A flat plate solar collector (FPSC) was analytically studied, with functionalized graphene nanoplatelets (f-GNPs) as its working fluid. Four samples (wt % nanofluids) were prepared in different base fluids such as ethylene glycol (EG), distilled water (DW):EG (70:30), and DW:EG (50:50). Experimental results (via DW) were used to verify the effectiveness of the analytical model. Some of the operating conditions were taken into account in this research, including temperatures, power, and mass flow rates. Experimental techniques were used to elucidate the modified nanofluids’ physicochemical properties, such as its particle sizes, stability, and morphology, involving electron microscopes (EMs), UV−VIS, and X-ray techniques. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were applied to test the thermal analysis. The findings confirmed that the use of f-GNPs nanofluids enhanced the performance of the FPSC relative to the use of base fluids for all testing cond... [more]

This paper presents the results of investigations concerning the simultaneous removal of Al(III), Cu(II), and Zn(II) from dilute aqueous solutions using ion and precipitate flotation methods. The effects of initial solution pH, surface active substance concentration, and the gas velocity on the flotations’ efficiency and course are studied. Experimental results are discussed in terms of physicochemical aspects related to aqueous solutions of metal salts. The results indicate that satisfying simultaneous flotations of aluminum, copper and zinc species are observed if the pH value ranges between 7.0 and 9.0. It was found that an increase in collector concentration results in a decrease in the flotation rate constants. An increase in the gas velocity results in an increase in the ion and precipitate flotation rates.

Wind energy is contributing to more and more portions in the world energy market. However, one deterrent to even greater investment in wind energy is the considerable failure rate of turbines. In particular, large wind turbines are expensive, with less tolerance for system performance degradations, unscheduled system shut downs, and even system damages caused by various malfunctions or faults occurring in system components such as rotor blades, hydraulic systems, generator, electronic control units, electric systems, sensors, and so forth. As a result, there is a high demand to improve the operation reliability, availability, and productivity of wind turbine systems. It is thus paramount to detect and identify any kinds of abnormalities as early as possible, predict potential faults and the remaining useful life of the components, and implement resilient control and management for minimizing performance degradation and economic cost, and avoiding dangerous situations. During the last 2... [more]

Coconut endosperm waste (CEW) was treated by Rhizopus oligosporus via in situ and ex situ fermentations together with bioconversion into valuable black soldier fly larval biomass. The ex situ fermentation could overall enrich the nutritional compositions of CEW by hydrolyzing its complex organic polymers and exuding assimilable nutrients to enhance the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) growth. Nevertheless, the larval gut bacteria were competing with Rhizopus oligosporus in in situ fermentation, derailing the hydrolysis processes and larval growth. Accordingly, the highest growth rates achieved were around 0.095 g/day, as opposed to only 0.065 g/day whilst using 0.5 wt% of Rhizopus oligosporus to perform ex situ and in situ fermentations, respectively. These were also underpinned by the greater amount of total CEW consumed when employing ex situ fermentation, with comparable metabolic costs to feeding on in situ-fermented CEW. The mature BSFL were subsequently harvested and the amounts o... [more]

This file TRNSYS simulation studio file represents a cogeneration energy management center. It uses a mix of built-in and and in-house equipment models, as well as external data files. The external files used are in the context of Canada, province of Ontario, but they can easily be swapped by others.
The system is a closed loop that uses three temperature water headers to connect the following equipment: Cogeneration internal combustion engine, hot water tank, natural gas boiler, and heat exchanger that can be connected to an external, heat delivery loop such as the ones used in district heating.

This is the source code for the STORE (STochasic Omentum REsponse) model. The model is used to simulate how naive T-cells in the omentum will prime and multiply during the expansion period (8 days) after a T-cell vaccination in a mouse.

This is the matlab source code used in the following paper:

Christian DA, Adams TA II, Smith TA, Shallberg LA, Theisen DJ, Phan AT, Abraha M, Perry J, Ruthel G, Clark JT, Murphy KM, Kedl, RM, Hunter CA. cDC1 coordinate innate and adaptive responses in the omentum required for T cell priming and memory. Science Immunology 7, eabq7432 (2022).

This is fixed legacy code used for the paper for scientific auditing and reproduction purposes. See paper for documentation.

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) have been employed for valorizing organic waste materials as the larvae are able to consume organic waste and transform it into valuable larval biomass. In this study, BSFL were found to potentially reduce blended sewage sludge. The addition of palm kernel expeller (PKE) fortified the protein and lipid content in blended sewage sludge substrates, leading to larval growth enhancement. In addition, the larval weight also influenced the lipid yield and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profile. However, the optimum ratio of sewage sludge to PKE had to be determined as excess PKE content could become a threat to larval growth by contributing to the reduction of non-fiber carbohydrates content in the feed, thereby resulting in the decrease in lipid yield and FAME content. In this work, a sewage sludge to PKE ratio of 2:3 proffered the highest larval weight gained at 46.99 ± 2.09 mg/larva. Meanwhile, a proportion of 3:2 of sewage sludge to PKE was able provide th... [more]

Microencapsulation is a well-known technology for the lipid delivery system. It prevents the oxidation of fatty acids and maintains the quality of lipid after extraction from oil seed and processing. In flaxseed oil, the amount of ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids are 39.90−60.42% and 12.25−17.44%, respectively. A comprehensive review article on the microencapsulation of flaxseed oil has not been published yet. Realizing the great advantages of flaxseed oil, information about different technologies related to the microencapsulation of flaxseed oil and their characteristics are discussed in a comprehensive way, in this review article. To prepare the microcapsule of flaxseed oil, an emulsion of oil-water is performed along with a wall material (matrix), followed by drying with a spray-dryer or freeze-dryer. Different matrices, such as plant and animal-based proteins, maltodextrin, gum Arabic, and modified starch are used for the encapsulation of flaxseed oil. In some cases, emulsif... [more]

The permeability of more than 70% of coal seams in China is less than 1 mD, creating difficulties in recovering underground coal methane. Therefore, a new technology of high-temperature nitrogen (HTN2) injection into the coal seam was proposed to improve the coal permeability and gas extraction rate. In this paper, the effects of the N2 temperature, injection pressure and cycle number on the permeability of naturally fractured coking coal has been investigated. When HTN2 was injected into coal samples, the results indicated that the permeability decreased over time in the beginning, suddenly increased to a large value, and was subsequently maintained in a relatively stable range. The maximum permeability ratio increased with the rise of the N2 temperature and injection pressure. An analysis indicated that the increase of coal permeability was the result of the increase of the global coal strain caused by thermal expansion and the adsorption-induced expansion. The maximum permeability r... [more]

Catechin exhibits numerous physiological characteristics. In this study, we determined the photosensitivity of catechin to various lights under alkaline conditions, and the mechanisms by which catechin generates free radical species and polymerizes via a photoreaction. In addition to this, the application of catechin photolysis was investigated. A solution of catechin is transparent, but turns yellowish under blue light illumination (BLI) in neutral or weak alkaline solutions. When catechin is subjected to BLI, a dimeric catechin (proanthocyanidin) and a superoxide anion radical (O2•−) are generated in a photolytic reaction. When ascorbic acid or gallic acid is added to catechin and the mixture is subjected to BLI at alkaline pH, fewer catechin dimers and less O2•− are produced, because both acids inhibit the photosensitive oxidation of catechin. When AlCl3 is added to catechin and the mixture is subjected to BLI at pH 8, a photolytic reaction is suppressed by AlCl3, and AlCl3 acts as... [more]

Pterostilbene, a dimethylether analog of resveratrol, has been found to have potent biological activity. However, the bioavailability of pterostilbene in the biological system is limited due to its poor solubility in an aqueous environment. A nanoemulsion system was designed for this purpose. Lecithin-based nanoemulsion was formed after 3 cycles through a high-pressure homogenizer at 500 psi. The rheological properties and particle size were measured using dynamic light scattering and a viscometer. The storage stabilities of the prepared formulation were determined based on its ability to maintain its particle size and loading concentration. According to the experimental results, the lecithin-based nanoemulsion system contained approximately 9.5% of pterostilbene. Over the 28-day stability test, the particle size, zeta potential, and encapsulation of pterostilbene in the nanoemulsion did not change significantly, indicating good storage stability. The positive effect of the prepared na... [more]

Hypertoxic materials make it critical to ensure the safety of the fluorochemical engineering processes. This mainly depends on the over maintenance or the manual operations due to the lack of precise models and mechanism knowledge. To quantify the deviations of the operating variables and the product quality from their target values at the same time and to overcome the measurement delay of the product quality, a novel quality integrated fuzzy inference system (QFIS) was proposed to estimate the reliability of the operation status as well as the product quality to enhance the performance of the safety monitoring system. To this end, a novel quality-weighted multivariate inverted normal loss function was proposed to quantify the deviation of the product quality from the target value to overcome the measurement delay. Vital safety process variables were identified according to the expert knowledge. Afterward, the quality loss and the vital variables were inputs to an elaborate fuzzy infer... [more]

Anti-icing is a critical topic in durability assessment for pavement infrastructures, and it varies according to local policies. To provide sufficient information to winter maintenance agencies, and help compare the merits and shortcomings of each strategy, this review summarizes the widely used anti-icing strategies, including elastic surfaces or high-friction overlays, asphalt binders mixed with anti-icing additives, pavement heating technologies, deicers, and fixed automated spray technology, from academic and practical perspectives, as well as explore the impact of deicers on the durability of concrete materials. Furthermore, the costs of each method were compared to evaluate the feasibility of them. This review not only provides a summary of previous anti-icing strategies, but also sheds light on future research trends that may help address the challenges of current anti-icing strategies, and further enhance anti-icing efficiency and reduce life cycle costs.

The floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have many more advantages than the onshore wind turbines, but they also have more complicated aerodynamic characteristics due to complex platform motions. The research objective of this paper is to investigate unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of a FOWT under the pitch, yaw, and coupled pitch−yaw platform motions using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method in the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. The pitch, yaw, and coupled pitch−yaw motions are studied separately to analyze the platform motions’ effects on the rotor blade. The accuracy of the numerical simulation method is verified, and the overall performances, including power and thrust, are discussed. In addition, the comparison of total aerodynamic performance, force coefficients at different spans and structural dynamic response is provided. The numerical simulation results show that the platform pitching is the main influencing factor of power flu... [more]

The garment manufacturing industry is a labor-intensive industry, with one of the slowest transitions to automation. Hence, it is essential to build a smart factory based on automated systems to improve productivity and allow responsive production in the market. In this study, the manufacturing processes for a smart sports bra were established and optimized using various automated machines. For this system, computer-based 3D virtual design software, a technical embroidery machine, an automatic cutting machine, an industrial robot arm with gripper, and an industrial pattern sewing machine were used. The design and materials of the sports bra were selected considering embroidery, cutting, robot gripping, and sewing processes. In addition, conductive thread and light-emitting diode (LED) sequences were used to implement smart functions to the sports bra. Transport of intermediate materials, work orders, and process conditions were optimized to improve the flexible connection of each proce... [more]

Type I collagen is commonly used in medical materials and cosmetics. While it can be extracted from the skin and bones of mammals, marine collagen has attracted attention recently, since the use of mammalian collagen could result in zoonosis, and products containing mammalian collagen are avoided due to some religious beliefs. Chemical extractions using strong acids and alkalis, thermal extractions, and other nonconventional methods have been used for collagen extraction. However, there are few reports on environmentally friendly methods. Although heat extractions provide higher yields of collagen, they often cause collagen denaturation. Therefore, dilute acetic acid and ultrafine bubbles of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ozone were used to extract type I collagen from tilapia scales. The extraction performance of the different conditions employed was qualitatively analyzed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, and the collagen concentration was quantified using circular dichroism spectroscopy by... [more]

Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) is an important intermediate material for the preparation of titanium products. The organic impurities in TiCl4 are easily accumulated during the production of titanium sponges due to the problems of imperfect detection methods and the lack of effective control methods, resulting in a poor quality of sponge titanium. Among all impurities, chloroacetyl chloride (CAC) is the most important in TiCl4. Herein, the determination of the CAC content in TiCl4 solution, with a low detection limit of 0.633 ppm, was established by the standard addition method using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry. This test method presented good repeatability, excellent accuracy, and moderate precision. Furthermore, the influencing factors of CAC separation in the continuous rectification process, including the heating power (the ratio of total heating power to feed rate), reflux temperature, top tower pressure, and feed temperature were optimized based on an orthogona... [more]

The development of new, cheaper, and more effective technologies to decrease the amount of wastewater containing heavy metals and to improve the quality is indispensable. Adsorption has become one of the alternative treatment methods. A small number of studies focusing on the batch technique for nickel ion removal by the new generation ion exchangers are described in the literature. In this paper, the Ni(II) removal from aqueous solutions using the ion exchange resins of different types was investigated. The experiments were conducted at different HCl and HCl/HNO3 concentrations, and the initial concentration was 100 mg Ni(II)/L. The investigation of the Ni(II) desorption from the chosen resins were carried out. The Ni(II) removal efficiency and the rate of removal are shown on the kinetic curves and the rate constants as well as kinetic parameters were collected and compared. The isotherm parameters were calculated and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with the attenuated total... [more]

To solve the poor universality in the existing modelling approaches of soybean particles, we proposed a soybean particle modelling approach by combining five, nine, and 13 balls. The soybean seeds from three varieties (Suinong42, Jidou17, and Zhongdou39 with a sphericity of 94.78%, 86.86%, and 80.6%, respectively) are chosen as the study objects. By the comparisons between the simulation results and the test results in the “self-flow screening” and “piling angle” tests, it is concluded that the soybean particle modelling approach we presented in this paper is a universal modelling approach appropriate for soybean particles with different sphericities. The five-ball model is appropriate for the soybean particles with high sphericity, and the nine- or 13-ball models are applicable to those with low sphericity. The soybean particle modelling approach we presented is also compared with the ellipsoidal equation modelling approach for soybean particles and with the modelling approaches prese... [more]

Endosulfan lactone is a metabolite obtained from the biological oxidation of the insecticide endosulfan by action of the microorganisms present in the soil. This metabolite is more toxic and persistent than the parent compound. Therefore, it is extremely important to be able to determine the presence of this metabolite in the soil. However, accessible methods for extraction of endosulfan lactone in soil were not found in published literature. For this reason, the aim of this study was to evaluate two conventional methods of liquid−solid extraction for the determination of endosulfan lactone in solid substrate using two solvents (ethyl acetate and acetonitrile) and HPLC UV-VIS. The acetonitrile and rotary agitation extraction method was the one with the highest efficiency (97%), optimized using a factorial 32 response surface design, and validated in terms of linearity and precision. The linearity shown was r > 0.999 in a wide spike level (0.15−100 mg kg−1), with the detection limit (DL... [more]

In this work, the possibility of limiting energy consumption in the manufacturing process of bioethanol to obtain biofuel was analysed. For this purpose, a control algorithm has been optimised while retaining the good quality of the control signals. New in this study is the correlation of the control algorithm not only with the signal’s quality, but also with the energy consumption in such an energy-intensive process as rectification. The rectification process in a periodic production system has been researched. The process was modelled on a test station with the distillation mixture capacity of 25 dm3. For the optimization, the following control algorithms have been applied: relay, PID and PID after modification to I-PD. The simulation was carried out on a transfer function model of the plant that has been verified on a real object, a rectification column. The simulations of energy consumption and control signal’s quality have been carried out in the Matlab®-Simulink environment after... [more]

Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin Kexin type 9 (PCSK9), comprises 12 exons, encoded for an enzyme which plays a critical role in the regulation of circulating low density lipoprotein. The gain-of-function (GOF) mutations aggravate the degradation of LDL receptors, resulting in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), while loss-of-function (LOF) mutations lead to higher levels of the LDL receptors, lower the levels of LDL cholesterol, and preventing from cardiovascular diseases. It is noted that, previous publications related to the mutations of PCSK9 were not always unification. Therefore, this study aims to present the spectrum and distribution of PCSK9 gene mutations by a meta-analysis. A systematic literature analysis was conducted based on previous studies published by using different keywords. The weighted average frequency of PCSK9 mutation was calculated and accessed by MedCalc®. A total of 32 cohort studies, that included 19,725 familial hypercholesterolemia blood samples, were enro... [more]

Reclamation and reuse of wastewater are increasingly viewed as a pragmatic tool for water conservation. Greywater, which includes water from baths, washing machines, dishwashers, and kitchen sinks, is a dilute wastewater stream, making it an attractive stream for extraction of non-potable water. However, most previous studies primarily focused on passively aerated biological and physicochemical treatment processes for greywater treatment. Here, we investigated an integrated process of a microbial electrochemical cell (MEC) followed by granular activated carbon (GAC) biofilter for greywater treatment. The integrated system could achieve 99.3% removal of total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and 98.7% removal of the anionic surfactants (linear alkylbenzene sulphonates) from synthetic greywater at a total hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 25 h (1 day for MEC and 1 h for GAC biofilter). For one-day HRT, the maximum peak volumetric current density from MEC was 0.65 A/m3, which was comparable... [more]

A new optical chemical sensor was fabricated based on incorporation of 2,2-furildioxime as a sensitive reagent into the nanopore of a transparent glasslike material through the sol-gel method which was suitable for determination of Ni2+ ions in aqueous solutions. The prepared sensors were composed of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), 2,2-furildioxime, methanol, hydrochloric acid and Triton X-100. The sensors were constructed by dip coating onto glass substrates. The optimum response of the sensor toward Ni2+ ions was reached at pH 8.5 and the contact time for the formation of the complex at 10 min. The linear concentration of the calibration curve was in the range of 1−5 mg L−1 with a detection limit of 0.111 mg L−1, and quantification limit of 0.337 mg L−1. In addition, the relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 5% in determination of Ni2+ with ten slide sensor membranes. The developed sensor was tested on Ni2+ determination in real water samples which was confirmed by the atomic abs... [more]

In the last decade, a few of the early attempts to bring CFD-DEM of fluidized beds beyond the limits of small, lab-scale units to larger scale systems have become popular. The simulation capabilities of the Discrete Element Method in multiphase flow and fluidized beds have largely benefitted by the improvements offered by coarse graining approaches. In fact, the number of real particles that can be simulated increases to the point that pilot-scale and some industrially relevant systems become approachable. Methodologically, coarse graining procedures have been introduced by various groups, resting on different physical backgrounds. The present review collects the most relevant contributions, critically proposing them within a unique, consistent framework for the derivations and nomenclature. Scaling for the contact forces, with the linear and Hertz-based approaches, for the hydrodynamic and cohesive forces is illustrated and discussed. The orders of magnitude computational savings are... [more]