Simulation of Flow past an Open-Channel Floor Slot

In the past, solutions to the problem of flow past a floor slot in a rectangular open channel used to divert flow from one stream to another were obtained mainly on the basis of model tests or through the development of simplified theoretical expressions. In the present study, the free-surface turbulence model is applied to obtain the flow parameters such as pressure head distribution, velocity distribution, and water surface profile. The predictions of the proposed numerical model are validated using previous experimental data. In particular, the model predictions agree well with the test data related to flow parameters. The study indicates that the free-surface turbulence model developed is an efficient and useful tool for predicting characteristics of free surface flows such as flow past a floor slot. For flow past an open-channel floor slot, a model that is properly validated can be used to predict the flow characteristics under various flow configurations encountered in the field, without resorting to expensive experimental procedures.     

Continuous fluidized bed drying: Residence time distribution characterization and effluent moisture content prediction

The mixing and drying behavior in a continuous fluidized bed dryer were investigated experimentally by characterizing the residence time distribution (RTD) and incorporating a micromixing model together with the drying kinetics obtained from batch drying. The RTD of the dryer was modeled using a tank-in-series model. It was found that a high initial material loading and a low material flow rate resulted in a reduced peak height and broaded peak width of the RTD curve. To predict the continuous dryer effluent moisture content, we combined: (a) the drying kinetics as determined in a batch fluidized bed dryer, (b) the RTD model, and (c) micromixing models—segregation and maximum mixedness models. It was found that the segregation model overpredicted the effluent moisture content by up to 5% for the cases we have studied while the maximum mixedness model gave a good prediction of the effluent moisture content.     

Selective and Brain‐Permeable Polo‐like Kinase‐2 (Plk‐2) Inhibitors That Reduce α‐Synuclein Phosphorylation in Rat Brain

Polo‐like kinase‐2 (Plk‐2) has been implicated as the dominant kinase involved in the phosphorylation of α‐synuclein in Lewy bodies, which are one of the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease neuropathology. Potent, selective, brain‐penetrant inhibitors of Plk‐2 were obtained from a structure‐guided drug discovery approach driven by the first reported Plk‐2–inhibitor complexes. The best of these compounds showed excellent isoform and kinome‐wide selectivity, with physicochemical properties sufficient to interrogate the role of Plk‐2 inhibition in vivo. One such compound significantly decreased phosphorylation of α‐synuclein in rat brain upon oral administration and represents a useful probe for future studies of this therapeutic avenue toward the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease.     

High accuracy optical character recognition using neural networkswith centroid dithering

Optical character recognition (OCR) refers to a process whereby printed documents are transformed into ASCII files for the purpose of compact storage, editing, fast retrieval, and other file manipulations through the use of a computer. The recognition stage of an OCR process is made difficult by added noise, image distortion, and the various character typefaces, sizes, and fonts that a document may have. In this study a neural network approach is introduced to perform high accuracy recognition on multi-size and multi-font characters; a novel centroid-dithering training process with a low noise-sensitivity normalization procedure is used to achieve high accuracy results. The study consists of two parts. The first part focuses on single size and single font characters, and a two-layered neural network is trained to recognize the full set of 94 ASCII character images in 12-pt Courier font. The second part trades accuracy for additional font and size capability, and a larger two-layered neural network is trained to recognize the full set of 94 ASCII character images for all point sizes from 8 to 32 and for 12 commonly used fonts. The performance of these two networks is evaluated based on a database of more than one million character images from the testing data set     

Development of a residence time distribution method for proton exchange membrane fuel cell evaluation

New in situ and minimally invasive methods are needed to quantify the presence of liquid water and ice within operating proton exchange membrane fuel cells. A volume sensitive residence time distribution technique was developed based on CO₂ tracer and infrared detection. The method, components and operation are detailed (tracer injection and detection, data scaling, calibration, and pressure correction). The measurement system was characterized by an electronic signal processing response time of 43 ms, accuracy and repeatability better than 0.5-5% error in transit time measurement and sufficient sensitivity to detect less than 10% changes in flow field channel and gas diffusion electrode void volumes. Results obtained with a simplified model fuel cell (single flow field channel, absence and presence of a gas diffusion layer) revealed the presence of two time resolved mechanistic steps for negative tracer step cases (convective tracer removal from flow field channel, diffusive tracer removal from gas diffusion layer). A one-dimensional model was derived using convective diffusion in flow field channels and cross-flow tracer exchange proportional to the concentration difference between flow field channel and gas diffusion electrode. Numerical computations showed good agreement with the model fuel cell experimental results.     

Life cycle assessment of ecological sanitation system for small-scale wastewater treatment

Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) concepts, relying on an environmentally sound management of water, nutrient and energy fluxes, have been poorly characterized in literature and are widely ignored by public planning authorities, architects or engineers. A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of an EcoSan system at an office building and of conventional systems was carried out in order to provide practical data and information to (partially) fill this gap. Compared to conventional systems, EcoSan can reduce the contribution to ecosystem quality damage by more than 60%. EcoSan leads, however, to higher damages on resources and human health and higher impact on climate change. Key improvement possibilities and research needs related to these results are discussed throughout the paper. Ecological sanitation appears to be a promising alternative to small-scale wastewater treatment. At higher scales, low water consumption conventional systems are better performing and are not likely to be replaced by EcoSan systems in the short term. Standard conventional systems have very poor environmental performances and should be upgraded as far as possible.     

Nonlinear PLS Method for Side Weir Flows

Side weirs are flow-regulating devices commonly encountered in hydraulic engineering. In the past, the discharge coefficient for flow past a side weir was investigated experimentally by many researchers. In this study, a modified discharge coefficient Cd for side weirs in rectangular channels and circular channels is defined. The multivariable nonlinear partial least square (PLS) method is used to determine the empirical equations relating Cd with the dimensionless weir parameters F1, S/Y1, and L/D. Compared to the previous studies, the procedures to calculate the discharge of the side weirs is simplified. The discharge predicted using the empirical equations based on the nonlinear PLS method is in good agreement with the measured discharge. The nonlinear PLS method can also be applied to many other hydraulic flow configurations characterized by a large number of variables.     

Determinants of Work Decisions among Older People in Rural Vietnam

This paper aimed to identify determinants of work decision among older people living in rural Vietnam. We applied a probit regression model with the nationally representative data from Vietnam Aging Survey (VNAS) in 2011. The results show that age, heath status, marital status, number of members aged under 15 and retirement and/or social allowance receipt had markedly impacts on rural older people’s decision to work. Surprisingly, neither educational level nor ethnicity of rural older people had any significant influence on their work decision. Based on these findings, we suggested some policy recommendations to facilitate older people’s work as well as secure their income.