Search results for: microbial fuel cells

Authors: Avita K. Marihal, K.S. Jagadeesh, Sarita Sinha

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Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a polychlorinated aromatic compound that is widespread in industrial effluents and is considered to be a serious pollutant. Among the variety of industrial effluents encountered, effluents from tanning industry are very important and have a serious pollution potential. PCP is also formed unintentionally in effluents of paper and pulp industries. It is highly persistent in soils and is lethal to a wide variety of beneficial microorganisms and insects, human beings and animals. The natural processes that breakdown toxic chemicals in the environment have become the focus of much attention to develop safe and environmentfriendly deactivation technologies. Microbes and plants are among the most important biological agents that remove and degrade waste materials to enable their recycling in the environment. The present investigation was carried out with the aim of developing a microbial system for bioremediation of PCP polluted soils. A number of plant species were evaluated for their ability to tolerate different concentrations of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in the soil. The experiment was conducted for 30 days under pot culture conditions. The toxic effect of PCP on plants was studied by monitoring seed germination, plant growth and biomass. As the concentration of PCP was increased to 50 ppm, the inhibition of seed germination, plant growth and biomass was also increased. Although PCP had a negative effect on all plant species tested, maize and groundnut showed the maximum tolerance to PCP. Other tolerating crops included wheat, safflower, sunflower, and soybean. From the rhizosphere soil of the tolerant seedlings, as many as twenty seven PCP tolerant bacteria were isolated. From soybean, 8; sunflower, 3; safflower 8; maize 2; groundnut and wheat, 3 each isolates were made. They were screened for their PCP degradation potentials. HPLC analyses of PCP degradation revealed that the isolate MAZ-2 degraded PCP completely. The isolate MAZ-1 was the next best isolate with 90 per cent PCP degradation. These strains hold promise to be used in the bioremediation of PCP polluted soils.

Keywords: Biodegradation, pentachlorophenol, rhizobacteria.

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Authors: Ammar Mahjoubi, Ridha Fethi Mechlouch, Belgacem Mahdhaoui, Ammar Ben Brahim

Abstract:

This purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a model to accurately predict the cell temperature of a PV module that adapts to various mounting configurations, mounting locations, and climates while only requiring readily available data from the module manufacturer. Results from this model are also compared to results from published cell temperature models. The models were used to predict real-time performance from a PV water pumping systems in the desert of Medenine, south of Tunisia using 60-min intervals of measured performance data during one complete year. Statistical analysis of the predicted results and measured data highlight possible sources of errors and the limitations and/or adequacy of existing models, to describe the temperature and efficiency of PV-cells and consequently, the accuracy of performance of PV water pumping systems prediction models.

Keywords: Temperature of a photovoltaic module, Predicted models, PV water pumping systems efficiency, Simulation, Desert of southern Tunisia.

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Authors: S. Krustev, V. Angelova, P. Zaprjanova

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Selenium (Se) is an essential micro-nutrient for human and animals but it is highly toxic. Its organic compounds play an important role in biochemistry and nutrition of the cells. Concentration levels of this element in the different regions of the world vary considerably. This study aimed to compare the availability and levels of the Se in some rural areas of the Balkan Peninsula and relationship with the concentrations of other trace elements. For this purpose soil samples and wheat grains from different regions of Bulgaria, Serbia, Nord Macedonia, Romania, and Greece situated far from large industrial centers have been analyzed. The main methods for their determination were the atomic spectral techniques – atomic absorption and plasma atomic emission. As a result of this study, data on microelements levels from the main grain-producing regions of the Balkan Peninsula were determined and systematized. The presented results confirm the low levels of Se in this region: 0.222– 0.962 mg.kg^-1 in soils and 0.001 - 0.005 mg.kg^-1 in wheat grains and require measures to offset the effect of this deficiency.

Keywords: Agricultural soils, Balkan Peninsula, rural areas, selenium.

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Authors: S. N. Hosseini, S. M. H. Karimian

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A new conserving approach in the context of Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) is presented to simulate one dimensional, incompressible flow in a moving boundary problem. The method employs control volume scheme to simulate the flow field. The concept of ghost node is used at the boundaries to conserve the mass and momentum equations. The Present method implements the conservation laws in all cells including boundary control volumes. Application of the method is studied in a test case with moving boundary. Comparison between the results of this new method and a sharp interface (Image Point Method) IBM algorithm shows a well distinguished improvement in both pressure and velocity fields of the present method. Fluctuations in pressure field are fully resolved in this proposed method. This approach expands the IBM capability to simulate flow field for variety of problems by implementing conservation laws in a fully Cartesian grid compared to other conserving methods.

Keywords: Immersed Boundary Method, conservation of mass and momentum laws, moving boundary, boundary condition.

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Authors: Leila Rashidian, Abbas Ebrahimi

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The development of industrial activities, increase in fossil fuel consumption, vehicles, destruction of forests and grasslands, changes in land use, and population growth have caused to increase the amount of greenhouse gases especially CO₂ in the atmosphere in recent decades. This has led to global warming and climate change. In the present paper, we have investigated the trend of climate change according to the data simulation during the time interval of 2010-2030 in the Fars province. In this research, the daily climatic parameters such as maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of sunny hours during the 1977-2008 time interval for synoptic stations of Shiraz and Abadeh and during 1995-2008 for Lar stations and also the output of HADCM₃ model in 2010-2030 time interval have been used based on the A₂ propagation scenario. The results of the model show that the average temperature will increase by about 1 degree centigrade and the amount of precipitation will increase by 23.9% compared to the observational data. In conclusion, according to the temperature increase in this province, the amount of precipitation in the form of snow will be reduced and precipitations often will occur in the form of rain. This 1-degree centigrade increase during the season will reduce production by 6 to 10% because of shortening the growing period of wheat.

Keywords: Climate change, Lars.WG, HADCM3 model, Fars province, climatic parameters, A2 scenario.

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Authors: Ali Shirazi, Robert A. Taylor, Stephen D. White, Graham L. Morrison

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In this paper, a detailed simulation model of a solar-powered triple-effect LiBr–H₂O absorption chiller is developed to supply both cooling and heating demand of a large-scale building, aiming to reduce the fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in building sector. TRNSYS 17 is used to simulate the performance of the system over a typical year. A combined energetic-economic-environmental analysis is conducted to determine the system annual primary energy consumption and the total cost, which are considered as two conflicting objectives. A multi-objective optimization of the system is performed using a genetic algorithm to minimize these objectives simultaneously. The optimization results show that the final optimal design of the proposed plant has a solar fraction of 72% and leads to an annual primary energy saving of 0.69 GWh and annual CO₂ emissions reduction of ~166 tonnes, as compared to a conventional HVAC system. The economics of this design, however, is not appealing without public funding, which is often the case for many renewable energy systems. The results show that a good funding policy is required in order for these technologies to achieve satisfactory payback periods within the lifetime of the plant.

Keywords: Economic, environmental, multi-objective optimization, solar air-conditioning, triple-effect absorption chiller.

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Authors: Yuji Kotani, Shunsuke Kanai, Hisaki Watari

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In recent years, global warming has become a worldwide problem. The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is a top priority for many companies in the manufacturing industry. In the automobile industry as well, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is one of the most important issues. Technology to reduce the weight of automotive parts improves the fuel economy of automobiles, and is an important technology for reducing carbon dioxide. Also, even if this weight reduction technology is applied to electric automobiles rather than gasoline automobiles, reducing energy consumption remains an important issue. Plastic processing of hollow pipes is one important technology for realizing the weight reduction of automotive parts. Ohashi et al. [1],[2] present an example of research on pipe formation in which a process was carried out to enlarge a pipe diameter using a lost core, achieving the suppression of wall thickness reduction and greater pipe expansion than hydroforming. In this study, we investigated a method to increase the wall thickness of a pipe through pipe compression using planetary rolls. The establishment of a technology whereby the wall thickness of a pipe can be controlled without buckling the pipe is an important technology for the weight reduction of products. Using the finite element analysis method, we predicted that it would be possible to increase the compression of an aluminum pipe with a 3mm wall thickness by approximately 20%, and wall thickness by approximately 20% by pressing the hollow pipe with planetary rolls.

Keywords: Pipe-Forming, Wall Thickness, Finite-element-method

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Authors: Ankit Mitra

Abstract:

Speed, power consumption and area, are some of the most important factors of concern in modern day memory design. As we move towards Deep Sub-Micron Technologies, the problems of leakage current, noise and cell stability due to physical parameter variation becomes more pronounced. In this paper we have designed an 8T Read Decoupled Dual Port SRAM Cell with Dual Threshold Voltage and characterized it in terms of read and write delay, read and write noise margins, Data Retention Voltage and Leakage Current. Read Decoupling improves the Read Noise Margin and static power dissipation is reduced by using Dual-V_t transistors. The results obtained are compared with existing 6T, 8T, 9T SRAM Cells, which shows the superiority of the proposed design. The Cell is designed and simulated in TSPICE using 90nm CMOS process.

Keywords: CMOS, Dual-Port, Data Retention Voltage, 8T SRAM, Leakage Current, Noise Margin, Loop-cutting, Single-ended.

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Authors: Radosław K. Kowalski, Beata Sarosiek, Wiesław Demianowicz, Jędrek Judek, Krzysztof Goryczko, Stefan Dobosz, Henryk Kuźmiński, Krystyna Demska-Zakęś, Igor Babiak, Jan Glogowski

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Rainbow trout homogametic males, (XX or YY sex genotype), can be obtained, respectively, through masculinisation of genetic females or induced androgenesis. Aim of this study was to compare reproductive potential of neo-males (XX) and super-males (YY) with heterogametic males (XY). We measured spermatozoa motility parameters, sperm concentration, osmolality and characterized protein profiles in samples of stripped and testicular sperm obtained from XY and YY males, and testicular sperm of XX males. The motile spermatozoa, as measured by both subjective method and CASA, showed no differences between testicular sperm of XX males and stripped sperm of XY and YY males whereas testicular sperm of XY and YY males had significantly lower sperm motility. Result of protein densitometry showed similarities in protein profile between seminal plasma of XY and YY males and testicular fluids of XX males. Testis of XX males showed specific histological structures of cysts consists hypertrophied Sertoli cells.

Keywords: fish, genotype, rainbow trout, sperm.

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Authors: M. S. Hosseini, M. Tazzoli-Shadpour, I. Amjadi, A. A. Katbab, E. Jaefargholi-Rangraz

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Bionanotechnology deals with nanoscopic interactions between nanostructured materials and biological systems. Polymer nanocomposites with optimized biological activity have attracted great attention. Nanoclay is considered as reinforcing nanofiller in manufacturing of high performance nanocomposites. In current study, organomodified-nanoclay with negatively charged silicate layers was incorporated into biomedical grade silicone rubber. Nanoparticle loading has been tailored to enhance cell behavior. Addition of nanoparticles led to improved mechanical properties of substrate with enhanced strength and stiffness while no toxic effects was observed. Results indicated improved viability and proliferation of cells by addition of nanofillers. The improved mechanical properties of the matrix result in proper cell response through adjustment and arrangement of cytoskeletal fibers. Results can be applied in tissue engineering when enhanced substrates are required for improvement of cell behavior for in vivo applications.

Keywords: Biocompatibility, Composite, Organomodified- Nanoclay, Proliferation

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Authors: Elnasharty M., El Sharaby A., Nor El-din A.

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The gustatory system allows animals to distinguish varieties of food and affects greatly the consumption of food, hence the health and growth of animals. In the current study, we investigated the histogenesis of vallate papillae (VLP) in the rabbit tongue using light and scanning electron microscopy. Samples were obtained from rabbit embryos at the embryonic days 16-30 (E16-30), and from newborns until maturity; 6 months. At E16, the first primordia of vallate papillae were observed as small pits on the surface epithelium of the tongue-s root. At E18, the caudal part was prominent with loose mesenchymal tissue core; meanwhile the rostral part of the papilla was remained as a thick mass of epithelial cells. At E20-24, the side epithelium formed the primitive annular groove. At E26, the primitive taste buds appeared only at the papillary surface and reached their maturity by E28. The annular groove started to appear at E26 became more defined at E28. The definitive vallate papillae with substantial number of apparently mature taste buds were observed by the end of the second week. We conclude that the vallate papillae develop early and mature during the early postnatal life.

Keywords: Rabbit, vallate papillae, histogenesis, taste buds.

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Authors: Mohamed Sanad, Noha Hassan

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A low wind-load light-weight broad-band multi-beam base station antenna has been developed. It can generate any required number of beams with the required beamwidths. It can have horizontal and vertical sectorization at the same time. Vertical sectorization doubles the overall number of beams. It will be very valuable in LTE-A and 5G. It can be used to serve vertically split inner and outer cells, which improves system performance. The intersection between the beams of the proposed multi-beam antenna can be controlled by optimizing the design parameters of the antenna. The gain at the points of intersection between the beams, the null filling and the overlap between the beams can all be modified. The proposed multi-beam base station antenna can cover an unlimited number of wireless applications, regardless of their frequency bands. It can simultaneously cover all, current and future, wireless technology generations such as 2G, 3G, 4G (LTE), --- etc. For example, in LTE, it covers the bands 450-470 MHz, 690-960 MHz, 1.4-2.7 GHz and 3.3-3.8 GHz. It has at least 2 ports for each band in each beam for ±45° polarizations. It can include up to 72 ports or even more, which could facilitate any further needed capacity expansions.

Keywords: Base station antenna, multi-beam antenna, smart antenna, vertical sectorization.

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Authors: Chathurika D. Abeyrathne, Malka N. Halgamuge, Peter M. Farrell

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There is an ongoing controversy in the literature related to the biological effects of weak, low frequency electromagnetic fields. The physical arguments and interpretation of the experimental evidence are inconsistent, where some physical arguments and experimental demonstrations tend to reject the likelihood of any effect of the fields at extremely low level. The problem arises of explaining, how the low-energy influences of weak magnetic fields can compete with the thermal and electrical noise of cells at normal temperature using the theoretical studies. The magnetoreception in animals involve radical pair mechanism. The same mechanism has been shown to be involved in the circadian rhythm synchronization in mammals. These reactions can be influenced by the weak magnetic fields. Hence, it is postulated the biological clock can be affected by weak magnetic fields and these disruptions to the rhythm can cause adverse biological effects. In this paper, likelihood of altering the biological clock via the radical pair mechanism is analyzed to simplify these studies of controversy.

Keywords: Bio-effect, biological clock, magnetoreception, radical pair mechanism, weak magnetic field.

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Authors: Kashyap L. Mokariya, Varsha A. Shah, Makarand M. Lokhande

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As the current status and growth of Indian automobile industry is remarkable, transportation sectors are the main concern in terms of energy security and climate change. Due to rising demand of fuel and its dependency on foreign countries that affects the GDP of nation, suggests that penetration of electrical vehicle will increase in near future. So in this context analysis is done if the 10 percent of conventional vehicles including cars, three wheelers and two wheelers becomes electrical vehicles in near future which is also a part of Nations Electric Mobility Mission Plan then the saving which improves the nation’s economy is analyzed in detail. Whether the Indian electricity grid is capable of taking this load with current generation and demand all over the country is also analyzed in detail. Current situation of Indian grid is analyzed and how the gap between generation and demand can be reduced is discussed in terms of increasing generation capacity and energy conservation measures. Electrical energy conservation measures in Industry and especially in rural areas have been analyzed to improve performance of Indian electricity grid in context of electrical vehicle penetration in near future. Author was a part of Vishvakarma yojna in which energy losses were measured in 255 villages of Gujarat and solutions were suggested to mitigate them and corresponding reports was submitted to the authorities of Gujarat government.

Keywords: Vehicle penetration, feasibility, Energy conservation, future grid, Energy security, Automatic pf controller.

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Authors: Devasis Ghosh

Abstract:

The main hindrance to total cure of cancer is a) the failure to control continued production of cancer cells, b) its sustenance and c) its metastasis. This review study has tried to address this issue of total cancer cure in a more innovative way. A 10-pronged “CRAB METHOD”, a novel holistic scientific approach of Cancer treatment has been hypothesized in this paper. Apart from available Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Oncosurgery, (which shall not be discussed here), seven other points of interference and treatment has been suggested, i.e. 1. Efficient stress management. 2. Dampening of ATF3 expression. 3. Selective inhibition of Platelet Activity. 4. Modulation of serotonin production, metabolism and 5HT receptor antagonism. 5. Auxin, its anti-proliferative potential and its modulation. 6. Melatonin supplementation because of its oncostatic properties. 7. HDAC Inhibitors especially valproic acid use due to its apoptotic role in many cancers. If all the above stated seven steps are thoroughly taken care of at the time of initial diagnosis of cancer along with the available treatment modalities of Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Oncosurgery, then perhaps, the morbidity and mortality rate of cancer may be greatly reduced.

Keywords: ATF3 dampening, auxin modulation, cancer, platelet activation, serotonin, stress, valproic acid.

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Authors: Supavej Maniyom, Gerard H. Markx

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Three reactor types were explored and successfully used for pigment production by Monascus: shake flasks, and shaken and stirred miniaturized reactors. Also, the use of dielectric spectroscopy for the on-line measurement of biomass levels was explored. Shake flasks gave good pigment yields, but scale up is difficult, and they cannot be automated. Shaken bioreactors were less successful with pigment production than stirred reactors. Experiments with different impeller speeds in different volumes of liquid in the reactor confirmed that this is most likely due oxygen availability. The availability of oxygen appeared to affect biomass levels less than pigment production; red pigment production in particular needed very high oxygen levels. Dielectric spectroscopy was effectively used to continuously measure biomass levels during the submerged fungal fermentation in the shaken and stirred miniaturized bioreactors, despite the presence of the solid substrate particles. Also, the capacitance signal gave useful information about the viability of the cells in the culture.

Keywords: Chinese pearl barley, miniature submerged culture, Monascus pigment, biomass, capacitance.

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Authors: Ali Anaissi, Paul J. Kennedy, Madhu Goyal

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Analysis and visualization of microarraydata is veryassistantfor biologists and clinicians in the field of diagnosis and treatment of patients. It allows Clinicians to better understand the structure of microarray and facilitates understanding gene expression in cells. However, microarray dataset is a complex data set and has thousands of features and a very small number of observations. This very high dimensional data set often contains some noise, non-useful information and a small number of relevant features for disease or genotype. This paper proposes a non-linear dimensionality reduction algorithm Local Principal Component (LPC) which aims to maps high dimensional data to a lower dimensional space. The reduced data represents the most important variables underlying the original data. Experimental results and comparisons are presented to show the quality of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, experiments also show how this algorithm reduces high dimensional data whilst preserving the neighbourhoods of the points in the low dimensional space as in the high dimensional space.

Keywords: Linear Dimension Reduction, Non-Linear Dimension Reduction, Principal Component Analysis, Biologists.

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Authors: Marine A. Balayan, Susanna S. Mirzabekyan, Marine Isajanyan, Zaven S. Pepoyan, Аrmen H. Trchounian, Аstghik Z. Pepoyan, Helena Bujdakova

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It has been shown that pH 7,3 and 37 0C are the optimal condition for the growth of E. coli “ASAP". The cells grow well on Glucose, Lactose, D-Mannitol, D-Sorbitol, (+)-Xylose, L- (+)-Arabinose and Dulcitol. No growth has been observed on Sucrose, Inositol, Phenylalanine, and Tryptophan. The strain is sensitive to a range of antibiotics. The present study has demonstrated that E. coli “ASAP" inhibit the growth of S. enterica ATCC #700931 in vitro. The studies on conjugating activity has revealed no conjugant of E. coli “ASAP" with plasmid strains E. coli G35#59 and S. enterica ATCC #700931. On the other hand, the conjugants with low frequencies were obtained from E. coli “ASAP" with E. coli G35#61, and E. coli “ASAP" with randomly chosen isolate from healthy human gut microflora: E. coli E6. The results of present study have demonstrated improvements in gut microflora condition of patients with different diseases after the administration of “ASAP"

Keywords: E. coli, ASAP, Probiotic formula, gut microflora.

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Authors: Anna Vildová, H. Hendrychová, J. Kubeš, L. Tůmová

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The abiotic elicitation is one of the methods for increasing the secondary metabolites production in plant tissue cultures and it seems to be more effective than traditional strategies. This study verified the use of silver nitrate as elicitor to enhance flavonolignans and flavonoid taxifolin production in suspension culture of Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn. Silver nitrate in various concentrations (5.887.10-3 mol/L, 5.887.10-4 mol/L, 5.887.10-5 mol/L) was used as elicitor. The content of secondary metabolites in cell suspension cultures was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The samples were taken after 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 168 hours of treatment. The highest content of taxifolin production (2.2 mg.g-1) in cell suspension culture of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. was detected after silver nitrate (5.887.10-4 mol/L) treatment and 72 h application. Flavonolignans such as silybinA, silybin B, silydianin, silychristin, isosilybin A, isosilybin B were not produced by cell suspension culture of S. marianum after elicitor treatment. Our results show that the secondarymetabolites could be released from S. marianum cells into the nutrient medium by changed permeability of cell wall.

Keywords: Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn., elicitation, silver nitrate, taxifolin.

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Authors: N. Drir, L. Barazane, M. Loudini

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It is well known that photovoltaic (PV) cells are an attractive source of energy. Abundant and ubiquitous, this source is one of the important renewable energy sources that have been increasing worldwide year by year. However, in the V-P characteristic curve of GPV, there is a maximum point called the maximum power point (MPP) which depends closely on the variation of atmospheric conditions and the rotation of the earth. In fact, such characteristics outputs are nonlinear and change with variations of temperature and irradiation, so we need a controller named maximum power point tracker MPPT to extract the maximum power at the terminals of photovoltaic generator. In this context, the authors propose here to study the modeling of a photovoltaic system and to find an appropriate method for optimizing the operation of the PV generator using two intelligent controllers respectively to track this point. The first one is based on artificial neural networks and the second on fuzzy logic. After the conception and the integration of each controller in the global process, the performances are examined and compared through a series of simulation. These two controller have prove by their results good tracking of the MPPT compare with the other method which are proposed up to now.

Keywords: Maximum power point tracking, neural networks, photovoltaic, P&O.

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Authors: Leena Sharma

Abstract:

Chemical reaction and diffusion are important phenomena in quantitative neurobiology and biophysics. The knowledge of the dynamics of calcium Ca²⁺ is very important in cellular physiology because Ca²⁺ binds to many proteins and regulates their activity and interactions Calcium waves propagate inside cells due to a regenerative mechanism known as calcium-induced calcium release. Buffer-mediated calcium diffusion in the cytosol plays a crucial role in the process. A mathematical model has been developed for calcium waves by assuming the buffers are in equilibrium with calcium i.e., the rapid buffering approximation for a one dimensional unsteady state case. This model incorporates important physical and physiological parameters like dissociation rate, diffusion rate, total buffer concentration and influx. The finite difference method has been employed to predict [Ca²⁺] and buffer concentration time course regardless of the calcium influx. The comparative studies of the effect of the rapid buffered diffusion and kinetic parameters of the model on the concentration time course have been performed.

Keywords: Calcium Profile, Rapid Buffering Approximation, Influx, Dissociation rate constant.

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Authors: Abdulrahman S. Abduljalil, Zhibin Yu, Artur J. Jaworski, Lei Shi

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In a travelling wave thermoacoustic device, the regenerator sandwiched between a pair of (hot and cold) heat exchangers constitutes the so-called thermoacoustic core, where the thermoacoustic energy conversion from heat to acoustic power takes place. The temperature gradient along the regenerator caused by the two heat exchangers excites and maintains the acoustic wave in the resonator. The devices are called travelling wave thermoacoustic systems because the phase angle difference between the pressure and velocity oscillation is close to zero in the regenerator. This paper presents the construction and testing of a thermoacoustic engine equipped with a ceramic regenerator, made from a ceramic material that is usually used as catalyst substrate in vehicles- exhaust systems, with fine square channels (900 cells per square inch). The testing includes the onset temperature difference (minimum temperature difference required to start the acoustic oscillation in an engine), the acoustic power output, thermal efficiency and the temperature profile along the regenerator.

Keywords: Regenerator, Temperature gradient, Thermoacoustic, Travelling-wave.

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Authors: Won Song, Bo-Ra Koo, Seok Eui Choi, Yong-Taeg Oh, Dong-Chan Shin

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Optical properties of sputter-deposited ZnS thin films were investigated as potential replacements for CBD(chemical bath deposition) CdS buffer layers in the application of CIGS solar cells. ZnS thin films were fabricated on glass substrates at RT, 150oC, 200oC, and 250oC with 50 sccm Ar gas using an RF magnetron sputtering system. The crystal structure of the thin film is found to be zinc blende (cubic) structure. Lattice parameter of ZnS is slightly larger than CdS on the plane and thus better matched with that of CIGS. Within a 400-800 nm wavelength region, the average transmittance was larger than 75%. When the deposition temperature of the thin film was increased, the blue shift phenomenon was enhanced. Band gap energy of the ZnS thin film tended to increase as the deposition temperature increased. ZnS thin film is a promising material system for the CIGS buffer layer, in terms of ease of processing, low cost, environmental friendliness, higher transparency, and electrical properties

Keywords: ZnS thin film, Buffer layer, CIGS, Solar cell.

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Authors: Aytekin A.O., Morimura S.

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Chitosan is a biopolymer composed of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine. Solubility and viscosity pose problems in some applications. These problems can be overcome with unique modifications. In this study, firstly, chitosan was modified by caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid, separately. Then, growing effects of these modified polymers was observed in U937 cell line. Caffeic acid is a phenolic compound and its modifications act carcinogenic inhibitors in drugs. Thiolated chitosans are commonly being used for drugdelivery systems in various routes, because of enhancing mucoadhesiveness property. U937 cell line was used model cell for leukaemia. Modifications were achieved by 1 – 15 % binding range. Increasing binding ratios showed higher radical-scavenging activity and reducing cell growth, in compared to native chitosan. Caffeic acid modifications showed higher radical-scavenging activity than thiolated chitosans at the same concentrations. Caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid modifications inhibited growth of U937, effectively.

Keywords: Chitosan, U937 cell, caffeic acid, thioglycolic acid

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Authors: Peter Odero Akuon

Abstract:

A rain cell ratio model is proposed that computes attenuation of the smallest rain cell which represents the maximum rain rate value i.e. the cell size when rainfall rate is exceeded 0.01% of the time, R_0.01 and predicts attenuation for other cells as the ratio with this maximum. This model incorporates the dependence of the path factor r on the ellipsoidal path variation of the Fresnel zone at different frequencies. In addition, the inhomogeneity of rainfall is modeled by a rain drop packing density factor. In order to derive the model, two empirical methods that can be used to find rain cell size distribution D_c are presented. Subsequently, attenuation measurements from different climatic zones for terrestrial radio links with frequencies F in the range 7-38 GHz are used to test the proposed model. Prediction results show that the path factor computed from the rain cell ratio technique has improved reliability when compared with other path factor and effective rain rate models, including the current ITU-R 530-15 model of 2013.

Keywords: Packing density of rain drops, prediction model, rain attenuation, rain cell ratio technique.

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Authors: Santosh Kumar, Anand Prakash, Kanak Sinha, Anita K Verma

Abstract:

Vernonia divergens Benth., commonly known as “Insulin Plant” (Fam: Asteraceae) is a potent sugar killer. Locally the leaves of the plant, boiled in water are successfully administered to a large number of diabetic patients. The present study evaluates the putative anti-diabetic ingredients, isolated from the in vivo and in vitro grown plantlets of V. divergens for their antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Sterilized explants of nodal segments were cultured on MS (Musashige and Skoog, 1962) medium in presence of different combinations of hormones. Multiple shoots along with bunch of roots were regenerated at 1mg l-1 BAP and 0.5 mg l-1 NAA. Micro-plantlets were separated and sub-cultured on the double strength (2X) of the above combination of hormones leading to increased length of roots and shoots. These plantlets were successfully transferred to soil and survived well in nature. The ethanol extract of plantlets from both in vivo & in vitro sources were prepared in soxhlet extractor and then concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure in rotary evaporator. Thus obtainedconcentrated extracts showed significant inhibitory activity against gram negative bacteria like Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa but no inhibition was found against gram positive bacteria. Further, these ethanol extracts were screened for in vitro percentage cytotoxicity at different time periods (24 h, 48 h and 72 h) of different dilutions. The in vivo plant extract inhibited the growth of EAC mouse cell lines in the range of 65, 66, 78, and 88% at 100, 50, 25 & 12.5μg mL-1 but at 72 h of treatment. In case of the extract of in vitro origin, the inhibition was found against EAC cell lines even at 48h. During spectrophotometric scanning, the extracts exhibited different maxima (ʎ) - four peaks in in vitro extracts as against single in in vivo preparation suggesting the possible change in the nature of ingredients during micropropagation through tissue culture techniques.

Keywords: Anti-cancer, Anti-microbial, EAC mouse cell, Tissue culture, Vernonia divergens.

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Authors: Takeshi Takeda

Abstract:

An experiment utilizing the ROSA/LSTF (rig of safety assessment/large-scale test facility) simulated a 1.9% vessel upper head small-break loss-of-coolant accident with an accident management (AM) measure under the total failure of high-pressure injection system of emergency core cooling system in a pressurized water reactor. Steam generator (SG) secondary-side depressurization on the AM measure was started by fully opening relief valves in both SGs when the maximum core exit temperature rose to 623 K. A large increase took place in the cladding surface temperature of simulated fuel rods on account of a late and slow response of core exit thermocouples during core boil-off. The author analyzed the LSTF test by reference to the matrix of an integral effect test for the validation of a thermal-hydraulic system code. Problems remained in predicting the primary coolant distribution and the core exit temperature with the RELAP5/MOD3.3 code. The uncertainty analysis results of the RELAP5 code confirmed that the sample size with respect to the order statistics influences the value of peak cladding temperature with a 95% probability at a 95% confidence level, and the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.

Keywords: LSTF, LOCA, uncertainty analysis, RELAP5.

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Authors: Siti Nor Hafizah binti Mohd Zaid, Mohamed Abdel-Maguid, Abdel-Hamid Soliman

Abstract:

Because road traffic accidents are a major source of death worldwide, attempts have been made to create Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) able to detect vehicle, driver and environmental conditions that are cues for possible potential accidents. This paper presents continued work on a novel Nonintrusive Intelligent Driver Assistance and Safety System (Ni-DASS) for assessing driver attention and hazard awareness. It uses two onboard CCD cameras – one observing the road and the other observing the driver-s face. The windscreen is divided into cells and analysis of the driver-s eye-gaze patterns allows Ni-DASS to determine the windscreen cell the driver is focusing on using eye-gesture templates. Intersecting the driver-s field of view through the observed windscreen cell with subsections of the camera-s field of view containing a potential hazard allows Ni-DASS to estimate the probability that the driver has actually observed the hazard. Results have shown that the proposed technique is an accurate enough measure of driver observation to be useful in ADAS systems.

Keywords: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Driver Hazard Awareness, Driver Vigilance, Eye Tracking

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Authors: Esra Yel, Tabriz Aslanov, Merve Sogancioglu, Suheyla Kocaman, Gulnare Ahmetli

Abstract:

The disposal of waste plastics has become a major worldwide environmental problem. Pyrolysis of waste plastics is one of the routes to waste minimization and recycling that has been gaining interest. In pyrolysis, the pyrolysed material is separated into gas, liquid (both are fuel) and solid (char) products. All fractions have utilities and economical value depending upon their characteristics. The first objective of this study is to determine the co-pyrolysis product fractions of waste HDPE- (high density polyethylene) and LDPE (low density polyethylene)-olive pomace (OP) and to determine the qualities of the solid product char. Chars obtained at 700 °C pyrolysis were used in biocomposite preparation as additive. As the second objective, the effects of char on biocomposite quality were investigated. Pyrolysis runs were performed at temperature 700 °C with heating rates of 5 °C/min. Biocomposites were prepared by mixing of chars with bisphenol-F type epoxy resin in various wt%. Biocomposite properties were determined by measuring electrical conductivity, surface hardness, Young’s modulus and tensile strength of the composites. The best electrical conductivity results were obtained with HDPE-OP char. For HDPE-OP char and LDPE-OP char, compared to neat epoxy, the tensile strength values of the composites increased by 102% and 78%, respectively, at 10% char dose. The hardness measurements showed similar results to the tensile tests, since there is a correlation between the hardness and the tensile strength.

Keywords: Pyrolysis, olive pomace, char, biocomposite, PE plastics.

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Authors: H. Akbari Khorami, P. Wild, N. Djilali

Abstract:

This paper reports on the response of a fiber-optic sensing probe to small concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor at room temperature. H2O2 has extensive applications in industrial and medical environments. Conversely, H2O2 can be a health hazard by itself. For example, H2O2 induces cellular damage in human cells and its presence can be used to diagnose illnesses such as asthma and human breast cancer. Hence, development of reliable H2O2 sensor is of vital importance to detect and measure this species. Ferric ferrocyanide, referred to as Prussian Blue (PB), was deposited on the tip of a multimode optical fiber through the single source precursor technique and served as an indicator of H2O2 in a spectroscopic manner. Sensing tests were performed in H2O2-H2O vapor mixtures with different concentrations of H2O2. The results of sensing tests show the sensor is able to detect H2O2 concentrations in the range of 50.6 ppm to 229.5 ppm. Furthermore, the sensor response to H2O2 concentrations is linear in a log-log scale with the adjacent R-square of 0.93. This sensing behavior allows us to detect and quantify the concentration of H2O2 in the vapor phase.

Keywords: Chemical deposition, fiber-optic sensors, hydrogen peroxide vapor, prussian blue.

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