An overview of air emission intensities and environmental performance of grey cement manufacturing in Canada

Air emissions generated in grey cement manufacturing originate primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels required to heat the kiln and the chemical reaction of raw materials in the pyroprocessing phase. Given that the kiln system is enclosed, air emissions generated, discharge from a single point source kiln stack. Unlike other industries, the point source kiln stack enables the cement sector to accurately monitor and record total air emissions. The largest contributors to air emissions from grey cement manufacturing are carbon dioxide (CO₂), oxides of nitrogen (NO _x ), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and dust/particulate matter (PM). In Canada, grey cement manufacturing facilities are required to annually report these emissions through the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). Since CO₂, NO _x , SO₂ and PM are the largest contributors to air emissions, and Canadian grey cement facilities are required to report these emissions, combining NPRI data with annual grey cement production data allows for the development of intensity-based environmental performance indicators. Based on data provided by NPRI, in combination with industry production, we can better understand the environmental performance of Canada’s grey cement manufacturing. On the global stage, intensity-based performance measures provide a useful tool for comparison and demonstrate a strong environmental performance for grey cement production in Canada. As an energy intensive and trade exposed (EITE) grey cement manufacturing is vulnerable to unbalanced environmental policy, which may ultimately result in leakage of production and air emissions to developing countries.     

A new nonparametric double exponentially weighted moving average control chart

There are many practical situations where the underlying distribution of the quality characteristic either deviates from normality or it is unknown. In such cases, practitioners often make use of the nonparametric control charts. In this paper, a new nonparametric double exponentially weighted moving average control chart on the basis of the signed-rank statistic is proposed for monitoring the process location. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to obtain the run length characteristics of the proposed chart. The performance comparison of the proposed chart with the existing parametric and nonparametric control charts is made by using various performance metrics of the run length distribution. The comparison showed the superiority of the suggested chart over its existing parametric and nonparametric counterparts. An illustrative example for the practical implementation of the proposed chart is also provided by using the industrial data set.     

Part-load analysis of a chemical looping combustion (CLC) combined cycle with CO2 capture

This paper presents part-load evaluation of a natural gas-fired chemical looping combustion (CLC) combined cycle with CO₂ capture. The novel combined cycle employs an air-based gas turbine, a CO₂-turbine and a steam turbine cycle. In this combined cycle, the CLC reactors replace combustion chamber of the gas turbine. The proposed combined cycle has a net plant efficiency of about 52.2% at full-load, including CO₂ compression to 200 bar. The part-load evaluation shows that reducing the load down to 60% results in an efficiency drop of 2.6%-points. However, the plant shows better relative part-load efficiency compared to conventional combined cycles. The pressure in CLC-reduction and -oxidation reactors is balanced by airflow control, using a compressor equipped with variable guide vanes. A combination of control strategies is discussed for plant start-up and shutdown and for part-load when airflow reduction is not practically possible with current generation of compressors. The results show that the combined cycle has a promising efficiency even at part-load; however, it requires an advanced control strategy.     

Using waste plastic bottles as additive for stone mastic asphalt

Currently, polymer modified asphalt mixture is a relatively costly mixture for paving roads. One way to reduce the cost of such constructions and rendering them more convenient is by using inexpensive polymers, i.e. waste polymers. The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of incorporating waste plastic bottles (Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)) on the engineering properties of stone mastic asphalt (SMA) mixture. The volumetric and mechanical properties of asphalt mixes that include various percentages of PET (0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10%) were calculated and assessed with laboratory tests. The appropriate amount of PET was found to be 6% by weight of bitumen. The outcomes were statistically analysed and the determination of the significance at certain confidence limits was performed with the two factor variance analysis (ANOVA). Moreover, some studies conducted on polyethylene modified asphalt mixture have also been taken into consideration in this paper. The results show that the addition of PET has a significant positive effect on the properties of SMA and it can promote the re-use of waste material in industry in an environmentally friendly and economical way.     

Empirical analysis of gross vehicle weight and free flow speed and consideration on its relation with differential speed limit

Most highly motorized countries in the world have implemented different speed limits for light weight and heavy weight vehicles. The heavy vehicle speed limit is usually chosen to be lower than that of passenger cars due to the difficulty for the drivers to safely maneuver the heavy vehicle at high speed and greater impact during a crash.However, in many cases, the speed limit for heavy vehicle is set by only considering the vehicle size or category, mostly due to simplicity in enforcement. In this study, traffic and vehicular data for all vehicle types were collected using a weigh-in-motion system installed at Federal Route 54 in Malaysia. The first finding from the data showed that the weight variation for each vehicle category is considerable. Therefore, the effect of gross vehicle weight (GVW) and category of heavy vehicle on free flow speed and their interaction were analyzed using statistical techniques.Empirical analysis results showed that statistically for each type of heavy vehicle, there was a significant relationship between free flow speed of a heavy vehicle and GVW. Specifically, the results suggest that the mean and variance of free flow speed decrease with an increase GVW by the amount unrelated to size and shape for all GVW range. Then, based on the 85th percentile principle, the study proposed a new concept for setting the speed limit for heavy vehicle by incorporating GVW where a different speed limit is imposed to the heavy vehicle, not only based on vehicle classification, but also according to its GVW.     

Expression of androgen receptor, gross cystic disease fluid protein, and CD44 in salivary duct carcinoma

Although disorders of thyroid function may cause a wide range of muscle disturbances, an overt myopathy has been rarely reported as an isolated clinical presentation of hypothyroidism. We observed 10 patients (5 males and 5 females) who had been referred to the department of neurology because of muscular fatigability, myalgia, cramps, or proximal weakness. Laboratory investigation showed that all patients had hypothyroidism due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis (atrophic variant in 9/10). Classic symptoms/signs of hypothyroidism such as lethargy, constipation, cold intolerance, myxedematous facies, and/or bradycardia were absent, as assessed independently by the three coauthoring thyroidologists. Muscular complaints improved greatly and then disappeared after substitutive levothyroxine treatment. Muscle biopsy revealed nonspecific changes. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide reductase (NADH-TR)-hyporeactive cores were present in two patients (10% and 90% of type 1 fibers). On electron microscopy, the core areas showed disorganized myofibrils, Z-band streaming, rod formation, and paucity of mitochondria and glycogen granules. Desmin intermediate filaments were overexpressed only in some cores. The similarity of the pattern of desmin expression between hypothyroid cores and target lesions of denervated fibers supports the hypothesis that, at least in some of our patients, myopathy was the result of an impaired nerve-mediated action of thyroid hormones on skeletal muscle. Our observations suggest that an isolated myopathy as the sole manifestation of hypothyroidism is not a rare event. We postulate that our cases may constitute a peculiar subgroup of Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients: (1) the strikingly abnormal F/M ratio of 1:1; (2) the relatively younger age; (3) the rarity of the goitrous variant; (4) the unusual finding of antithyroglobulin (Tg-Ab) > antithyroid peroxidase (TPO-Ab). Thorough evaluation of thyroid function is appropriate in patients with myopathy of uncertain origin.     

A stochastic model of port elevator capacity

This paper uses the results from a queueing model to optimize the inventory to be held at the port when exporting a bulk commodity.     

Effect of key process variables on mechanical properties of blended vortex spun yarns

A study of significant factors and their interaction during vortex yarn spinning has been carried out to achieve desired mechanical properties of the polyethylene terephthalate/cotton blended yarns which can offer process and performance advantages. The key significant factors, i.e. feed ratio, air pressure and spindle size were varied in a mixed-level factorial design. The mechanical properties (count lea strength product, tenacity and elongation at break) were studied and feed ratio was found to significantly affect the tenacity and elongation at break of spun yarns. A significant effect of these parameters was observed on the diameter and hairiness of the Muratec vortex spun yarn.     

Suitability of VVC and HEVC for Video Telehealth Systems

Video compression in medical video streaming is one of the key technologies associated with mobile healthcare. Seamless delivery of medical video streams over a resource constrained network emphasizes the need of a video codec that requires minimum bitrates and maintains high perceptual quality. This paper presents a comparative study between High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and its potential successor Versatile Video Coding (VVC) in the context of healthcare. A large-scale subjective experiment comprising of twenty-four non-expert participants is presented for eight different test conditions in Full High Definition (FHD) videos. The presented analysis highlights the impact of compression artefacts on the perceptual quality of HEVC and VVC processed videos. Our results and findings show that VVC clearly outperforms HEVC in terms of achieving higher compression, while maintaining high quality in FHD videos. VVC requires upto 40% less bitrate for encoding an FHD video at excellent perceptual quality. We have provided rate-quality curves for both encoders and a degree of overlap across both codecs in terms of perceptual quality. Overall, there is a 71% degree of overlap in terms of quality between VVC and HEVC compressed videos for eight different test conditions.