Assessment of future climate change impacts on hydrological behavior of Richmond River Catchment

This study evaluated the impacts of future climate change on the hydrological response of the Richmond River Catchment in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, using the conceptual rainfall-runoff modeling approach (the Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model). Daily observations of rainfall, temperature, and streamflow and long-term monthly mean potential evapotranspiration from the meteorological and hydrological stations within the catchment for the period of 1972–2014 were used to run, calibrate, and validate the HBV model prior to the streamflow prediction. Future climate signals of rainfall and temperature were extracted from a multi-model ensemble of seven global climate models (GCMs) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) with three regional climate scenarios, A2, A1B, and B1. The calibrated HBV model was then forced with the ensemble mean of the downscaled daily rainfall and temperature to simulate daily future runoff at the catchment outlet for the early part (2016–2043), middle part (2044–2071), and late part (2072–2099) of the 21st century. All scenarios during the future periods present decreasing tendencies in the annual mean streamflow ranging between 1% and 24.3% as compared with the observed period. For the maximum and minimum flows, all scenarios during the early, middle, and late parts of the century revealed significant declining tendencies in the annual mean maximum and minimum streamflows, ranging between 30% and 44.4% relative to the observed period. These findings can assist the water managers and the community of the Richmond River Catchment in managing the usage of future water resources in a more sustainable way.     

Application of active magnetic bearings for in situ flexible rotor residual balancing using a novel generalized influence coefficient method

An identification algorithm for the estimation of residual unbalances is developed for a flexible rotor-bearing system integrated with an active magnetic bearing (AMB). The main advantage of the present methodology is that it can be applied in situ and also with safe traversal of resonances during run-up. The flexible rotor-AMB system is modelled by the finite element method, considering randomly distributed residual unbalances along with disc discrete residual unbalances. In order to obtain equivalent discrete unbalances at limited disc locations for the balancing of the flexible rotor system, a generalized influence coefficient method (GICM) is proposed. Equivalent unbalances obtained at discrete balancing planes are used to check the reduction in unbalance responses. The proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional influence coefficient method (CICM) without AMB to check the accuracy and consistency of the estimated values of residual unbalances. The values estimated by both methods are found to be consistent, while the GICM has an advantage of using AMB for the safe operation of the unbalanced rotor at high speeds during measurements. In order to have a suitable discrete position of AMB (for effective estimation of residual unbalances), various rotor system models are considered with different positions of the AMB.     

A critical review on metabolomic analysis of milk and milk products

Metabolomics deals with the identification and quantification of the small molecules involved in metabolic reactions. It has recently been used to understand the nutritional quality and authenticity of milk and milk products. Various analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and ultra‐performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry have been successfully employed to identify and quantify the metabolites present in milk and milk products. This review focuses on the recent advances in metabolomics for quality and safety analyses of milk and milk products.     

Design of Dual Band and Tri-band Bandpass Filter (BPF) with Improved Inter-band Isolation Using DGS Integrated Coupled Microstrip Lines Structures

Wireless Personal Communications - A novel approach to design dual-band as well as a triple-band BPF with improved isolation is ventured in this paper. In dual-band filter, dual mode property of...     

Study of reinforcement mechanism and structural elucidation of expanded graphite-carbon black hybrid filler-SBR nanocomposites through comprehensive analysis of mechanical properties and small angle X-ray data

Use of hybrid fillers as a reinforcing agent for polymers is found to be critical step toward developing a high-performance composite material. However, limited know-how on the nature of interaction of the hybrid fillers with the polymer chains resulted in a major impediment toward large-scale transmissibility of such a technology. Herein, we report about a strategy, wherein the polymer composite (free of curatives), comprising of hybrid filler and its gel was leveraged to effectively understand the physics involved toward reinforcement. Styrene-butadiene random copolymer as the matrix, and combination of expanded graphite and carbon black (N220) as the model hybrid filler were selected. The hybrid filler containing composite (SG22) demonstrated significant improvement in terms of the physico-mechanical properties such as tensile strength, modulus and so forth compared to the neat carbon black-filled system (S22). Stress-relaxation studies indicated that SG22 registered minimal decay in the force with time compared to S22. SG22 demonstrated a gel fraction of 68 ± 1% while 56 ± 1% was noted for S22. Further, rheometric studies like strain sweep, frequency sweep, complex viscosity of the gel fragments indicated the formation of fractal network of the hybrid fillers inside the polymer matrix. Small angle X-ray studies corroborated the crucial role played by the expanded graphite sheets in determining the microstructure of the composite owing to their lubrication effect and segregation of carbon black agglomerates by cutting through their sharp edges resulting in a well-distributed filler network.     

A lightweight solution to epileptic seizure prediction based on EEG synchronization measurement

The Journal of Supercomputing - It is critical to determine whether the brain state of an epilepsy patient is indicative of a possible seizure onset; thus, appropriate therapy or alarm may be...     

Comparative assessment of different air-conditioning systems for nearly/net zero-energy buildings

This study deals with the performance of different air-conditioning strategies for achieving the target of nearly/net zero energy in a medium-scale building under various environmental conditions. In particular, vapour compression (VC), vapour absorption (VA), and integration of radiant cooling technology are analysed using renewable energy resources and solar photovoltaic (PV)-based electricity. Four different kinds of air-conditioning configurations are considered: VC-based, VA-based, VC-radiant air-conditioning technology with VC dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) and VA radiant air-conditioning technology with VC-DOAS. Numerical model validations with the benchmark standards are done for VC- and VA-based systems. In particular, annual electric consumption, electricity generation, thermal load generation among all configurations, emissions and solar fractions are studied. The present study shows that target of nearly/net zero-energy building can be achieved in an efficient manner through radiant VC-based system with VC-DOAS for hot-dry and composite (ie, hot-dry with higher humidity) environment conditions. However, for warm-humid environment, complete net zero is not possible, but up to 74% of net zero target can be assured with VC-based radiant and DOAS. With respect to the conventional VC-based system, the payback period assessment for the most suitable nearly/net zero building cooling system varies in the range of 5-9 years, depending on the environmental conditions.     

Analysis of K-Transmit Dual-Receive Diversity with Cochannel Interferers over a Rayleigh Fading Channel

The need to combat the severe effects of fading and interferencein the rapidly increasing number of communication systemsproviding wireless services has motivated the study of diversityin the presence of interference.Hence the analysis of wireless systems with both transmit andreceive diversity and subject to cochannel interference is animportant tool for system design.We consider here a K-transmit dual-receive diversitycommunication systememploying K antennas for transmission and two antennasfor reception. The desired signal is corruptedby N interfering sources apart from additive whiteGaussian noise. The channel is Rayleigh fading.As a result, the channel matrix for the desired signaland the propagation vectors of the interferers havezero-mean complexGaussian entries; the entries are assumedto be independent and identically distributed.The complex receive weight vectorused for combining the received signalsis chosen so as to maximize the outputsignal-to-interference-plus-noiseratio (SINR).From the statistics of the channel matrix and thepropagation vectors of the interferers,we derive a closed-form expressionfor the probability density function (p.d.f.)of the maximum outputSINR. This p.d.f. can be used to obtainthe symbol errorprobability for different digital modulation schemes.     

Differential scanning calorimetric study of curing of acrylated epoxy resin with benzoyl peroxide

The curing reaction of the acrylated diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) with benzoyl peroxide has been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry at three different heating rates. The overall cure kinetics were found to be first-order, with Arrhenius parameters E=83 kJ mol^?1 and In A = 16.5 min^?1, independent of the scan rate, up to at least 90% conversion.     

Analysis of heat fluxes in the electrode walls of a combustion-driven MHD generator

A qualitative analysis is presented to explain the difference in the measured heat fluxes in the anode and cathode in the arc mode of current transfer of a combustion-driven MHD generator. It is shown that various surface phenomena that take place near the wall, like Debye voltage, thermionic work function and electron enthalpy, approximately account for the asymmetry in anode and cathode heat fluxes under the same current condition.