Effectiveness of computer controlled robotic precision manipulator

A robotic precision manipulator has been designed and interfaced with a micro-computer for the manipulation of a workpiece in such a way that 2-D/3-D complex shaped surfaces may be produced using a wire EDM machine in which the cutting forces are relatively negligible. The manipulator is operated by four AC servo motors, two of them are for the linear manipulation along the X and Y axes and the other two motors are used for the manipulation of the rotary motions, alpha and beta around the X and Y axes respectively. The maximum X and Y axes linear travel for the manipulator is 100 mm and 120 mm respectively, and the angular cutting facility for alpha and beta is 70° and 65° respectively. For carrying out the tests on model material (polystyrene) for the simulated WEDM process a wire cutting unit was also designed, and commissioned on which the cutting wire and a micro-switch is housed. The interfacing system used for this manipulator has two PC23 indexers and four KS-drives. One PC23 indexer controls three motors and the other controls the fourth motor. There are approximately 80 PC23 commands which can be used for setting the process operating modes and motion parameters. There are approximately 40 KS-dnve commands for setting the servo conditions on the KS-dnve for system optimisation and to match the operating conditions described for the PC23 indexer. Other additional facilities offered by the interface system were also utilized by designing the programmable voltage regulator (PVR) circuit to change the voltage in the cutting wire through the micro-computer based software during the generation of the shape. The micro-switch on the cutting wire unit is installed and connected with the PC23 indexer to check if the wire cutting rate is less than the workpiece feedrate so that a signal can be sent to the computer for retracing the workpiece cutting path. A number of programs were developed to generate different 2-D/3-D complex shapes using the model material. The software developed, describes the shape geometry sizes, workpiece feedrate and voltage allowed to the cutting wire on user’s choice. The effectiveness of the manipulator, interfacing system and software was studied qualitatively and quantitatively and was found to be very satisfactory- For carrying out the tests on a real WEDM machine, the hardware and software will need to be modified. The commercially available WEDM machines cost over one hundred thousand pounds with angular cutting facility of ±30° only at 12 mm thick workpiece. The present robotic precision manipulator offers greater angular cutting flexibility of up to ±70° at 50 mm thick workpiece with around 25% cost of these commercially available WEDM machines. The components which are not possible to be manufactured using these costly WEDM machines can easily be manufactured by using this robotic precision manipulator

Dynamic Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of Propeller Aircraft Wing

During flight, aircraft wing is subjected to time dependent loads resulting in wing deformation and oscillation which is a challenge to its structural design as well as safety.  At present, structural integrity and wing performance are mostly evaluated on the basis of static loading only. While dynamic loading has got minor attention due to this research work analyses structural and aerodynamic behavior of rectangular aircraft wing under time varying conditions. The effects of structural non-linearity were also taken into account. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Computational Structural Dynamics (CSD) codes were coupled to predict aerodynamic performance of deformable wing structure. To analyze and compare the performance of rigid and flexible Aluminum alloy 7075 T6 wing were simulated. Research results reveal that there is 5.64% decrease in Lift-to-Drag ratio by considering wing as flexible structure. The analysis of wing structural behavior by varying fluid forces showed that wing behavior is highly non-linear in nature; therefore dynamic loading conditions are highly important to consider

Quantitative Analysis of Petroleum Consumption and CO2 Emission of Mining and Quarrying Industry of Pakistan

Energy is playing dynamic role in the development of national economy of Pakistan. The country’s economy is supported by different industries, such as mining and quarrying is one of the leading industry of the country. The industry is producing different artefacts, for each artefact the industry consumes energy. Fossil fuels are instant sources of energy, burning of fossil fuels are the main factor of the climate change. Hence energy is directly and indirectly used in every sector of the country and petroleum sector is considered the main driving force of the energy. This work derives measures of petroleum consumption and CO2 emissions related to fuel consumption activities in Mining and quarrying industry of Pakistan from the year 1970 to 2016. Results of the study have been calculated by using Wassily Leontief input-output analysis. Results demonstrated that total petroleum consumption of mining and quarrying industry reached at the peak level from year 1994 to 1998, in 2014 1.58E+7 matric barrels were consumed by the sector. Similarly, in 2015 and 2016, 1.62E+6 matric barrels and 1.72E+6 matric barrels of petroleum respectively consumed in the sector. Petroleum consumption caused of emissions of greenhouse gases around 1.01E+7 metric tons of CO2 was released in 1998. Respectively in 2015, 6.98E+6 and in 2016, 7.42E+6 metric tons CO2 was released.  By analysis outcomes of the study, petroleum demand and its consumption will raise and the relevant emission will also increase in the future

Comparative Performance Analysis of Compression Ignition Engine using Biodiesel and LPG as Additive

Increase urbanization of the world leads to increase in fuel demand. Crude oil based fuel such as diesel fuel; petrol and natural gas are the main fuels. Moreover natural resource reservoirs are in specific regions of the world. Many countries of the world along with Pakistan are facing shortage of the petroleum products. Therefore alternative energy resource must be explored in order to cope with the fuel demand.  In this research work, a 60 hours endurance test has been carried out on horizontal type single cylinder diesel engine. During endurance test, three fuel   samples such as D100 (%diesel as a baseline), B25 (waste cooking oil biodiesel 25% and 75% diesel fuel) and B25+LPG (liquefied petroleum gas and waste cooking oil biodiesel) respectively have been taken to determine the engine performance and noise emission level. Engine performance and noise emission level were taken at constant rpm of 1300 with variable loads from 0.0(no load) to 1.6kg-m at an interval of 0.2kg-m. however analysis of results show that the brake specific fuel Consumption (BSFC) of B25+LPG decrease with increasing the brake power and the brake thermal efficiency increase as increasing the brake power. However, engine noise emission level from three directions such as front back and left show lower noise emission in case of biodiesel and LPG blended as compared to diesel fuel

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundRegular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations.MethodsThe Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model—a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates—with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality—which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds.FindingsThe leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2–100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1–290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1–211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4–48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3–37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7–9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles.InterpretationLong-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere