Design,development, construction and operation of a novel metal hydride compressor

Metal Hydride Compressors (MHC) is a promising technology for thermal compression of hydrogen. Besides the absence of a necessity for significant mechanical or electrical energy input, this type of compressor has the advantage that no moving parts are involved. A brief review on the reported experimental set ups of metal hydride compressors is carried out and compared to the metal hydride compressor developed and constructed by HYSTORE Technologies Ltd in Cyprus. The compressor built by HYSTORE consists of 6 stages using AB₂ and AB₅ – type metal hydride alloys. The MHC is operated between 10 C and 80 °C, which is a temperature range that can be supplied by solar thermal collectors. Furthermore, the experimental results showed, that even lower temperatures of 17 C are sufficient thus reducing the demand for cooling capacity. During the operation, the compressor achieved stable compression of hydrogen from 7 bar more than 220 bar. The specific productivity of the compressor achieved values up to 67.2 l_H2 kg^?1 h^?1.     

Feed protein fractions in various solvents of ruminant feedstuffs

The classical protein fractions, ie albumins, globulins, prolamins, glutelins and insoluble (or structural) proteins were evaluated in selected feedstuffs. Solvents used for classical protein fractionation were: dilute salt (1 M NaCl) in phosphate buffer (pH 7·0), aqueous alcohol (70% ethanol) and dilute alkali (0·05 M NaOH), with the subsequent separation of albumins and globulins by dialysis. In addition, crude protein content, soluble non-protein nitrogen, total true protein and soluble true protein in McDougall's buffer from the same feedstuffs were determined. The soluble non-protein N contributed only a small portion of the total N in feedstuffs. Total true protein was approximately 8–10% for energy feeds, and then increased to 30% for plant protein sources, while the soluble true protein was about the same for energy feeds and plant protein sources. The major proportion of protein in plant protein sources was in the form of globulins, followed by albumins and lesser amounts of glutelins and prolamins. In contrast, the major proportion of protein in cereals was in the form of prolamins and glutelins, followed by globulins and albumins. © 1997 SCI.     

Adaptive Resource Management Platform for Reconfigurable Networks

Users’ expectations towards technology, in terms of quality, service availability and accessibility are ever increasing. Aligned with this, the wireless world is rapidly moving towards the next generation of systems, featuring cooperating and reconfiguring capabilities for coexisting (and upcoming) Radio Access Technologies (RATs), so that to improve connectivity and reduce costs. In this respect, conventional planning and management techniques ought to be replaced by advanced schemes that consider multidimensional characteristics, increased complexity and high speeds. To this effect, means are needed capable to support scalability and to cater for advanced service features, provided to users at high rates and cost-effectively. This article provides a scheme to optimize resource management in future systems, by describing a platform that accommodates engineering mechanisms that deal with dynamic, demand driven planning and managing of spectrum and radio resources in reconfigurable networks. To do so, it first discusses the fundamentals and the approach followed in the proposed architecture and then investigates the basic functional modules. The architecture is validated through a set of use-cases that exemplify the operational applicability and efficiency in a wide range of communication scenarios.

Hybrid polymer-grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes for in vitro gene delivery

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) consist of carbon atoms arranged in sheets of graphene rolled up into cylindrical shapes. This class of nanomaterials has attracted attention because of their extraordinary properties, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity. In addition, development in CNT functionalization chemistry has led to an enhanced dispersibility in aqueous physiological media which indeed broadens the spectrum for their potential biological applications including gene delivery. The aim of this study is to determine the capability of different cationic polymer-grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) (polymer-g-MWNTs) to efficiently complex and transfer plasmid DNA (pCMV-βGal) in vitro without promoting cytotoxicity. Carboxylated MWNT is chemically conjugated to the cationic polymers polyethylenimine (PEI), polyallylamine (PAA), or a mixture of the two polymers. In order to explore the potential of these polymer-g-MWNTs as gene delivery systems, we first study their capacity to complex plasmid DNA (pDNA) using agarose gel electrophoresis. Gel migration studies confirm pDNA binding to polymer-g-MWNT with different affinities, highest for PEI-g-MWNT and PEI/PAA-g-CNT constructs. β-galactosidase expression is assessed in human lung epithelial (A549) cells, and the cytotoxicity is determined by modified LDH assay after 24 h incubation period. Additionally, PEI-g-MWNT and/or PEI/PAA-g-MWNT reveal an improvement in gene expression when compared to the naked pDNA or to the equivalent amounts of PEI polymer alone. Mechanistically, pDNA was delivered by the polymer-g-MWNT constructs via a different pathway compared to those used by polyplexes. In conclusion, polymer-g-MWNTs may be considered in the future as a versatile tool for efficient gene transfer in cancer cells in vitro, provided their toxicological profile is established.     

Dynamic segmentation of cellular networks for improved handover performance

One of the most important initial steps, inherent in the planning procedure of cellular networks, is their segmentation in operational parts that is performed at different levels corresponding to the hierarchy and topology of the network. The major goal of this procedure is the efficient deployment of the system and management of the distributed segmented parts while minimizing the signaling overhead in the network. As we show here, it can take place even during the operational phase of the network when certain shortcomings appear. In this work, we present an approach based on graph theory for the segmentation of cellular networks at the Base Station Controller (BSC) level that achieves a significant increase in the performance of the network. In particular, with the proposed method, both the handover attempts when a mobile station is moving to a cell belonging to a different BSC as well as the corresponding handover failure rate are decreased significantly, allowing for a continuous network upgrade. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contraction of Investment Cast H13 Tool Steel Real Time Measurement

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the dimensional changes and variability of investment cast H13 tool steel. An experimental apparatus has been developed to measure the dimensional changes during the casting process. Investigating the dynamics of mould expansion and alloy contraction during investment casting, it has been possible to determine in greater detail the contributions of the cast alloy and the mould to the final contraction of unconstrained castings. Contraction and dimensional variability of the final cast product is defined and experimental estimations of the contributions of each stage of investment casting are made. A technique for combining the variability of sequential stages is discussed. The measured contraction appears to be non-uniform and dependent on the position along the casting.     

Arsenic in mine tailings - the Chimo Mine case study

ABSTRACT

Arsenic is an element frequently associated with mining operations around the world. Its long-term stability in mine tailings may be a problem due to its particular chemical properties. It has been frequently observed that arsenic goes into dissolution at conditions where other metals are stable. This paper presents a case study of a tailing site where arsenic has been periodically released. Data collected over a three-year period are presented and analysed. The paper identifies the causes underlying the periodic arsenic release and defines the treatment methods in order to correct the situation.     

Evaluation of signalling loads in a cognitive network management architecture

Future networks will need to accommodate a significantly augmented user demand, mainly stemming from the wireless and mobile domains. In general, the emerging radio landscape will comprise multiple, collaborating radio access networks (RANs) able to operate a plethora of diverse radio access technologies (RATs), variant types of mobile terminals (MTs), with the ability to choose among various supported RANs/RATs and, in addition, both devices and networks with dynamic spectrum access capabilities that allow the sharing and/or optimization of spectrum usage among different systems. The above will stress network operators for developing mechanisms to confront the challenges and to leverage the opportunities posed by such a versatile radio environment. In particular, the situation calls for adaptive and flexible management paradigms that are able to dynamically manage network elements and terminals, thus ensuring the great availability and efficient usage of spectrum and other radio resources. Framed within the above, this paper considers a cognitive network management architecture, which is destined for optimized management of future wireless networks operating in versatile radio environments, and presents a performance evaluation methodology, which was set up for measuring the signalling loads that the operation of the architecture will bring to the managed network. The methodology is analytically described, and useful results with respect to the signalling load produced for management signalling purposes in an indicative scenario are presented and analysed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In-depth analysis and evaluation of diffusive glioma models

Glioma is one of the most aggressive types of brain tumor. Several mathematical models have been developed during the past two decades, toward simulating the mechanisms that govern the development of glioma. The most common models use the diffusion-reaction equation (DRE) for simulating the spatiotemporal variation of tumor cell concentration. Nevertheless, despite the applications presented, there has been little work on studying the details of the mathematical solution and implementation of the 3-D diffusion model and presenting a qualitative analysis of the algorithmic results. This paper presents a complete mathematical framework on the solution of the DRE using different numerical schemes. This framework takes into account all characteristics of the latest models, such as brain tissue heterogeneity, anisotropic tumor cell migration, chemotherapy, and resection modeling. The different numerical schemes presented have been evaluated based upon the degree to which the DRE exact solution is approximated. Experiments have been conducted both on real datasets and a test case for which there is a known algebraic expression of the solution. Thus, it is possible to calculate the accuracy of the different models.