Search results for: dissolved oxygen profiles

Authors: Hamed Harrafi, Masoumeh Khedri, Karim Karaminejad

Abstract:

Measurement of the COD of a spent caustic solution involves firstly digestion of a test sample with dichromate solution and secondly measurement of dichromate remained by titration by ferrous ammonium sulfate [FAS] to an end point. In this paper we study by a potentiometric end point with Ag/AgCl reference electrode and gold rode electrode. The potentiometric end point is sharp and easily identified especially for the samples with high turbidity and color that other methods such as colorimetric in this type of sample do not result in high precision. Because interim of titration responds quickly to potential changes within the [Cr+6/Cr+3& Fe+2/Fe+3] solution producing stable readings that is lead to accurate COD measurement. Finally results are compared with data determined using colorimetric method for standard samples. It is shown that the potentiometric end point titration with gold rode electrode can be used with equal or better facility

Keywords: chemical oxygen demand, spent caustic and potentiometric determination

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4521

Authors: A. M. Gsiea, J. P. Goss, P. R. Briddon, Ramadan. M. Al-habashi, K. M. Etmimi, Khaled. A. S. Marghani

Abstract:

Using first-principles methods based on density functional theory and pseudopotentials, we have performed a details study of native defects in ZnO. Native point defects are unlikely to be cause of the unintentional n-type conductivity. Oxygen vacancies, which considered most often been invoked as shallow donors, have high formation energies in n-type ZnO, in edition are a deep donors. Zinc interstitials are shallow donors, with high formation energies in n-type ZnO, and thus unlikely to be responsible on their own for unintentional n-type conductivity under equilibrium conditions, as well as Zn antisites which have higher formation energies than zinc interstitials. Zinc vacancies are deep acceptors with low formation energies for n-type and in which case they will not play role in p-type coductivity of ZnO. Oxygen interstitials are stable in the form of electrically inactive split interstitials as well as deep acceptors at the octahedral interstitial site under n-type conditions. Our results may provide a guide to experimental studies of point defects in ZnO.

Keywords: DFT, Native, n-Type, ZnO.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4501

Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari

Abstract:

Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.  

Keywords: Energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1415

Authors: Fatanah M. Suhaimi, J. Geoffrey Chase, Christopher G. Pretty, Rodney Elliott, Geoffrey M. Shaw

Abstract:

Microcirculatory dysfunction is very common in sepsis and may results in organ failure and increased risk of death. Analyzing oxygen utilization can potentially assess microcirculation function of an individual. In this study, a modified pulse oximeter is used to extract information signals due to absorption of red (R) and infrared (IR) light. IR and R signal are related to the overall blood volume and reduced hemoglobin, respectively. Differences between these two signals thus represent the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin. Avascular occlusion test has been conducted on healthy individuals to validate the pulse oximeter concept. In this test, both R and IR signals rapidly changed according to the occlusion process. The pulse oximeter concept presented is capable of extracting valuable information to assess microcirculation condition. Implementing this concept on ICU patients has the potential to aid sepsis diagnosis and provide more accurate tracking of patient state and sepsis status.

Keywords: Microcirculation, sepsis, sepsis diagnosis, oxygen extraction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1985

Authors: C. Hönnscheidt, R. Krull

Abstract:

Oxidative stress makes up common incidents in eukaryotic metabolism. The presence of diverse components disturbing the equilibrium during oxygen metabolism increases oxidative damage unspecifically in living cells. Body´s own ubiquinone (Q10) seems to be a promising drug in defending the heightened appearance of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Though, its lipophilic properties require a new strategy in drug formulation to overcome their low bioavailability. Consequently, the manufacture of heterogeneous nanodispersions is in focus for medical applications. The composition of conventional nanodispersions is made up of a drug-consisting core and a surfactive agent, also named as surfactant. Long-termed encapsulation of the surfactive components into tissues might be the consequence of the use during medical therapeutics. The potential of provoking side-effects is given by their nonbiodegradable properties. Further improvements during fabrication process use the incorporation of biodegradable components such as modified γ-polyglutamic acid which decreases the potential of prospective side-effects.

Keywords: Biopolymers, γ-Polyglutamic acid, Oxidative stress, Ubiquinone.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2190

Authors: Deepak Mohan, Sushma Sharma

Abstract:

Diclofenac sodium, a member of the acetic acid family of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, is used to retard inflammation, arthritis pain and ankylosing spondylitis. The drug is known to cause severe injury in different tissues due to formation of reactive oxygen species. The present study is focused on the effect of different doses of diclofenac (4 mg/kg/body weight and 14 mg/kg/body weight on histoarchitecture of the liver from 7-28 days of the investigation. Diclofenac administration resulted in distorted hepatic degeneration and formation of wide areas in the form of sinusoidal gaps. Hepatic fibrosis noticed in different stages of investigation could be attributed to chronic inflammation and reactive oxygen species which results in deposition of extracellular matrix proteins. The abrupt degenerative changes observed during later stages of the experiment showed maximum damage to the liver, and there was enlargement of sinusoidal gaps accompanied by maximum necrosis in the tissues.

Keywords: Arthritis, diclofenac, histoarchitecture, sinusoidal.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1107

Authors: Ming-Lun Chiang, Hsi-Chia Chen, Chieh Wu, Yu-Ting Tseng, Ming-Ju Chen

Abstract:

In this study, three strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025) were subjected to acid adaptation at pH 5.5 for 90 min. The survival of acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus strains under simulated gastric condition and their protein expression profiles were investigated. Results showed that acid adaptation increased the survival of the test V. parahaemolyticus strains after exposure to simulated gastric juice (pH 3). Additionally, acid adaptation also affected the protein expression in these V. parahaemolyticus strains. Nine proteins, identified as atpA, atpB, DnaK, GroEL, OmpU, enolase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, phosphoglycerate kinase and triosephosphate isomerase, were induced by acid adaptation in two or three of the test strains. These acid-adaptive proteins may play important regulatory roles in the acid tolerance response (ATR) of V. parahaemolyticus.

Keywords: Acid adaptation, protein expression, simulated gastric juice, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1544

Authors: E. Feizi Ashtiani, S. Jamshidi, M.H Niksokhan, A. Feizi Ashtiani

Abstract:

Waste load allocation (WLA) policies may use multiobjective optimization methods to find the most appropriate and sustainable solutions. These usually intend to simultaneously minimize two criteria, total abatement costs (TC) and environmental violations (EV). If other criteria, such as inequity, need for minimization as well, it requires introducing more binary optimizations through different scenarios. In order to reduce the calculation steps, this study presents value index as an innovative decision making approach. Since the value index contains both the environmental violation and treatment costs, it can be maximized simultaneously with the equity index. It implies that the definition of different scenarios for environmental violations is no longer required. Furthermore, the solution is not necessarily the point with minimized total costs or environmental violations. This idea is testified for Haraz River, in north of Iran. Here, the dissolved oxygen (DO) level of river is simulated by Streeter-Phelps equation in MATLAB software. The WLA is determined for fish farms using multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) in two scenarios. At first, the trade-off curves of TC-EV and TC-Inequity are plotted separately as the conventional approach. In the second, the Value-Equity curve is derived. The comparative results show that the solutions are in a similar range of inequity with lower total costs. This is due to the freedom of environmental violation attained in value index. As a result, the conventional approach can well be replaced by the value index particularly for problems optimizing these objectives. This reduces the process to achieve the best solutions and may find better classification for scenario definition. It is also concluded that decision makers are better to focus on value index and weighting its contents to find the most sustainable alternatives based on their requirements.

Keywords: Waste load allocation (WLA), Value index, Multi objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), Haraz River, Equity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1984

Authors: M. Vesali Naseh, A. A. Khodadadi, Y. Mortazavi, O. Alizadeh Sahraei, F. Pourfayaz, S. Mosadegh Sedghi

Abstract:

In this study, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were modified with nitric acid chemically and by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma in an oxygen-based atmosphere. Used carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were prepared by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) floating catalyst method. For removing amorphous carbon and metal catalyst, MWNTs were exposed to dry air and washed with hydrochloric acid. Heating purified CNTs under helium atmosphere caused elimination of acidic functional groups. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) shows formation of oxygen containing groups such as C=O and COOH. Brunauer, Emmett, Teller (BET) analysis revealed that functionalization causes generation of defects on the sidewalls and opening of the ends of CNTs. Results of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and gas chromatography(GC) indicate that nitric acid treatment create more acidic groups than plasma treatment.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), chemical treatment, functionalization, plasma.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5717

Authors: Freeman Ntuli

Abstract:

An overview of the important aspects of managing and controlling industrial effluent discharges to public sewers namely sampling, characterization, quantification and legislative controls has been presented. The findings have been validated by means of a case study covering three industrial sectors namely, tanning, textile finishing and food processing industries. Industrial effluents discharges were found to be best monitored by systematic and automatic sampling and quantified using water meter readings corrected for evaporative and consumptive losses. Based on the treatment processes employed in the public owned treatment works and the chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand levels obtained, the effluent from all the three industrial sectors studied were found to lie in the toxic zone. Thus, physico-chemical treatment of these effluents is required to bring them into the biodegradable zone. KL values (quoted to base e) were greater than 0.50 day-1 compared to 0.39 day-1 for typical municipality wastewater.

Keywords: biodegradability, industrial effluent, pollution control, public sewers

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3115

Authors: Chiang-Ho Cheng, An-Shik Yang, Hong-Yih Cheng

Abstract:

This paper applies the MEMS technology to design and fabricate a micro-bubble generator by a piezoelectric actuator. Coupled with a nickel nozzle plate, an annular piezoelectric ceramic was utilized as the primary structure of the generator. In operations, the piezoelectric element deforms transversely under an electric field applied across the thickness of the generator. The surface of the nozzle plate can expand or contract because of the induction of radial strain, resulting in the whole structure to bend, and successively transport oxygen micro-bubbles into the blood flow for enhancing the oxygen content in blood. In the tests, a high magnification microscope and a high speed CCD camera were employed to photograph the time evolution of meniscus shape of gaseous bubbles dispensed from the micro-bubble generator for flow visualization. This investigation thus explored the bubble formation process including the influences of inlet gas pressure along with driving voltage and resonance frequency on the formed bubble extent.

Keywords: Micro-bubble, nozzle, oxygenator, piezoelectric.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1291

Authors: May Zin Lwin., Mya Mya Oo

Abstract:

In the first part of the research work, an electrolyzer (10.16 cm dia and 24.13 cm height) to produce hydrogen and oxygen was constructed for single slice O2/H2 fuel cell using cation exchange membrane. The electrolyzer performance was tested with 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH electrolyte solution with current input 4 amp and 2.84 V from the rectifier. Rates of volume of hydrogen produced were 0.159 cm3/sec, 0.155 cm3/sec, 0.169 cm3/sec and 0.163 cm3/sec respectively from 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH solution. Rates of volume of oxygen produced were 0.212 cm3/sec, 0.201 cm3/sec, 0.227 cm3/sec and 0.219 cm3/sec respectively from 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH solution (1.5 L). In spite of being tested the increased concentration of electrolyte solution, the gas rate does not change significantly. Therefore, inexpensive 23% NaOH electrolyte solution was chosen to use as the electrolyte in the electrolyzer. In the second part of the research work, graphite serpentine flow plates, fiberglass end plates, stainless steel screen electrodes, silicone rubbers were made to assemble the single slice O2/H2 polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).

Keywords: electrolyzer, electrolyte solution, fuel cell, rectifier

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2037

Authors: Mst. Nilufa Sultana, Shatirah Akib, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohamed Roseli Zainal Abidin

Abstract:

Most people today are aware that global climate change is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs, an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia. This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kuala Lumpur, and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.

Keywords: Green roofs, INWQS, MSMA-SME, Rainwater harvesting.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2849

Authors: Waqas Saleem, Fan Yuqing

Abstract:

A strategy is implemented to find the improved configuration design of an existing aircraft structure by executing topology and shape optimizations. Structural analysis of the Initial Design Space is performed in ANSYS under the loads pertinent to operating and ground conditions. By using the FEA results and data, an initial optimized layout configuration is attained by exploiting nonparametric topology optimization in TOSCA software. Topological optimized surfaces are then smoothened and imported in ANSYS to develop the geometrical features. Nodes at the critical locations of resulting voids are selected for sketching rough profiles. Rough profiles are further refined and CAD feasible geometric features are generated. The modified model is then analyzed under the same loadings and constraints as defined for topology optimization. Shape at the peak stress concentration areas are further optimized by exploiting the shape optimization in TOSCA.shape module. The harmonized stressed model with the modified surfaces is then imported in CATIA to develop the final design.

Keywords: Structural optimization, Topology optimization, Shape optimization, Tail fin

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2765

Authors: Rafał Adamczak

Abstract:

State-of-the-art methods for secondary structure (Porter, Psi-PRED, SAM-T99sec, Sable) and solvent accessibility (Sable, ACCpro) predictions use evolutionary profiles represented by the position specific scoring matrix (PSSM). It has been demonstrated that evolutionary profiles are the most important features in the feature space for these predictions. Unfortunately applying PSSM matrix leads to high dimensional feature spaces that may create problems with parameter optimization and generalization. Several recently published suggested that applying feature extraction for the PSSM matrix may result in improvements in secondary structure predictions. However, none of the top performing methods considered here utilizes dimensionality reduction to improve generalization. In the present study, we used simple and fast methods for features selection (t-statistics, information gain) that allow us to decrease the dimensionality of PSSM matrix by 75% and improve generalization in the case of secondary structure prediction compared to the Sable server.

Keywords: Secondary structure prediction, feature selection, position specific scoring matrix.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1889

Authors: Binnur Sagbas

Abstract:

Artificial joint replacements such as total knee and total hip prosthesis have been applied to the patients who affected by osteoarthritis. Although different material combinations are used for these joints, biopolymers are most commonly preferred materials especially for acetabular cup and tibial component of hip and knee joints respectively. The main limitation that shortens the service life of these prostheses is wear. Wear is complicated phenomena and it must be considered with friction and lubrication. In this study, micro wave (MW) induced argon+oxygen plasma surface modification were applied on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and vitamin E blended UHMWPE (VE-UHMWPE) biopolymer surfaces to improve surface wettability and wear resistance of the surfaces. Contact angel measurement method was used for determination of wettability. Ball-on-disc wear test was applied under 25% bovine serum lubrication conditions. The results show that surface wettability and wear resistance of both material samples were increased by plasma surface modification.

Keywords: Artificial joints, plasma surface modification, UHMWPE, vitamin E, wear.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1573

Authors: Ilze Gramatina, Laima Silina, Tatjana Rakcejeva

Abstract:

Venison is well known as a traditional meat type in Europe and it is lower in calories, cholesterol and fat content than common cuts of beef, pork or lamb. The aim of the current research was to determine content of amino acids (LVS ISO 13903:2005) in different types of marinades marinated venison during storage. Beef as a control was analyzed for comparison of obtained results. The meat (2x3x2cm) pieces were marinated in two different types of marinades: red wine and tomato sauce marinade. The prepared meat samples were stored (marinated) at 4±2ºC temperature for 48±1h. Marinated meat was placed in polypropylene trays, hermetically sealed with high barrier polymer film under modified atmosphere (C0₂ 40%+N₂ 60%) without and with iron based oxygen scavenger sachets (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Europe Ageless®), all samples were compared with packed marinated products in air ambiance. Results of current research show that changes of amino acids content in marinated venison mainly depend on packaging conditions.

Keywords: Marinated venison, modified atmospheres, oxygen absorber.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2133

Authors: Asfaw Gezae Daful

Abstract:

In the present study, two distinctly different approaches are followed for modeling of reactive distillation column, the equilibrium stage model and the nonequilibrium stage model. These models are simulated with a computer code developed in the present study using MATLAB programming. In the equilibrium stage models, the vapor and liquid phases are assumed to be in equilibrium and allowance is made for finite reaction rates, where as in the nonequilibrium stage models simultaneous mass transfer and reaction rates are considered. These simulated model results are validated from the experimental data reported in the literature. The simulated results of equilibrium and nonequilibrium models are compared for concentration, temperature and reaction rate profiles in a reactive distillation column for Methyl Tert Butyle Ether (MTBE) production. Both the models show similar trend for the concentration, temperature and reaction rate profiles but the nonequilibrium model predictions are higher and closer to the experimental values reported in the literature.

Keywords: Reactive Distillation, Equilibrium model, Nonequilibrium model, Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4166

Authors: Jean François Chatelain, Imed Zaghbani, Joseph Monier

Abstract:

The machining of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics has come to constitute a significant challenge for many fields of industry. The resulting surface finish of machined parts is of primary concern for several reasons, including contact quality and impact on the assembly. Therefore, the characterization and prediction of roughness based on machining parameters are crucial for costeffective operations. In this study, a PCD tool comprised of two straight flutes was used to trim 32-ply carbon fiber laminates in a bid to analyze the effects of the feed rate and the cutting speed on the surface roughness. The results show that while the speed has but a slight impact on the surface finish, the feed rate for its part affects it strongly. A detailed study was also conducted on the effect of fiber orientation on surface roughness, for quasi-isotropic laminates used in aerospace. The resulting roughness profiles for the four-ply orientation lay-up were compared, and it was found that fiber angle is a critical parameter relating to surface roughness. One of the four orientations studied led to very poor surface finishes, and characteristic roughness profiles were identified and found to only relate to the ply orientations of multilayer carbon fiber laminates.

Keywords: Roughness, Detouring, Composites, Aerospace

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2643

Authors: Ming-Lun Chiang, Chieh Wu, Ming-Ju Chen

Abstract:

Three strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025) implicated in food poisoning outbreaks in Taiwan were subjected to acid adaptation at pH 5.5 for 90 min. The growth behaviors of acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus in the media supplemented with various nitrogen and carbon sources were investigated. The effects of acid adaptation on the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) secretion and fatty acid profiles of V. parahaemolyticus were also examined. Results showed that acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus 690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025 grew similarly in TSB-3% NaCl and basal media supplemented with various carbon and nitrogen sources during incubation period. Higher TDH secretion was noted with V. parahaemolyticus 690 among the three strains. However, acid-adapted strains produced less amounts of TDH than non-adapted strains when they were grown in TSB-3% NaCl. Additionally, acid adaptation increased the ratio of SFA/USFA in cells of V. parahaemolyticus strains.

Keywords: Vibrio parahaemolyticus, acid adaptation, thermostable direct hemolysin, fatty acid profile.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2072

Authors: Anubha Kaushik, Raman Preet

Abstract:

Distillery wastewater in the form of spent wash is a complex and strong industrial effluent, with high load of organic pollutants that may deplete dissolved oxygen on being discharged into aquatic systems and contaminate groundwater by leaching of pollutants, while untreated spent wash disposed on land acidifies the soil. Stringent legislative measures have therefore been framed in different countries for discharge standards of distillery effluent. Utilising the organic pollutants present in various types of wastes as food by mixed microbial populations is emerging as an eco-friendly approach in the recent years, in which complex organic matter is converted into simpler forms, and simultaneously useful gases are produced as renewable and clean energy sources. In the present study, wastewater from a rice bran based distillery has been used as the substrate in a dark fermenter, and native microbial consortium from the digester sludge has been used as the inoculum to treat the wastewater and produce hydrogen. After optimising the operational conditions in batch reactors, sequential batch mode and continuous flow stirred tank reactors were used to study the best operational conditions for enhanced and sustained hydrogen production and removal of pollutants. Since the rate of hydrogen production by the microbial consortium during dark fermentation is influenced by concentration of organic matter, pH and temperature, these operational conditions were optimised in batch mode studies. Maximum hydrogen production rate (347.87ml/L/d) was attained in 32h dark fermentation while a good proportion of COD also got removed from the wastewater. Slightly acidic initial pH seemed to favor biohydrogen production. In continuous stirred tank reactor, high H₂ production from distillery wastewater was obtained from a relatively shorter substrate retention time (SRT) of 48h and a moderate organic loading rate (OLR) of 172 g/l/d COD.

Keywords: Distillery wastewater, hydrogen, microbial consortium, organic pollution, sludge.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 892

Authors: Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Anshu Manik

Abstract:

Subgrade moisture content varies with environmental and soil conditions and has significant influence on pavement performance. Therefore, it is important to establish realistic estimates of expected subgrade moisture contents to account for the effects of this variable on predicted pavement performance during the design stage properly. The initial boundary soil suction profile for a given pavement is a critical factor in determining expected moisture variations in the subgrade for given pavement and climatic and soil conditions. Several numerical models have been developed for predicting water and solute transport in saturated and unsaturated subgrade soils. Soil hydraulic properties are required for quantitatively describing water and chemical transport processes in soils by the numerical models. The required hydraulic properties are hydraulic conductivity, water diffusivity, and specific water capacity. The objective of this paper was to determine isothermal moisture profiles in a soil fill and predict the soil moisture movement above the ground water table using a simple one-dimensional finite difference model.

Keywords: Fill, Hydraulic Conductivity, Pavement, Subgrade.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1825

Authors: Gry M, Bergström J, Lengquist J, Lindberg J, Drobin K, Schwenk J, Nilsson P, Schuppe-Koistinen I.

Abstract:

Sensitive and predictive DILI (Drug Induced Liver Injury) biomarkers are needed in drug R&D to improve early detection of hepatotoxicity. The discovery of DILI biomarkers that demonstrate the predictive power to identify individuals at risk to DILI would represent a major advance in the development of personalized healthcare approaches. In this healthy volunteer acetaminophen study (4g/day for 7 days, with 3 monitored nontreatment days before and 4 after), 450 serum samples from 32 subjects were analyzed using protein profiling by antibody suspension bead arrays. Multiparallel protein profiles were generated using a DILI target protein array with 300 antibodies, where the antibodies were selected based on previous literature findings of putative DILI biomarkers and a screening process using pre dose samples from the same cohort. Of the 32 subjects, 16 were found to develop an elevated ALT value (2Xbaseline, responders). Using the plasma profiling approach together with multivariate statistical analysis some novel findings linked to lipid metabolism were found and more important, endogenous protein profiles in baseline samples (prior to treatment) with predictive power for ALT elevations were identified.

Keywords: DILI, Plasma profiling, PLSDA, Randomforest.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1280

Authors: A. H. Abdol Rahim, Alhassan Salami Tijani

Abstract:

Hydrogen produced by means of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer (PEME) is one of the most promising methods due to clean and renewable energy source. In the process, some energy loss due to mass transfer through a PEM is caused by diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and the pressure difference between the cathode channel and anode channel. In PEME, water molecules and ionic particles transferred between the electrodes from anode to cathode, Extensive mixing of the hydrogen and oxygen at anode channel due to gases cross-over must be avoided. In recent times the consciousness of safety issue in high pressure PEME where the oxygen mix with hydrogen at anode channel could create, explosive conditions have generated a lot of concern. In this paper, the steady state and simulation analysis of gases crossover in PEME on the temperature and pressure effect are presented. The simulations have been analysis in MATLAB based on the well-known Fick’s Law of molecular diffusion. The simulation results indicated that as temperature increases, there is a significant decrease in operating voltage.

Keywords: Diffusion, gases cross-over, steady state.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2475

Authors: Zhang Tianci, Ding Meng, Zuo Hongfu, Zeng Lina, Sun Zejun

Abstract:

Automation of airport operations can greatly improve ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage, speeds are allocated at control points, which ensure smooth speed profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method for the second-stage problem, since it only has a small set of discrete variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented methodology performs well on real world speed profile design problems.

Keywords: Airport ground movement, fuel consumption, particle swarm optimization, smoothness, speed profile design.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1899

Authors: J.R. Quevedo, E. Montañés, J. Ranilla, A. Bahamonde

Abstract:

The new framework the Higher Education is immersed in involves a complete change in the way lecturers must teach and students must learn. Whereas the lecturer was the main character in traditional education, the essential goal now is to increase the students' participation in the process. Thus, one of the main tasks of lecturers in this new context is to design activities of different nature in order to encourage such participation. Seminars are one of the activities included in this environment. They are active sessions that enable going in depth into specific topics as support of other activities. They are characterized by some features such as favoring interaction between students and lecturers or improving their communication skills. Hence, planning and organizing strategic seminars is indeed a great challenge for lecturers with the aim of acquiring knowledge and abilities. This paper proposes a method using Artificial Intelligence techniques to obtain student profiles from their marks and preferences. The goal of building such profiles is twofold. First, it facilitates the task of splitting the students into different groups, each group with similar preferences and learning difficulties. Second, it makes it easy to select adequate topics to be a candidate for the seminars. The results obtained can be either a guarantee of what the lecturers could observe during the development of the course or a clue to reconsider new methodological strategies in certain topics.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, clustering, organizingseminars, student profile

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1323

Authors: Ali Rashash Alzahrani, Elizabeth Stojanovski

Abstract:

Data on various aspects of education are collected at the institutional and government level regularly. In Australia, for example, students at various levels of schooling undertake examinations in numeracy and literacy as part of NAPLAN testing, enabling longitudinal assessment of such data as well as comparisons between schools and states within Australia. Another source of educational data collected internationally is via the PISA study which collects data from several countries when students are approximately 15 years of age and enables comparisons in the performance of science, mathematics and English between countries as well as ranking of countries based on performance in these standardised tests. As well as student and school outcomes based on the tests taken as part of the PISA study, there is a wealth of other data collected in the study including parental demographics data and data related to teaching strategies used by educators. Overall, an abundance of educational data is available which has the potential to be used to help improve educational attainment and teaching of content in order to improve learning outcomes. A multivariate assessment of such data enables multiple variables to be considered simultaneously and will be used in the present study to help develop profiles of students based on performance in mathematics using data obtained from the PISA study.

Keywords: Cluster analysis, education, mathematics, profiles.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 838

Authors: X. L. Zhou, S. Tunmee, I. Toda, K. Komatsu, S. Ohshio, H. Saitoh

Abstract:

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films have been synthesized by a radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf-PECVD) technique with different bias voltage from 0.0 to -0.5 kV. The Raman spectra displayed the polymer-like hydrogenated amorphous carbon (PLCH) film with 0.0 to -0.1 and a-C:H films with -0.2 to -0.5 kV of bias voltages. The surface chemical information of all films were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique, presented to C-C (sp2 and sp3) and C-O bonds, and relative carbon (C) and oxygen (O) atomics contents. The O contamination had affected on structure and optical properties. The true density of PLCH and a-C:H films were characterized by X-ray refractivity (XRR) method, showed the result as in the range of 1.16-1.73 g/cm3 that depending on an increasing of bias voltage. The hardness was proportional to the true density of films. In addition, the optical properties i.e. refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) of these films were determined by a spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) method that give formation to in 1.62-2.10 (n) and 0.04-0.15 (k) respectively. These results indicated that the optical properties confirmed the Raman results as presenting the structure changed with applied bias voltage increased.

Keywords: Negative bias voltage, a-C:H film, Oxygen contamination, Optical properties.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5416

Authors: C. Lanzerstorfer

Abstract:

The off-gas from the basic oxygen furnace (BOF), where pig iron is converted into steel, is treated in the primary ventilation system. This system is in full operation only during oxygen-blowing when the BOF converter vessel is in a vertical position. When pig iron and scrap are charged into the BOF and when slag or steel are tapped, the vessel is tilted. The generated emissions during charging and tapping cannot be captured by the primary off-gas system. To capture these emissions, a secondary ventilation system is usually installed. The emissions are captured by a canopy hood installed just above the converter mouth in tilted position. The aim of this study was to investigate the dependence of Zn and other components on the particle size of BOF secondary ventilation dust. Because of the high temperature of the BOF process it can be expected that Zn will be enriched in the fine dust fractions. If Zn is enriched in the fine fractions, classification could be applied to split the dust into two size fractions with a different content of Zn. For this air classification experiments with dust from the secondary ventilation system of a BOF were performed. The results show that Zn and Pb are highly enriched in the finest dust fraction. For Cd, Cu and Sb the enrichment is less. In contrast, the non-volatile metals Al, Fe, Mn and Ti were depleted in the fine fractions. Thus, air classification could be considered for the treatment of dust from secondary BOF off-gas cleaning.

Keywords: Air classification, converter dust, recycling, zinc.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1173

Authors: U. Bawa

Abstract:

Macro invertebrates have been used to monitor organic pollution in rivers and streams. Several biotic indices based on macro invertebrates have been developed over the years including the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP). A new biotic index, the Gammarus:Asellus ratio has been recently proposed as an index of organic pollution. This study tested the validity of the Gammarus:Asellus ratio as an index of organic pollution, by examining the relationship between the Gammarus:Asellus ratio and physical chemical parameters, and other biotic indices such as BMWP and, Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT) from lakes and streams at Markeaton Park, Allestree Park and Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Macro invertebrates were sampled using the standard five minute kick sampling techniques physical and chemical environmental variables were obtained based on standard sampling techniques. Eighteen sites were sampled, six sites from Markeaton Park (three sites across the stream and three sites across the lake). Six sites each were also sampled from Allestree Park and Kedleston Hall lakes. The Gammarus:Asellus ratio showed an opposite significant positive correlations with parameters indicative of organic pollution such as the level of nitrates, phosphates, and calcium and also revealed a negatively significant correlations with other biotic indices (BMWP/ASPT). The BMWP score correlated positively significantly with some water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen and flow rate, but revealed no correlations with other chemical environmental variables. The BMWP score was significantly higher in the stream than the lake in Markeaton Park, also The ASPT scores appear to be significantly higher in the upper Lakes than the middle and lower lakes. This study has further strengthened the use of BMWP/ASPT score as an index of organic pollution. But additional application is required to validate the use of Gammarus:Asellus as a rapid bio monitoring tool.

Keywords: Asellus, Biotic index, Gammarus, Organic pollution, Macro invertebrate.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2878