A Constrained Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Model for Upscaling Permeability

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Temiloluwa A. Onimisi would like to acknowledge Petroleum Development Trust Fund Nigeria, for funding this PhD research project. Research Funding Petroleum Development Trust Fund NigeriaPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Simulation of Prototype Active Agricultural Solar Dryer with Slit-Type Transpired Solar Collector

This paper presents a functional and easy method for simulation of thin bed drying of maize in an active solar dryer with slit-type transpired collector using TRNSYS software. Thin layer solar drying model written in TRNSYS equation blocks in combination with existing components in the software library were used to build a solar mixed mode dryer system in TRNSYS environment for simulation. Experimental data for thin-bed solar dryer drying of maize obtained at different air mass flow rates of 0.026, 0.033, 0.034, 0.035 and 0.038 kg/sec, respectively, were used for model verification. There was good agreement between simulation results and experimental dryer temperatures for thin-bed solar dryer drying of maize with root mean square error (RMSE) and Nash- Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE) of 0.95, 0.57, 0.65, 1.15, 1.32 and 0.92, 0.93, 0.92, 0.85, 0.89 respectively for the air mass flowrates investigated. The results further confirmed that TRNSYS software can be a useful tool in the design and optimization of solar dryer systems

Stimulus responsive graphene scaffolds for tissue engineering

Tissue engineering (TE) is an emerging area that aims to repair damaged tissues and organs by combining different scaffold materials with living cells. Recently, scientists started to engineer a new generation of nanocomposite scaffolds able to mimic biochemical and biophysical mechanisms to modulate the cellular responses promoting the restoration of tissue structure or function. Due to its unique electrical, topographical and chemical properties, graphene is a material that holds a great potential for TE, being already considered as one of the best candidates for accelerating and guiding stem cell differentiations. Although this is a promising field there are still some challenges to overcome, such as the efficient control of the differentiation of the stem cells, especially in graphene-based microenvironments. Hence, this chapter will review the existing research related to the ability of graphene and its derivatives (graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide) to induce stem cell differentiation into diverse lineages when under the influence of electrical, mechanical, optical and topographic stimulations