Evaluating the Performance of CHIRPS Satellite Rainfall Data for Streamflow Forecasting

Water Resources Management - Streamflow forecasting can offer valuable information for optimal management of water resources, flood mitigation, and drought warning. This research aims in evaluating...     

Chlorination byproducts, their toxicodynamics and removal from drinking water

No doubt that chlorination has been successfully used for the control of water borne infections diseases for more than a century. However identification of chlorination byproducts (CBPs) and incidences of potential health hazards created a major issue on the balancing of the toxicodynamics of the chemical species and risk from pathogenic microbes in the supply of drinking water. There have been epidemiological evidences of close relationship between its exposure and adverse outcomes particularly the cancers of vital organs in human beings. Halogenated trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) are two major classes of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) commonly found in waters disinfected with chlorine. The total concentration of trihalomethanes and the formation of individual THM species in chlorinated water strongly depend on the composition of the raw water, on operational parameters and on the occurrence of residual chlorine in the distribution system. Attempts have been made to develop predictive models to establish the production and kinetics of THM formations. These models may be useful for operational purposes during water treatment and water quality management. It is also suggested to explore some biomarkers for determination of DBP production. Various methods have been suggested which include adsorption on activated carbons, coagulation with polymer, alum, lime or iron, sulfates, ion exchange and membrane process for the removal of DBPs. Thus in order to reduce the public health risk from these toxic compounds regulation must be inforced for the implementation of guideline values to lower the allowable concentrations or exposure.     

Growth of highly (1 1 1) oriented CuIn0.75Al0.25Se2 thin films

CuIn_0.75Al_0.25Se₂ thin films prepared onto glass substrates at T_S=573 K were single phase, nearly stoichiometric and polycrystalline with a strong (1 1 1) preferred orientation showing sphalerite structure. The results of X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction studies are compared, interpreted and correlated with micro-Raman spectra. The optical absorption studies indicated a direct band gap of 1.16 eV with high absorption coefficient (>10⁴ cm^?1) near the fundamental absorption edge.     

Sensory evaluation of black pigmented rice (Oryza sativa cv. Poireton) wine fortified with probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356 and Lactobacillus sakei ATCC 15521 using fuzzy logic

Rice wine was prepared in the laboratory from a black pigmented rice (cv. Poireton) using standardized methodology. The wine was fortified with the probiotic strains Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356 and Lactobacillus sakei ATCC 15521 and allowed to undergo a storage period of 28 days at 4°C. These rice wines were compared with a commercial wine used as a standard reference wine. A panel consisting of 30 judges performed the sensory evaluation. The scores obtained were based on the quality attributes of colour, taste, aroma and alcoholic strength. Analysis of the sensory scores and ranking of the different samples were performed using fuzzy analysis. The quality attributes were also ranked according to their importance in the overall acceptability. Colour and alcoholic strength were accorded the highest importance, compared with aroma and taste, as quality attributes. The rice wines were rated as ‘not satisfactory’, ‘fair’, ‘medium’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ on the sensory scale. Out of the wines prepared, black pigmented rice wine fortified with L. acidophilus was the most acceptable and was ranked as ‘good’, which was also at par with the commercial wine. On the other hand, black pigmented rice wine fortified with L. sakei and black pigmented rice wine fortified with L. acidophilus and L. sakei were ranked in the ‘satisfactory’ category followed by the unfortified wine ranked in the ‘fair’ category. Copyright © 2015 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

Corrosion behavior of carbon steel rock bolt in simulated Yucca Mountain ground waters

Medium carbon steel (AISI 1040) was one of the candidate materials for rock bolts to reinforce the borehole liners and emplacement drifts of the high-level nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain. The corrosion performance of this structural steel was investigated by techniques such as linear polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and laboratory immersion tests in simulated ground waters. The corrosion rates of the steel were measured for the temperatures in the range from 25 °C to 85 °C, for the ionic concentrations of 1 time (1×), 10 times (10×), and a hundred times (100×) ground water concentration. The steel corroded uniformly at penetration rates of 35 to 200 μm/year in the deaerated waters, and at 200 to 1000 μm/year in the aerated waters. Increasing temperatures in the deaerated waters increased the corrosion rate of the steel. However, increasing ionic concentrations influenced the corrosion rate only slightly. In the aerated 1×and 10×waters, increasing temperatures increased the rates of the steel significantly. In the aerated 100×waters, the corrosion rate increased from 25 °C to 45 °C and decreased at higher temperatures (65 °C and up) due to the formation of oxide/hydroxide films and salt scales on the surface of the steel specimen. The steel suffered pitting corrosion in the both deaerated and aerated hot ground water environments after anodic polarization. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium “Effect of Processing on Materials Properties for Nuclear Waste Disposition,” November 10–11, 2003, at the TMS Fall meeting in Chicago, Illinois, under the joint auspices of the. TMS Corrosion and Environmental Effects and Nuclear Materials Committees.     

Development of an intelligent agent-based AGV controller for a flexible manufacturing system

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are the most flexible means to transport materials among workstations of a flexible manufacturing system. Complex issues associated with the design of AGV control of these systems are conflict-free shortest path, minimum time motion planning and deadlock avoidance. This research presents an intelligent agent-based framework to overcome the inefficacies associated with the aforementioned issues. Proposed approach describes the operational control of AGVs by integrating different activities such as path generation, journey time enumeration, collision and deadlock identification, waiting node location and its time estimation, and decision making on the selection of the conflict-free shortest feasible path. It represents efficient algorithms and rules associated with each agent for finding the conflict-free minimum time motion planning of AGVs, which are needed to navigate unidirectional and bidirectional flow path network. A collaborative architecture of AGV agent and its different modules are also presented. Three complex experimental scenarios are simulated to test the robustness of the proposed approach. It is shown that the proposed agent-based controller is capable of generating optimal, collision- and deadlock-free path with less computational efforts.     

Tunable Terahertz Circularly Polarized Dielectric Resonator Antenna with the Higher Order Modes

Silicon - A tunable terahertz (THz) dielectric resonator (DR) antenna (DRA) with circular polarization operating with multiple higher order modes is numerically studied and implemented. A...     

Semitransparent poly(styrene‐r‐maleic anhydride)/alumina nanocomposites for optical applications

This article presents the development and characterization of transparent poly(styrene‐r‐maleic anhydride) (SMA)/alumina nanocomposites for potential use in optical applications. Chemically treated spherical alumina nanoparticles were dispersed in an SMA matrix polymer via the solution and melt‐compounding methods to produce 2 wt % nanocomposites. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the nanoparticle dispersion. When the solution method was used, nanoparticle reagglomeration occurred, despite the fairly good polymer wetting. However, through the coating of the alumina nanoparticles with a thin layer (ca. 20 nm) of low‐molecular‐weight SMA, reagglomeration was absent in the melt‐compounded samples, and this resulted in excellent nanoparticle dispersion. The resultant nanocomposites were semitransparent to visible light at a 2‐mm thickness with improved UV‐barrier properties. Their impact strengths, tensile strengths, and strains at break were slightly reduced compared with those of their neat resin counterpart, whereas a small enhancement in their moduli was achieved. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

Radiation crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone/acrylic acid hydrogels: swelling,crosslinking and dye adsorption study

Iranian Polymer Journal - Hydrogels were produced from mixtures of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), and acrylic acid (AAc) using γ-radiation at doses of 3, 7, and...