Kinetic Analysis of Isothermal Decomposition Process of Zinc Leach Residue in an Inert Atmosphere. The Estimation of the Apparent Activation Energy Distribution

Thermal decomposition of zinc leach residue has been studied in a tubular furnace under a constant nitrogen gas flowing, at four different operating temperatures (600°C, 750°C, 950°C, and 1150°C). Using a detailed kinetic analysis, it was shown that the investigated process can be described by a two-parameter autocatalytic ?esták–Berggren reaction model. It was noted that the apparent activation energy values E_a increase progressively with a degree of conversion, accompanied by the appearance of a convex Arrhenius dependence. This behavior is a characteristic of a system of parallel competing reactions. It was concluded that the investigated isothermal decomposition process is characterized by unusually very low preexponential factor and low values of the apparent activation energy. Based on the derived density distribution function of E_a values, it was concluded that the isothermal decomposition process probably occurs through four reaction steps, where each step is characterized by one parallel reaction.     

Al Hamra塔,科威特

Al Hamra塔坐落于科威特市,是一座包含有办公空间、健身俱乐部、剧院、美食广场的高端商业中心的商业综合体.建筑高度达到412m.这座标志性的写字楼将成为科威特市最高的建筑.     

Interdialytic blood pressure obtained by ambulatory blood pressure measurement and left ventricular structure in hypertensive hemodialysis patients

Unlike in subjects with normal renal function, the relationship between hypertension and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients is still being debated. In order to clarify this issue, we performed 44-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements (ABPM) during the interdialytic period in a group of 164 hypertensive patients, the blood pressure (BP) control based on conventional antihypertensive strategy previously, on chronic hemodialysis treatment in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. These results were then compared with their echocardiographic data. This is a cross-sectional analysis. The mean ABPM during 44 hours was close to the manually measured predialysis value, but there was a gradual increase in the ABPM values in the interdialytic period. When divided into a group with mild or no left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (45 patients) and severe LVH (119 patients), the latter had significantly higher BP levels in all separate periods, while the difference in predialysis BP was not significant. Patients with severe LVH had larger left atrium and left ventricular diameters, and consumed more antihypertensive drugs. Systolic BP during the night before dialysis showed the strongest relation to LVH, but interdialytic weight gain was also independently related to LVH. Yet, 56% of the patients with systolic BP <135 had severe LVH. There is not only an association between BP and presence of LVH, but it is shown that volume expansion is also an important independent determinant of LVH. This may explain the difficulty in identifying hypertension as a cardiac risk factor in these patients.     

Naturally nonanemic dialysis patients: Who are they?

Introduction Not only anemia, but also erythropoiesis stimulating agent (ESA)s for treating anemia may adversely affect prognosis of chronic hemodialysis patients. Various features of naturally (with no ESA usage) nonanemic patients may be useful for defining several factors in the pathogenesis of anemia. Methods Data, retrieved from the European Clinical Database (EuCliD)‐Turkey on naturally nonanemic prevalent chronic hemodialysis patients (n: 201) were compared with their anemic (those who required ESA treatment) counterparts (n: 3948). Findings Mean hemoglobin values were 13.5 ± 0.8 and 11.5 ± 0.9 g/dL in nonanemic and anemic patients, respectively (P < 0.001). Nonanemia status was associated with younger age, male gender, longer dialysis vintage, nondiabetic status, more frequent hepatitis‐C virus seropositivity and more frequent arteriovenous fistula usage. Serum ferritin and CRP levels and urea reduction ratio were higher in ESA‐requiring patients. One (99%) and two (95.3%) years survival rates of the “naturally nonanemic” patients were superior as compared to anemics (91.0% and 82.6%, respectively), (P < 0.001). Discussion “Naturally nonanemic” status is associated with better survival in prevalent chronic hemodialysis patients; underlying mechanisms in this favorable outcome should be investigated by randomized controlled trials including large number of patients.     

An interactive simulation and analysis software for solving TSP using Ant Colony Optimization algorithms

Traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the extensively studied combinatorial optimization problems and tries to find the shortest route for salesperson which visits each given city precisely once. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have been used to solve many optimization problems in various fields of engineering. In this paper, a web-based simulation and analysis software (TSPAntSim) is developed for solving TSP using ACO algorithms with local search heuristics. Algorithms are tested on benchmark problems from TSPLIB and test results are presented. Importance of TSPAntSim providing also interactive visualization with real-time analysis support for researchers studying on optimization and people who have problems in form of TSP is discussed.     

Additively manufactured trapezoidal grooves for wideband and high gain Ku‐band antenna

Grooves around aperture antennas are known to be instrumental in obtaining directive antenna patterns. The shapes of the grooves are often restricted to rectangular or triangular due to manufacturing difficulties in traditional metal machining, and because of this reason, the effect of groove shape on antenna performance is often overlooked. The aim of this study is to analyze different groove shapes with the help of additive manufacturing. Waveguide slot fed, dual cavity aperture antenna with grooves is designed and the effect of groove shapes on antenna performance is studied at Ku band. Two antennas with and without grooves are built using 3D printing technology. Measured antenna performance reveals 5 GHz bandwidth covering 10 to 15 GHz for Ku‐band satellite communications and part of the X‐band applications. Proposed antenna achieves 13.25 dBi peak gain at 14 GHz and the gain is better than 11.25 dBi over the entire Ku‐band uplink and downlink frequency bands.     

A PSA-based vital area identification methodology development

This paper presents a vital area identification method based on the current probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) techniques. The vital area identification method in this paper is focused on core melt rather than radioactive material release. Furthermore, it describes a conceptual framework with which the risk from sabotage-induced events could be assessed.Location minimal cut sets (MCSs) are evaluated after developing a core melt location fault tree (LFT). LFT is a fault tree whose basic events are sabotage-induced damages on the locations within which various safety-related components are located. The core melt LFT is constructed by combining all sequence LFTs of various event trees with OR gates. Each sequence LFT is constructed by combining the initiating event LFT and the mitigating event LFTs with an AND gate. The vital area could be identified by using the location importance measures on the core melt location MCSs. An application was made to a typical 1000 MWe pressurized water reactor power plant located at the Korean seashore.The methodology suggested in the present paper is believed to be very consistent and most complete in identifying the vital areas in a nuclear power plant because it is based on the well-proven PSA technology.     

Seismic safety of nuclear power plants in eastern Europe

This paper summarizes the work performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in the areas of safety review and applied research in support of programmes for the assessment and enhancement of seismic safety in Eastern Europe and in particular, WWER type nuclear power plants during the past seven years. Three major topics are discussed; engineering safety review services in relation to external events, technical guidelines for the assessment and upgrading of WWER type nuclear power plants, and the Coordinated Research Programme on "Benchmark study for the seismic analysis and testing of WWER type nuclear power plants". These topics are summarized in a way to provide an overview of the past and present safety situation in selected WWER type plants which are all located in Eastern European countries. The main conclusion of this paper is that even though there is now a thorough understanding of the seismic safety issues in these operating nuclear power plants, the implementation of seismic upgrades to structures, systems and components are lagging behind, particularly for those cases in which re-evaluation indicated the necessity to strengthen the safety related structures or install new safety systems.     

Al Hamra塔,科威特

Al Hamra塔坐落于科威特市,是一座包含有办公空间、健身俱乐部、剧院、美食广场的高端商业中心的商业综合体。建筑高度达到412m。这座标志性的写字楼将成为科威特市最高的建筑。Al Hamra塔的建设目前已经接近尾声,办公面积达到18.6万m2,其旁边是一座由当地建筑师设计的面积达3.4万m2的商业裙房。该项目的业主是一位当地开发商和一位总承包商,但建造一座超高层建筑却并不是他们的初衷。事实上,在项目之初他们已经开始动工建造一座由当地建筑师设计的50层高的塔楼     

Design of nuclear facilities other than NPPs in relation to external events

The safety of a nuclear installation requires in general that it is sited, designed, constructed and operated to protect individuals, society and the environment against an uncontrolled release of radioactivity. External events, both natural and human-induced, play a major role in challenging the plant defense. Therefore, appropriate design provisions are needed to assure an adequate safety margin in case of such events.In recent years, the development of design criteria, design methodologies and assessment approaches for external events received major emphasis for nuclear power plants. Other nuclear installations, however, received less attention even though their radioactive inventory may be quite significant (sometimes comparable with the NPPs, like in the case of some research reactors or fuel re-processing plants). Also the risks for radiological (and chemical) contamination is often rather high (as in the case of the fuel re-processing plants) and their location may be very close to densely populated areas.There is a lack of generally accepted international standards in this field and the direct application of general safety principles for nuclear installations is not straightforward.The IAEA addressed this issue in the past several years. Some of the results have been collected in an IAEA Technical Document (TECDOC).This paper is intended to address some of the main issues that have been identified and discussed in the referenced document.