Histopathological and biochemical effects of green tea and/or licorice aqueous extracts on thyroid functions in male albino rats intoxicated with dimethylnitrosamine

OBJECTIVE: To investigate histopathological and biochemical effects of green tea and/or licorice aqueous extracts in thyroid functions in male albino rats intoxicated with Dimethylnitrosamine. METHODS: 40 Male albino rats were divided into two main groups, 20 normal rats and 20 DMN intoxicated rats. Normal rats were subgrouped into 4 equal groups, group A without treatment (controls), group B treated with green tea, group C treated with licorice, group D treated with green tea and licorice. DMN intoxicated rats were subgrouped into 4 equal groups, group E treated with DMN, group F treated with DMN and green tea, group G treated with DMN and licorice, group H treated with DMN, green tea and licorice. The rats were permitted for free access to solubilized extracts of green tea and or licorice for 4 weeks. All rats in groups E, F, G, H were treated by intraperitoneal DMN (4 mg dissolved in 2.5 ml distilled water/kg body weight) seven times every 2 days in the first two weeks. Plasma total triiodothyronine and tetraiodothyronine were determined by radioimmunoassay. Thyroxine 5(-)monodeiodinase activity of liver was determined by spectrophotometeric method. Plasma thyroid stimulating hormone was determined by chemiluminometric technique. Histopathological examination was conducted. RESULTS: Histopathologically thyroid gland of DMN intoxicated rats showed degeneration (DG)and desquamation (DS) of the lining epithelium and atrophy of many acini with hyperemia (H) in the stromal capillaries and In comparison with control, the administration of DMN alone induced decrease in plasma levels of T3 and T4 while it induced increase in plasma levels of TSH and hepatic activity of Thyroxine 5(-)monodeiodinase. Coadminstration of DMN and green tea attenuated the lowering effect of DMN on plasma levels of T3 and T4 and induced increase in these levels but values are still below normal ones while Co administration of DMN with licorice or mixture did not affect these levels. Co administration of green tea and/or licorice with DMN attenuated the rising effect of DMN on hepatic activity of Thyroxine 5(-)-DI while augmented the rising effect of DMN on plasma level of TSH. CONCLUSION: Aqueous extract of green tea may be effective in amelioration of biochemical effects and histopathological lesions induced by DMN

System approach for building energy conservation

Energy use in residential and commercial buildings and towers represents more than 30% of energy consumption. The increase in number of buildings and towers in most of the major cities worldwide led to several initiatives for energy conservation programs with the main objective to achieve energy savings. Most energy strategies include energy conservation beside the increase in the penetration of renewable energy technologies. This paper shows business model and engineering design framework for practical implementation of energy conservation in buildings. Key performance indicators are modeled and used to evaluate energy conservation strategies and energy supply scenarios as part of the design and operation of building energy systems. The proposed system approach shows effective management of building energy knowledge on the basis of Energy Semantic Networks (ESN), which supports the simulation, evaluation, and optimization of several building energy conservation scenarios. Case study hotel is used to illustrate the proposed building energy conservation framework. 2014 The Author.Scopus2-s2.0-8492350384

Fault Diagnosis in Fuzzy Discrete Event System: Incomplete Models and Learning

Nowadays, determining faults in non-stationary environment and that can deal with the problems of fuzziness impreciseness and subjectivity is a challenging task in complex systems such as nuclear center, or wind turbines, etc. Our objective in this paper is to develop models based on fuzzy finite state automaton with fuzzy variables describing the industrial process in order to detect anomalies in real time and possibly in anticipation. A diagnosis method has for goal to alert actors responsible for managing operations and resources, able to adapt to the emergence of new procedures or improvisation in the case of unexpected situations. The diagnoser module use the outputs events and membership values of each active state of the model as input events

A structural decomposition-based diagnosis method for dynamic process systems using HAZID information

A novel diagnosis method is proposed in this paper that uses the results of the blended HAZID analysis extended to the dynamic case of process systems controlled by operational procedures. The algorithm is capable of finding fault root causes in process systems using nominal and observed possible faulty operational procedure execution traces. The algorithm uses the structural decomposition of the process system and its component-level dynamic HAZID (P-HAZID) tables and executes the diagnosis component-wise by first decomposing the observed execution traces, and then assembling the diagnosis results. The exact structure of the algorithm is also discussed, followed by two case studies on which its operation is demonstrated. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Energy conservation in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities

An authoritative and comprehensive guide to managing energy conservation in infrastructures. Energy Conservation in Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Facilities offers an essential guide to the business models and engineering design frameworks for the implementation of energy conservation in infrastructures. The presented models of both physical and technological systems can be applied to a wide range of structures such as homes, hotels, public facilities, industrial facilities, transportation, and water/energy supply systems. The authors--noted experts in the field--explore the key performance indicators that are used to evaluate energy conservation strategies and the energy supply scenarios as part of the design and operation of energy systems in infrastructures. The text is based on a systems approach that demonstrates the effective management of building energy knowledge and supports the simulation, evaluation, and optimization of several building energy conservation scenarios. In addition, the authors explore new methods of developing energy semantic network (ESN) superstructures, energy conservation optimization techniques, and risk-based life cycle assessments. This important text: * Defines the most effective ways to model the infrastructure of physical and technological systems * Includes information on the most widely used techniques in the validation and calibration of building energy simulation * Offers a discussion of the sources, quantification, and reduction of uncertainty * Presents a number of efficient energy conservation strategies in infrastructure systems, including HVAC, lighting, appliances, transportation, and industrial facilities * Describes illustrative case studies to demonstrate the proposed energy conservation framework, practices, methods, engineering designs, control, and technologies Written for students studying energy conservation as well as engineers designing the next generation of buildings, Energy Conservation in Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Facilities offers a wide-ranging guide to the effective management of energy conservation in infrastructures

Resiliency Analysis of Hybrid Energy Systems within Interconnected Infrastructures

There are world tendencies to implement interconnected infrastructures of energy-water-waste-transportation-food-health-social systems to enhance the overall performance in normal and emergency situations where there are multiple interactions among them with possible conversions and improved efficiencies. Hybrid energy systems are core elements within interconnected infrastructures with possible conversions among electricity, thermal, gas, hydrogen, waste, and transportation networks. This could be improved with storage systems and intelligent control systems. It is important to study resiliency of hybrid energy systems within interconnected infrastructures to ensure reduced risks and improved performance. This paper presents framework for the analysis of resiliency layers as related to protection layers. Case study of hybrid energy system as integrated with water, waste, and transportation infrastructures is presented where different resiliency and protection layers are assessed. Performance measures are modeled and evaluated for possible interconnection scenarios with internal and external factors that led to resiliency demands. Resiliency layers could trigger protection layers under certain conditions, which are evaluated to achieve high performance hybrid energy systems within interconnected infrastructures. The proposed approach will support urban, small, and remote communities to achieve high performance interconnected infrastructures for normal and emergency situations

Modeling of Interconnected Infrastructures with Unified Interface Design toward Smart Cities

In recent years, there have been tendencies to enable smart cities with interconnected infrastructures and communities. Current engineering design and operation practices are limited to handling individual systems with modeling and simulation, as well as control systems. This paper presents a holistic approach with engineering practice to design and operate interconnected systems as part of smart cities. The approach is based on modeling individual physical systems and associated processes and identifying key performance indicators to evaluate each system and interconnected systems with an understanding of the coupling among systems to increase the overall performance of interconnected systems. The multi-objective optimization technique is proposed to achieve the best performance based on system design, control, and operation parameters. Due to the multidimensional nature of the interconnected systems, a unified interface system with modular design is proposed to achieve the highest overall performance of the interconnected systems with standardized interactions among state variables and performance measures. The proposed approach can allow dynamic updates of the interconnected systems based on model libraries of each system and process. A case study is presented of interconnected energy–water–transportation–waste facilities, whereby modeling is discussed, and performance measures are evaluated for different scenarios using the unified interface design