. Harris, J. Curry

Abstract:

This paper describes the construction and operation of an experimental LoRaWAN network surrounding the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Following successful installation, an experimental node design is built and characterised, with particular emphasis on radio range. Several configurations are investigated, including different data rates, and varying heights of node. It is concluded that although range can be great (over 8 km in this case), environmental topology is critical. However, shorter range implementations, up to about 2 km in an urban environment, are relatively insensitive although care is still needed. The example node and the relatively simple base station reported demonstrate that LoraWan can be a very low cost and practical solution to Internet of Things type applications for distributed monitoring systems with sensors spread over distances of several km.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, LoRa, internet of things, propagation.

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