Search results for "IRA"

A Systematic Review of the Hydrological, Environmental and Durability Performance of Permeable Pavement Systems

2021

Due to urbanization, large portions of vegetated territory have been replaced by waterproof surfaces. The consequences are greater outflows, lower infiltration, and lower evapotranspiration. Pavement systems made with permeable surfaces allow the infiltration of water, ensuring reduction of runoff volume. In this paper, the methods of analysis of the hydrological and environmental performance of the pavement systems are reviewed in the context of urban drainage and regarding their durability. The purpose is to present an overview of the studies published during the last decade in the field. The Pubmed and Web Science Core Collection electronic databases were used to conduct the scientific l…

Analytical approach extending the Granier method to radial sap flow patterns

2020

Abstract The Granier thermal dissipation (TD) method is probably the most applied method to compute the transpiration flux of trees, due to its simplicity and effective compromise between theory and data availability. Starting from the heat transfer equations at the basis of Granier’s method, the objective of this paper is to derive an analytical solution for the transpiration flux to extend the sap flow equations to the radial domain. We adopted a flexible approach to cope with the differences in radial sapflow density (SFD) profile shapes that are known to occur in relation to wood anatomy (diffuse porous vs. ring- or non-porous xylem). With this purpose, we investigated the robustness of…

Occurrence of antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in source-separated urine, groundwater, surface water and wastewater in the peri-urban area of Chu…

2020

Recently, there has been an increased interest in bridging the knowledge gap in the occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals in African urban water  cycles. In this study, the occurrence of 7 antibiotics and 3 antiretrovirals in source-separated urine, groundwater, wastewater and surface water of the peri-urban area of Chunga in Lusaka, Zambia, was studied. In groundwater, the pharmaceuticals were only sporadically present with 4 antibiotics and 1 antiretroviral detected. The concentration of the antibiotics ranged from below limit of quantification (<LOQ) to 880 ng/L, with sulfamethoxazole having the highest detection frequency of 42.3%. In the surface water, a comparatively high concentrati…

Enhancing Disaster Response for Hazardous Materials Using Emerging Technologies: The Role of AI and a Research Agenda

2019

Despite all efforts like the introduction of new training methods and personal protective equipment, the need to reduce the number of First Responders (FRs) fatalities and injuries remains. Reports show that advances in technology have not yet resulted in protecting FRs from injuries, health impacts, and odorless toxic gases effectively. Currently, there are emerging technologies that can be exploited and applied in emergency management settings to improve FRs protection. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, to conduct scenario analysis and situations that currently threat the first responders. Second, to conduct gap analysis concerning the new technology needs in relations to the pro…

Flow Control of Fluid in Pipelines Using PID Controller

2019

In this paper, a PID controller is utilized in order to control the flow rate of the heavy oil in pipelines by controlling the vibration in a motor pump. A torsional actuator is placed on the motor pump in order to control the vibration on a motor and consequently controlling the flow rates in pipelines. The necessary conditions for the asymptotic stability of the proposed controller are validated by implementing the Lyapunov stability theorem. The theoretical concepts are validated utilizing numerical simulations and analysis, which proves the effectiveness of the PID controller in the control of flow rates in pipelines.

Modeling and control of uncertain nonlinear systems

2018

A survey of the methodologies associated with the modeling and control of uncertain nonlinear systems has been given due importance in this paper. The basic criteria that highlights the work is relied on the various patterns of techniques incorporated for the solutions of fuzzy equations that corresponds to fuzzy controllability subject. The solutions which are generated by these equations are considered to be the controllers. Currently, numerical techniques have come out as superior techniques in order to solve these types of problems. The implementation of neural networks technique is contributed in the complex way of dealing the appropriate coefficients and solutions of the fuzzy systems.

Parallel distributed compensation for voltage controlled active magnetic bearing system using integral fuzzy model

2018

Parallel Distributed Compensation (PDC) for current-controlled Active Magnetic Bearing System (AMBS) has been quite effective in recent years. However, this method does not take into account the dynamics associated with the electromagnet. This limits the method to smaller scale applications where the electromagnet dynamics can be neglected. Voltage-controlled AMBS is used to overcome this limitation but this comes with serious challenges such as complex mathematical modelling and higher order system control. In this work, a PDC with integral part is proposed for position and input tracking control of voltage-controlled AMBS. PDC method is based on nonlinear Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. …

Beyond cells – The virome in the human holobiont

2019

Viromics, or viral metagenomics, is a relatively new and burgeoning field of research that studies the complete collection of viruses forming part of the microbiota in any given niche. It has strong foundations rooted in over a century of discoveries in the field of virology and recent advances in molecular biology and sequencing technologies. Historically, most studies have deconstructed the concept of viruses into a simplified perception of viral agents as mere pathogens, which demerits the scope of large-scale viromic analyses. Viruses are, in fact, much more than regular parasites. They are by far the most dynamic and abundant entity and the greatest killers on the planet, as well as th…

Care Workers’ Readiness for Robotization : Identifying Psychological and Socio-Demographic Determinants

2020

Successful implementation of robots in welfare services requires that the staff approves of them as a part of daily work tasks. In this study, we identified psychological and socio-demographic determinants associated with readiness for robotization among professional Finnish care-workers. National survey data were collected from professional care workers (n = 3800) between October and November 2016. Random samples were drawn from the member registers of two Finnish trade unions. The data were analyzed with regression models for respondents with and without firsthand experience with robots. The models explained 34–39% of the variance in the readiness for robotization. The readiness was posit…

2020

Decreases in aerobic fitness during military operations have been observed in several studies. Thus, differences in training adaptations during a 6-month crisis-management operation were compared by using the change in endurance performance as the outcome measure. Sixty-six male soldiers volunteered for the study, consisting of pre–post assessments of blood biomarkers, body composition, physical performance, and the military simulation test (MST) performance. Physical training volume was self-reported. After the follow-up, the data were divided based on individual changes in endurance performance. Endurance performance was improved in the high-responder group (HiR, n = 25) and maintained or…