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Green Preservation of Goatskin to Deplete Chloride from Tannery Wastewater
Get PDFGlobally, in wet-salting preservation, common salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is generally used for the raw animal skin, which emits a huge amount of chloride-containing wastewater, affecting groundwater quality and human and plant life. Chlorides in tannery wastewater encourage salt-free or less-salt preservation methods of raw skin. In this study, an alternative salt-free "green method" has been described for goatskin preservation with rapidly growing obnoxious weeds like Sphagneticola trilobata leaf. The ‘green leaf paste' was applied on the flesh side of the raw goatskin and compared with the conventional wet-salting (50% NaCl) method for 28 days. Different parameters of both samples, like moisture, nitrogen, hydrothermal stability, and bacterial growth, were periodically assessed and compared. Shoe upper leather was produced from both preserved goatskins. After comparing with standards, the physical properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, and bursting strength satisfied the standard requirements. SEM images showed no deterioration to the fiber structure of both samples. Moreover, the suggested method reduces the pollution loads: chloride, total dissolved solids, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand by 98.04%, 92.9%, 90.2%, and 85.5%, respectively. The overall assessment recommends that the salt-free ‘green method' utilizing S. trilobata leaf paste could be an attractive system over the conventional wet-salting method. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-02-03 Full Text: PD
Feasible Evaluation of Shunt Active Filter for Harmonics Mitigation in Induction Heating System
Get PDFThis paper propounds the incorporation of a three-level inverter based Shunt Active Filter (SAF) in the Induction Heating (IH) system to eradicate the problems due to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). The IH system generates a considerable amount of high-frequency harmonics because of a myriad of causes, the predominant one being the high-frequency switching in the resonant inverter. The former has an immanent propensity to flow towards the supply side and results in the enfeeblement of power quality. Moreover, in the present work, attention has been paid off to develop a proper control strategy for a three level inverter based SAF for EMI and RFI suppression. A new modeling approach for three-level inverter based SAF is proposed, and the efficacy and viability of the proposed controllers for SAF in the IH system are validated via simulations in PSIM. A comparative analysis of THD in the input current waveform has been done to advocate the necessity of SAF as an imperative part of the IH system. Results obtained by simulations show that the proposed approach is more effective than the reviewed approaches at compensating the harmonic currents, and thus, the filtering action of SAF is able to achieve the THD of input current within the limit specified by the IEEE-519 standard. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-08 Full Text: PD
The Performance of the Agri-food Sector in the Recent Economic Crisis and during Covid-19 Pandemic
Get PDFCrises impact every sector of the economy; however, the magnitude of that impact varies between the different sectors. The agri-food sector-related lessons learned from the last two crises (the global financial crisis in 2008 and the sanctions against Russia in 2014) are that international trade becomes lower and commodity prices rise. This article analyzes the performance of the Hungarian agri-food sector during the last three crises, based on international and Hungarian datasets. The results show that impacts depend on many factors, such as the type of agri-food products (raw material vs. processed products, perishable vs. non-perishable goods, etc.) or the depth of trade integration. It should be noted that Hungary is heavily integrated into the EU's common market; its major trade partners are the other member states. At the commodity level, the share of raw materials is higher on the export side (e.g. cereals) compared to the import side (e.g. meat products). Based on the results, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were different from the two previous crises. Despite the difficulties in transport, Hungarian exportation expanded and resulted in an increasing trade surplus, while international commodity prices remained stable. The major finding of the article is the identification of the different impacts of the coronavirus compared to the other two crises. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-02 Full Text: PD
Microbiological Antibiotic Assay Validation of Gentamicin Sulfate Using Two-Dose Parallel Line Model (PLM)
Get PDFNowadays, microbiological assay is still widely used with several antibiotics that are composed of a mixture of related active compounds. However, obtaining a reasonably valid determination of the potency is dependent on the validity and suitability of the assay design. The present work aimed to validate an assay design for an aminoglycoside antibiotic (Gentamicin Sulfate) using a two-dose Parallel Line Model agar diffusion assay in a large 8í—8 rectangular plate. All preparatory procedures were done following the United States Pharmacopeia and the inhibition zones were measured using a digital caliper to the nearest 0.01 mm. Analysis of variance in compendial requirements for regression and parallelism were found to satisfactorily meet the acceptance criteria. Specificity was achieved for the product under investigation with no detectable IZ that could be found for all components except the antibiotic. The validation method showed an acceptable linearity of r2≥0.98. Accuracy and precision parameters showed RSD (%)<2. All relative error value estimates were below 4%. The proposed validation design for 32í—32 cm antibiotic plates yielded valid results and can be projected for the routine Quality Control analysis of the antibiotic material, especially that which is incorporated into a finished medicinal dosage form. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-04-04 Full Text: PD
The Effect of Gurney Flap and Trailing-edge Wedge on the Aerodynamic Behavior of an Axial Turbine Blade
Get PDFIn this research, the effect of Gurney flap and trailing-edge wedge on the aerodynamic behavior of blunt trailing-edge airfoil Du97-W-300, which is equipped with a vortex generator is studied. To do this, the role of Gurney flap and trailing-edge wedge on the lift and drag coefficient and also aerodynamic performance of the airfoil is studied. Validation of the numerical model is done by comparing the results of the model to the results of the experiment. Results show that before stall, the Gurney flap leads to an increase in the aerodynamic performance in a wider range of angle of attack. Numerical findings reveal that the maximum increment in aerodynamic performance is obtained at a low angle of attack when a trailing-edge wedge is employed. It is found that for the highest considered values of Gurney flap and trailing-edge wedge heights, where the highest values for the lift occur, the higher aerodynamic performance at low angle of attack is obtained when a trailing-edge wedge is used, and at high angle of attack, the Gurney flap results in higher aerodynamic performance. It is also shown that when high aerodynamic performance is concerned, addition of Gurney flap to the airfoil leads to the higher value for the lift. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-04-03 Full Text: PD
Evaluation of an Anthropometric Fast Bowling Machine
Get PDFThe use of bowling machines to train batsmen, whether it be indoors or outdoors, has increased significantly. In the absence of bowlers, batsmen can bat for hours without any bowlers getting tired. The designs of these machines are often derivatives of ball projection machines used for other sports, such as tennis. Reviewed literature highlights the deficit in visual information in the form of an arm and hand when using these machines. Hence, a cricket bowling machine was developed with an arm and hand. The usability, functionality, repeatability, and accuracy of the cricket bowling machine with an arm and hand were tested, which had been previously designed and built by Loutan Jr. (2016) at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. A trajectory model was developed for an indoor environment and experimentally validated with data collected from extensive testing of the bowling machine using Pitch Vision hardware and software. A design procedure had to be formulated to determine what tests had to be done and the method of collecting data. The testing, data collection, and validation of the model were done with the cricket bowling machine in its current state, with minor changes to the hand. The release angle at which the ball leaves the hand was found to have a significant impact on the length (distance along the pitch the ball bounces) of the delivery. Finally, the bowling machine was able to bowl various lengths and varying speeds consistently. The variation in speed placed the machine in the category of medium-fast, that is, speeds between 120 km/h (75 mph) and 130 km/h (81 mph). Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-02-04 Full Text: PD
Towards a Sentiment Analysis of Tweets from Online Newspapers Regarding the Coronavirus Pandemic
Get PDFIn the last year, both offline and online news have had the Coronavirus pandemic as their subject, especially since social networking such as Twitter has significantly increased the news regarding Covid-19. The objectives of the project are: the analysis of news regarding the Coronavirus pandemic was extracted from the Twitter profile of ANSA, a well-known Italian news agency, and the analysis of sentiment and the number of likes for each news extracted The sentiment analysis has been carried out using the MAL lexicon (Morphologically Affective Lexicon), where the tweet is split into words and each paola is associated with a score. Positive (with a score greater than zero), negative (with a score less than zero) and neutral (with a score equal to zero) news were identified. As a result, it emerges that sentiment changes day by day, so it is necessary to use sentiment indicators called indices, but only the positive sentiment index is taken into consideration as the negative one is complementary and the neutral one is almost zero. The positive index is then related to some parameters extrapolated from the Civil Protection site: the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the entry into intensive care. Furthermore, in addition to the parameters listed above, the positivity index is related to the days on which the Prime Minister's Decree (DPCM) was signed. The last relationship analyzed is that between the average number of likes and the number of deaths. The results of the research show that the sentiment of the news from the ANSA Agency contains 62.3% of positive news, 37.3% of negative news, and only 0.3% of neutral news. Furthermore, sentiment is not influenced by the daily parameters: the number of cases, number of deaths, entry into intensive care units, and DPCMs. But there is a relationship between the average of like and the number of deaths. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-04-08 Full Text: PD
Developing a Comprehensive Framework for Crowd Funding Factors by Using the Hexagon Technique
Get PDFIn recent years, crowd funding has been seriously considered as a novel method of financing start-up businesses and innovative ideas. In its short life so far, the method has significantly grown in different aspects, such as the number of proposed platforms, the number of campaigns and their success rate, the amount of capital provided, and the number of proposed models. In addition, various researchers have investigated the phenomenon from different points of view. Nevertheless, only a few studies have carried out a comprehensive review of the factors affecting this method. The main purpose of this research is to design and implement a comprehensive framework for factors that affect crowd funding. In order to achieve this goal, the effective factors in this regard were first identified through a systematic review of the literature on crowd funding. Then, they were classified and clustered in a hexagonal framework based on the stakeholder's model. In other words, a qualitative method is used to extract the factors affecting crowd funding. The hexagons extracted from the literature were in 82 clusters, of which 38 were accounted for by capital seekers, 16 by investors and platforms, and 12 by other stakeholders. This study is the first effort to design a comprehensive framework for factors that affect crowd funding. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-02-07 Full Text: PD
Relativistic Extended Thermodynamics of Polyatomic Gases with Rotational and Vibrational Modes
Get PDFIn a recent article, an infinite set of balance equations has been proposed to modelize polyatomic gases with rotational and vibrational modes in a non-relativistic context. To obtain particular cases, it has been truncated to obtain a model with 7 or 15 moments. Here the following objectives are pursued: 1) to obtain the relativistic counterpart of this model, which, at the non-relativistic limit, gives the same balance equations as in the known classical case; 2) to obtain the previous result for the model with an arbitrary but fixed number of moments; and 3) to obtain the closure of the resulting relativistic model so that all the functions appearing in the balance equations are expressed in terms of the independent variables. To achieve these goals, the following methods are used: 1) the principle of entropy is imposed. As a result, it is obtained that the closure is determined up to a single 4-vectorial function, usually called a 4-potential. 2) To determine this last function, a more restrictive principle is imposed, namely the Maximum Entropy Principle (MEP). 3) Since all the functions involved must be expressed in the covariant form so as not to depend on the observer, the Representation Theorems are used. The findings of this article exactly match the goals outlined earlier. They are clearly novel because they have never been achieved before. They can also be considered improvements because, if the aforementioned arbitrary number of moments is restricted to 16, the present work coincides with that already known in literature. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-04 Full Text: PD
A Data Mining Perspective on the Confluent Ions` Effect for Target Functionality
Get PDFThe production of hydrocarbon resources at an oil field is concomitant with challenges with respect to the formation of scale inside the reservoir rock, intricately impairing its permeability and hindering the flow. Historically, the effect of ions has been attributed to the undergone phenomenon; nevertheless, there exists a great deal of ambiguity about its relative significance compared to other factors, or the effectiveness as per the ion type. The present work applies a data mining strategy to uncover the influence hierarchy of the parameters involved in driving the process within major rock categories”sandstone and carbonate”to regulate a target functionality. The functionalities considered revolve around maximizing oil recovery and minimizing permeability impairment/scale damage. A pool of experimental as well as field data was used for this purpose, accumulating the bulk of the available literature data. The methods used for data analysis in the present work included the Bayesian Network, Random Forest, Deep Neural Network, as well as Recursive Partitioning. The results indicate a rolling importance for different ion species, altering under each functionality, which is not ranked as the most influential parameter in either case. For the oil recovery target, our results quantify a distinction between the source of an ion of a single type in terms of its influencing rank in the process. This latter deduction is the first proposal of its kind, suggesting a new perspective for research. Moreover, the machine learning methodology was found to be capable of reliably capturing the data, as evidenced by the minimal errors in the bootstrapped results. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-05 Full Text: PD