An overview of the environmental,economic, and material developments of the solar and wind sources coupled with the energy storage systems

There is a constant growth in energy consumption and consequently energy generation around the world. During the recent decades, renewable energy sources took heed of scientists and policy makers as a remedy for substituting traditional sources. Wind and photovoltaic (PV) are the least reliable sources because of their dependence on wind speed and irradiance and therefore their intermittent nature. Energy storage systems are usually coupled with these sources to increase the reliability of the hybrid system. Environmental effects are one of the biggest concerns associated with the renewable energy sources. This study summarizes the last and most important environmental and economic analysis of a grid‐connected hybrid network consisting of wind turbine, PV panels, and energy storage systems. Focusing on environmental aspects, this paper reviews land efficiency, shaded analysis of wind turbines and PV panels, greenhouse gas emission, wastes of wind turbine and PV panels' components, fossil fuel consumption, wildlife, sensitive ecosystems, health benefits, and so on. A cost analysis of the energy generated by a hybrid system has been discussed. Furthermore, this study reviews the latest technologies for materials that have been used for solar PV manufacturing. This paper can help to make a right decision considering all aspects of installing a hybrid system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geometrical and structural setting of landslide dams of the Central Alborz: a link between earthquakes and landslide damming

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - The combination of remote sensing observations, geological field investigations and geomorphological mapping and measurements along with faults...     

Damage Detection in a Composite Plate Using Modal Analysis and Artificial Intelligence

The use of composite materials has vastly increased in recent years. Great interest is therefore developed in the damage detection of composites using non-destructive test methods. Several approaches have been applied to obtain information about the existence, location and growth of the faults. The main goal in this paper is to use the vibration response of a composite plate to detect and localize delamination defect based on the frequency response and modal analysis. The features extracted are used as the input data in an artificial intelligence scheme to identify the severity of the damages. Experiments are then conducted to validate the developed model.     

Multireference object pose retrieval with volume feedback

Pose retrieval of a rigid object from monocular video sequences or images is addressed. Initially, the object pose is estimated in each image assuming flat depth maps. Shape-from-silhouette is then applied to make a 3-D model (volume), which is used for a new round of pose estimations, this time by a model-based method that gives better estimates. Before repeating this process by building a new volume, pose estimates are adjusted to reduce error by maximizing a novel quality factor for shape-from-silhouette volume reconstruction. The feedback loop is terminated when pose estimates do not change much, as compared with those produced by the previous iteration. Based on a theoretical study of the proposed system, a test of convergence to a given set of poses is devised. Reliable performance of the system is also proved by several experiments on both synthetic and real image sequences. No model is assumed for the object and no feature point is detected or tracked as there is no problematic feature matching or correspondence. Our method can be used for 3-D object tracking in video, 3-D modeling, and volume reconstruction from video.     

An epidemic of scurvy in Afghanistan: assessment and response

In March 2002, there were reports of a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Afghanistan. It was later confirmed that the hemorrhagic symptoms and increased mortality were actually due to scurvy. Most aid workers did not include scurvy in the initial differential diagnosis because it is uncommon throughout the world and has mainly been reported in refugee populations in recent times. A rapid assessment confirmed the cases clinically, estimated a prevalence rate of 6.3% (a severe public health problem), and determined that the attack rates peaked each year in January and February (the end of the winter). Many Afghans have limited dietary diversity due to isolated locations, lengthy winters, the continuing drought of the last four years, asset depletion, and loss of livelihood. After numerous food and fortification options to prevent future outbreaks had been considered, vitamin C tablet supplementation was selected because of the relatively rapid response time as compared with other prevention methods. A three-month course of vitamin C tablets was distributed to 827 villages in at-risk areas. The tablets were acceptable and compliance was good. No cases of scurvy were reported for the winter of 2002-03. The case study from Afghanistan demonstrates that scurvy can occur in nonrefugee or nondisplaced populations; vitamin C supplementation can be an effective prevention strategy; there is an urgent need to develop field-friendly techniques to diagnose micronutrient-deficiency diseases; food-security tools should be used to assess and predict risks of nutritional deficiencies; and the humanitarian community should address prevention of scurvy in outbreak-prone areas.     

A convenient solvent-free and one-pot synthesis of 4-hydroxythiazolidine-2-thiones

A highly efficient solvent-free and simple one-pot approach for the synthesis of 4-hydroxythiazolidine-2-thione is described. The reaction of primary amines and carbon disulfide in the presence of 2-chloroacetaldehyde afforded the title compounds in high yields.     

Copper-alumina nanocomposite coating on copper substrate through solution combustion

The main objective of the present research is to investigate the production of Cu-Al₂O₃ nanocomposite coating on a copper substrate using solution combustion synthesis. Solution combustion synthesis is mainly used to produce nanocomposite powders; however, in this study it is applied to produce nanocomposite coat. For this purpose, both copper and aluminum nitrates (Cu (NO₃)₂·3H₂O and Al (NO₃)₃·9H₂O) are used as oxidizers. Also, urea and graphite are respectively used as fuel to synthesize the Cu-Al₂O₃ nanocomposite and as inhibitor to prevent the oxidation of the synthesized copper. The microstructure and morphology of the nanocomposite coating, which includes 25 wt% alumina as the reinforcing phase, was studied using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy at different fuel/oxidizer ratios ranging from 0.9 to 2. The temperature variation during the process was measured as a function of time using a precise thermocouple. Finally, micro-hardness and wear tests were conducted on the nanocomposite coating. The results verified the formation of Cu-Al₂O₃ nanocomposite coating. Time-temperature curve illustrated that the highest temperature was achieved at the fuel/oxidizer ratio of 1.25. The results of the microhardness and wear resistance test showed that these properties depend heavily on the fuel/oxidizer ratio, with the best condition attained at the ratio of 1.25.     

Stabilisation of discrete-time polynomial fuzzy systems via a polynomial lyapunov approach

This paper deals with the problem of designing a controller for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems which is represented by discrete-time polynomial fuzzy model. Most of the existing control design methods for discrete-time fuzzy polynomial systems cannot guarantee their Lyapunov function to be a radially unbounded polynomial function, hence the global stability cannot be assured. The proposed control design in this paper guarantees a radially unbounded polynomial Lyapunov functions which ensures global stability. In the proposed design, state feedback structure is considered and non-convexity problem is solved by incorporating an integrator into the controller. Sufficient conditions of stability are derived in terms of polynomial matrix inequalities which are solved via SOSTOOLS in MATLAB. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Flexible Transparent Hierarchical Nanomesh for Rose Petal‐Like Droplet Manipulation and Lossless Transfer

Precise manipulation of water is a key step in numerous natural and synthetic processes. Here, a new flexible and transparent hierarchical structure is determined that allows ultra‐dexterous manipulation and lossless transfer of water droplets. A 3D nanomesh is fabricated in one step by scalable electrospinning of low‐cost polystyrene solutions. Optimal structures are composed of a mesh of dense nanofiber layers vertically separated by isolated mesoporous microbeads. This results in a highly adhesive superhydrophobic wetting that perfectly mimics rose petal‐like structures. Structural–functional correlations are obtained over all key process parameters enabling robust tailoring of the wetting properties from hydrophilic to lotus‐like Cassie‐Baxter and rose‐like Cassie‐impregnating states. A mechanistic model of the droplet adhesion and release dynamics is obtained alongside the first demonstration of a mechanically induced transfer of microdroplets between two superhydrophobic coatings. This low‐temperature reaction‐free material structure demonstrates a facile means to fabricate impenetrable residue‐less rose petal‐like surfaces with superhydrophobic contact angles of 152 ± 2° and effective adhesion strength of 113 ± 20 μN. This is a significant step toward parallel, multistep droplet manipulation with applications ranging from flexible on‐paper devices to microfluidics and portable/wearable biosensors.