Development of future energy scenarios with intelligent algorithms: Case of hydro in Turkey

Energy production is considered as one of the key indicators for economic development. It is vital to improve the renewable energy production for global sustainability, while leveraging the national resources. This study is contributing to the demonstration of using genetic algorithms (GA) in the development of future energy scenarios as well as to the strategic energy studies in Turkey. The forecasting model developed in this study uses forward feeding back-propagation (BP) method improved by GA. The proposed model is applied in the Turkish case. The test errors are shown to emphasize the positive difference between the proposed model and the classical BP model. The results highlight that there is strong evidence indicating that the government should reconsider their current energy strategies.     

Effect of nitrate reduction on the microbial reductive transformation of pentachloronitrobenzene

The effect of nitrate reduction onthe reductive biotransformation of pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB), an organochlorine fungicide, was assessed with a mixed fermentative/methanogenic culture enriched from a contaminated estuarine sediment. Glucose and methanol served asthe electron and carbon source. PCNB at an initial concentration of 3 microM was transformed to pentachloroaniline (PCA) simultaneously with nitrate reduction in cultures amended with 10 to 200 mg N/L nitrate. PCA sequentially dechlorinated to dichlorinated anilines (mainly 2,5-DCA) in the nitrate-free control culture, and the culture which was amended with 10 mg N/L nitrate. PCA partially dechlorinated to tetrachloroanilines (TeCAs), and methanogenesis was completely inhibited in the cultures amended with 50-200 mg N/L nitrate, whereas fermentation was only inhibited in the cultures amended with 200 mg N/L nitrate. The impact of nitrate reduction on the sequential dechlorination of PCA was attributed to the production of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Partial nitrate reduction to ammonia was observed in the cultures amended with 50, 100, or 200 mg N/L nitrate and PCNB (3 microM). Therefore, nitrate concentrations at or above 50 mg N/L lead to accumulation of toxic compounds such as highly chlorinated anilines (i.e., PCA, TeCAs) and denitrification intermediates (i.e., NO, N2O). These findings have significant environmental implications in terms of the fate and transformation of PCNB in subsurface environments where nitrate is present.     

Place names and landscape character: a case study from Otago Region,New Zealand

Landscape characterisation has become an important tool in the interpretation of the distinctive features, patterns and identity of a region for planning purposes. However, conventional assessment methods that focus upon visual character may overlook some cultural values. This study investigates how toponymy—the analysis of place names—can be undertaken as a contribution to landscape characterisation. The study focus is Otago Region, New Zealand, which has a diverse landscape and a reliable database of place names. The study reported here involves analysis of 696 place names relating to 31 types of landscape feature derived from maps. The majority of names were connected with symbolic historic and cultural associations, mainly people. Biophysical characteristics including landform and hydrological features were also prominent. Names associated with the indigenous culture, Maori, were layered with those from European colonisation. Systematic analysis of place names highlights both presence and displacements of cultural memory and offers potential for an additional rich layer of interpretation in landscape characterisation.     

Seismic Earth Pressures on Cantilever Retaining Structures

An experimental and analytical program was designed and conducted to evaluate the magnitude and distribution of seismically induced lateral earth pressures on cantilever retaining structures with dry medium dense sand backfill. Results from two sets of dynamic centrifuge experiments and two-dimensional nonlinear finite-element analyses show that maximum dynamic earth pressures monotonically increase with depth and can be reasonably approximated by a triangular distribution. Moreover, dynamic earth pressures and inertia forces do not act simultaneously on the cantilever retaining walls. As a result, designing cantilever retaining walls for maximum dynamic earth pressure increment and maximum wall inertia, as is the current practice, is overly conservative and does not reflect the true seismic response of the wall-backfill system. The relationship between the seismic earth pressure increment coefficient (ΔKAE) at the time of maximum overall wall moment and peak ground acceleration obtained from our experiments suggests that seismic earth pressures on cantilever retaining walls can be neglected at accelerations below 0.4 g. This finding is consistent with the observed good seismic performance of conventionally designed cantilever retaining structures.     

Stress Detection in Human–Computer Interaction: Fusion of Pupil Dilation and Facial Temperature Features

In order to differentiate the affective state of a computer user as it changes from relaxation to stress, features derived from pupil dilation and periorbital temperature can be utilized. Absolute signal values and measurements computed from these can be fused to increase the accuracy of affective classification. In this study, entropy in a sliding window was used to accommodate the time differences in the physiological rise and fall profiles of pupil and thermal data. Two methods, decision tree and Adaboost with Random Forest (ABRF), were used for classification tests. Detection accuracy of stressful states varied between 65% and 83.8%. Best results can be reported as 83.9% for sensitivity and 83.8% for specificity. ABRF classifier outperformed the decision tree model. This study emphasizes the importance of data fusion, particularly when physiological signals differ with respect to their rise and fall windows across time. Use of entropy within a predefined time window provides a useful set of features to combine with actual measurements. Furthermore, the collection of pupil and thermal data is feasible because surface sensors are eliminated.     

A numerical simulation study for the human passive thermal system

The objective of this study is to create a dynamic model representing a transient three-dimensional passive thermal model of the human body. The model is a multi-segmental, multi-layered representation of the human body with spatial subdivisions which simulates the heat transfer phenomena within the body and at its surface. In order to represent the mechanisms of heat transfer within the body, energy balance equations including conduction with adjacent tissue, heat storage, metabolic heat generation, and convective heat transfer due to the blood flow in the capillaries are taken into consideration for each tissue. The present model of the passive system accounts for the geometric and anatomic characteristics of the human body and considers the thermo-physical and the basal physiological properties of tissue materials. It is assumed that the body is exposed to combination of the convection, evaporation and radiation which are taken into account as boundary conditions when solving the passive thermal system equation. The model is capable of predicting human body temperature in any given environmental conditions. Finite difference solution scheme is used to find out the temperature distribution of human body. The results are compared with the experimental data of previous studies present in the literature. Consequently, the numerical results of present model show good agreement with the experimental data.     

Evaluation of effect of alloy elements in copper based CuSn10 and CuZn30 bearings on tribological and mechanical properties

Brass and especially bronze in copper based alloys are widely used as journal bearing material. Pure copper materials are not used as journal bearing material due to their low mechanical and hardness properties. These materials having acceptable tribological and mechanical performance give satisfactory results in journal bearings. In this study, tribological and mechanical properties of journal bearings manufactured from copper based CuSn10 bronze and CuZn30 brass were investigated. Moreover, the effect of alloy elements of Cu, Sn and Zn on tribological and mechanical properties of journal bearings was evaluated. SAE 1050 steel shaft (journal) was used as counter abrader. Wear experiments were carried out at 20 N loads, 1500 rpm for 2.5 h by using radial journal bearing wear test rig.     

Poly(vinyl phosphonic acid) (PVPA)–BaFe12O19 Nanocomposite

We present a method for the fabrication of PVPA/BaFe₁₂O₁₉ nanocomposite by in-situ polymerization of vinyl phosphonic acid, VPA in the presence of synthesized BaFe₁₂O₁₉ NPs. Nanoparticles and the nanocomposite were analyzed by XRD, FTIR, TGA, SEM, TEM, VSM, and conductivity techniques for structural and physicochemical characteristics. Nanoparticles, identified as BaFe₁₂O₁₉ from XRD analysis, were successfully coated with PVPA and the linkage was assessed to be via P?CO bonds. Electron microscopy analysis revealed aggregation of BaFe₁₂O₁₉ particles and dominantly platelet morphology upon composite formation. TGA analysis revealed the composition of the nanocomposite as 65% BaFe₁₂O₁₉ and 35% polymer. Magnetic evaluation revealed that adsorption of PVPA anions during the preparation of the nanocomposite strongly influenced the magnetic properties resulting in much lower saturation magnetization values. DC conductivity measurements were used to calculate activation energy of PVPA/BaFe₁₂O₁₉ nanocomposite and it was obtained as 0.37?eV.