Neonatal disease profile in Larkana before and after establishment of neonatal ward

This is a study of 2050 neonatal admissions excluding neonatal tetanus in children hospital CMC Larkana from December, 1988 to July, 1993. Six hundred and eighty-nine cases were admitted in General Paediatrics Ward before establishment of neonatal unit and 1361 cases were admitted in neonatal ward. The aime of study was to compare the disease pattern and mortality rates before and after establishment of a neonatal unit in the same hospital. Number of admissions significantly increased after the establishment of neonatal unit but there was no decline in the mortality. Changes in disease pattern were observed particularly for Gastroenteritis and miscellaneous (undetermined) category. Seventy percent of admissions were males in Ist week of their life. Commonest cause of admission and mortality was birth anoxia.     

Data-driven next-generation smart grid towards sustainable energy evolution: techniques and technology review

Meteorological changes urge engineering communities to look for sustainable and clean energy technologies to keep the environment safe by reducing CO2 emissions. The structure of these technologies relies on the deep integration of advanced data-driven techniques which can ensure efcient energy generation, transmission, and distribution. After conducting thorough research for more than a decade, the concept of the smart grid (SG) has emerged, and its practice around the world paves the ways for efcient use of reliable energy technology. However, many developing features evoke keen interest and their improvements can be regarded as the next-generation smart grid (NGSG). Also, to deal with the non-linearity and uncertainty, the emergence of data-driven NGSG technology can become a great initiative to reduce the diverse impact of non-linearity. This paper exhibits the conceptual framework of NGSG by enabling some intelligent technical features to ensure its reliable operation, including intelligent control, agent-based energy conversion, edge computing for energy management, internet of things (IoT) enabled inverter, agent-oriented demand side management, etc. Also, a study on the development of data-driven NGSG is discussed to facilitate the use of emerging data-driven techniques (DDTs) for the sustainable operation of the SG. The prospects of DDTs in the NGSG and their adaptation challenges in real-time are also explored in this paper from various points of view including engineering, technology, et al. Finally, the trends of DDTs towards securing sustainable and clean energy evolution from the NGSG technology in order to keep the environment safe is also studied, while some major future issues are highlighted. This paper can ofer extended support for engineers and researchers in the context of data-driven technology and the SG.     

An Investigation into the Effect of Normal Load Frequency on Fretting Fatigue Behavior of Al7075-T6

Most previous studies on fretting fatigue have been accomplished under constant normal loading and less attention has been paid to cyclic normal loading. An innovative test apparatus was specially designed and manufactured for fretting fatigue tests under cyclic loading in this work and the fretting fatigue behavior of Al7075-T6 was investigated at different normal load frequencies. A finite element model was developed to study the effect of normal load frequency on the contact stress distribution. It was found that the cyclic normal load has a more damaging effect on fretting fatigue life compared to constant normal load, particularly at lower frequencies. The results showed that at the normal load frequency of f = 1 Hz, fatigue life decreased by 52% in the high cycle fatigue regime and 28% in the low cycle fatigue regime. The experimental results also indicated that at the normal load frequency of 80 Hz, the fretting fatigue life converged to its corresponding life under constant normal load condition. The fracture surface and the fretting area of the specimens were examined using both optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental observations showed that the dominant partial slip condition with a wider slip region compared to constant normal loading, severe delamination, and higher oxidation rate due to the normal load release at each cycle, are the most important reasons for significant reductions in fretting fatigue life, under cyclic normal loading, especially for low normal load frequencies.     

Study of the sensitivity and resonant frequency of the torsional modes of an AFM cantilever with a sidewall probe based on a nonlocal elasticity theory

A relationship based on a nonlocal elasticity theory is developed to investigate the torsional sensitivity and resonant frequency of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with assembled cantilever probe (ACP). This ACP comprises a horizontal cantilever and a vertical extension, and a tip located at the free end of the extension, which makes the AFM capable of topography at sidewalls of microstructures. First, the governing differential equations of motion and boundary conditions for dynamic analysis are obtained by a combination of the basic equations of nonlocal elasticity theory and Hamilton's principle. Afterward, a closed‐form expression for the sensitivity of vibration modes has been obtained using the relationship between the resonant frequency and contact stiffness of cantilever and sample. These analysis accounts for a better representation of the torsional behavior of an AFM with sidewall probe where the small‐scale effect are significant. The results of the proposed model are compared with those of classical beam theory. The results show that the sensitivities and resonant frequencies of ACP predicted by the nonlocal elasticity theory are smaller than those obtained by the classical beam theory. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:408–415, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Hydrodynamic lubrication of rough slider bearings with couple stress fluids

The combined effects of couple stresses and surface roughness on the performance characteristics of hydrodynamic lubrication of slider bearings with various film shapes, such as plane slider, exponential, secant and hyperbolic, are studied. A stochastic random variable with non-zero mean, variance and skewness is used to mathematically model the surface roughness of the slider bearing’s. The Stokes couple stress fluid model is used to characterize the rheological behavior of the lubricant with polymer additives. The modified expressions for the bearing characteristics, namely pressure, load carrying capacity, center of pressure, frictional force are obtained for the general lubrication film shape on the basis of Stokes microcontinuum theory for couple stress fluids. Results are computed numerically for various film shapes under consideration. It is observed that, for all the lubricant film shapes under consideration, the negatively skewed surface roughness increases the load carrying capacity, frictional force and temperature rise, while it reduces the coefficient of friction. On the contrary, the reverse trend is observed for positively skewed surface roughness. Further, these effects are more pronounced for the couple stress fluids.     

Selecting model for treatment of oily wastewater by MF-PAC hybrid process using mullite-alumina ceramic membranes

Hermia’s models for cross flow filtration were used to investigate the fouling mechanisms of mullite-alumina ceramic membranes in treatment of oily wastewaters in a hybrid microfiltration-powdered activated carbon process (MF-PAC). Results show that cake filtration model can be applied for prediction of permeation flux decline for MF and MF-PAC process up to 400 ppm PAC. The complete pore blocking model and the intermediate pore blocking model can predict permeation flux decline with time for MF-PAC with 800 and 1200 ppm PAC respectively. Average error for prediction of permeation flux with cake filtration model is 2.19% for MF process and 2.16, 2.06 and 1.31% for MF-PAC process with 100, 200 and 400 ppm PAC respectively. Also for MF-PAC process with 800 and 1200 ppm PAC, average error for prediction of permeation flux with complete pore blocking model and intermediate pore blocking model was 6.11 and 6% respectively.     

Endosulfan induced biochemical changes in nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria

Pesticide contamination in aquatic ecosystem including paddy fields is a serious global environmental concern. Cyanobacteria are also affected by pesticides as non- target organism. For better exploitation of cyanobacteria as biofertiliser, it is indispensable to select tolerant strains along with understanding of their tolerance. Three cyanobacterial strains viz. Aulosira fertilissima, Anabaena variabilis and Nostoc muscorum were studied for their stress responses to an organochlorine pesticide 'endosulfan' with special reference to oxidative stress, role of proline and antioxidant enzymes in endosulfan induced free radical detoxification. Reduction in growth, photosynthetic pigments and carbohydrate of the test microorganisms were accompanied with increase in their total protein, proline, malondialdehye (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT) in higher endosulfan doses. Increased amount of MDA is indicative of formation of free radicals, while increased level of CAT, APX, SOD and proline indicated their involvement in free radical scavenging mechanism. In lower concentrations, test pesticide showed increase in photosynthetic pigments. Order of tolerance was Nostoc muscorum>Anabaena variabilis>Aulosira fertilissima.     

Prediction of ultrasonic wave velocity in particleboard and fiberboard

Ultrasonic wave velocities were determined at parallel and perpendicular to manufacturing direction and at the interval angles of 15° in clockwise and counterclockwise directions of particleboard and fiberboard. The experimental results were compared with the predicted values using some empirical formulae such as Hankinson and Jacoby equations. The results showed that the ultrasonic wave velocity were the highest in parallel direction in particleboard and fiberboard and decreases with increase of angle and the lowest values occurred in perpendicular direction. The predicted ultrasonic velocity using Hankinson and Jacoby equations are in close agreement with the measured values. Relationship between ultrasonic wave velocities and particles and fibers angle could be successfully presented by cubic and quadratic regression equations as well.