Heat absorption properties of ground material for solar chimney power plants

One of the major challenges to the widespread application of the solar chimney power plant is its low-power conversion efficiency because of the three technological processes involved. The chimney efficiency is difficult to improve, and thus enhancing the collector or turbine performance can considerably improve the total plant efficiency. This work focused on enhancing the energy conversion efficiency of the collector and also extending the operation time using a heat storage medium. The solar to thermal conversion and thermal storage capabilities of six ground materials that are potentially available in Malaysia were studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental model was designed such that the six materials were exposed to the same operation boundary conditions. The numerical studies were conducted using ANSYS software, where the geometrical models were developed and simulated using FLUENT for the fluid flow and energy/thermal field studies. The selected ground materials were ceramic, black stones, sawdust, dark-green painted wood, sand, and pebbles. The simulation and experimental results are in good agreement in terms of air stream velocity and energy conversion efficiency. The results showed that the different materials have different heat storage capacities, and that ceramics extend the operation with improved efficiency until nighttime. The results also showed that ceramic and black stones have better performance than the other materials. However, black stones are recommended as the absorbing material for solar chimney power plants in Malaysia and regional countries because they are readily available

Competition between charge and spin order in the t−U−Vt-U-V extended Hubbard model on the triangular lattice

Several new classes of compounds can be modeled in first approximation by electrons on the triangular lattice that interact through on-site repulsion $U$ as well as nearest-neighbor repulsion $V$. This extended Hubbard model on a triangular lattice has been studied mostly in the strong coupling limit for only a few types of instabilities. Using the extended two-particle self consistent approach (ETPSC), that is valid at weak to intermediate coupling, we present an unbiased study of the density and interaction dependent crossover diagram for spin and charge density wave instabilities of the normal state at arbitrary wave vector. When $U$ dominates over $V$ and electron filling is large, instabilities are chiefly in the spin sector and are controlled mostly by Fermi surface properties. Increasing $V$ eventually leads to charge instabilities. In the latter case, it is mostly the wave vector dependence of the vertex that determines the wave vector of the instability rather than Fermi surface properties. At small filling, non-trivial instabilities appear only beyond the weak coupling limit. There again, charge density wave instabilities are favored over a wide range of dopings by large $V$ at wave vectors corresponding to $\sqrt(3) \times \sqrt(3)$ superlattice in real space. Commensurate fillings do not play a special role for this instability. Increasing $U$ leads to competition with ferromagnetism. At negative values of $U$ or $V$, neglecting superconducting fluctuations, one finds that charge instabilities are favored. In general, the crossover diagram presents a rich variety of instabilities. We also show that thermal charge-density wave fluctuations in the renormalized classical regime can open a pseudogap in the single-particle spectral weight, just as spin or superconducting fluctuations

Conditions for magnetically induced singlet d-wave superconductivity on the square lattice

It is expected that at weak to intermediate coupling, d-wave superconductivity can be induced by antiferromagnetic fluctuations. However, one needs to clarify the role of Fermi surface topology, density of states, pseudogap, and wave vector of the magnetic fluctuations on the nature and strength of the induced d-wave state. To this end, we study the generalized phase diagram of the two-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model as a function of interaction strength $U/t$, frustration induced by second-order hopping $t^{\prime}/t$, and temperature $T/t$. In experiment, $U/t$ and $t^{\prime}/t$ can be controlled by pressure. We use the two-particle self-consistent approach (TPSC), valid from weak to intermediate coupling. We first calculate as a function of $t^{\prime}/t$ and $U/t$ the temperature and wave vector at which the spin response function begins to grow exponentially.D-wave superconductivity in a half-filled band can be induced by such magnetic fluctuations at weak to intermediate coupling, but only if they are near commensurate wave vectors and not too close to perfect nesting conditions where the pseudogap becomes detrimental to superconductivity. For given $U/t$ there is thus an optimal value of frustration $t^{\prime}/t$ where the superconducting $T_c$ is maximum. The non-interacting density of states plays little role. The symmetry d$_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$ vs d$_{xy}$ of the superconducting order parameter depends on the wave vector of the underlying magnetic fluctuations in a way that can be understood qualitatively from simple arguments

Obstacles Facing Promoting Tourism for Islamic Landmarks From the Perspective of Tour Operators in Egypt

The UNESCO launched a campaign #unite4heritage in Egypt to defeat extremism and intolerance. The message of such campaigne is peace, dialogue and unity embedded in cultural heritage. As culture and tourism are linked together, such message could be delivered through improving culture heritage tourism in Egypt. Islamic landmarks are considered as a part of human heritage. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify how much tour operators in Egypt include Islamic landmarks in their programs to determine the obstacles facing promoting cultural tourism in Islamic landmarks areas. Additionally, the study would identify positive results in the case of developing heritage tourism in Egypt. To achieve a high result, a survey approach was employed to collect data from 100 tour operators, using a completed questionnaire technique as well as a Likert Scale and statistical models in order to test and interpret the research outcomes. The research findings indicated that although tour operators in Egypt are convinced of the significance of the Islamic landmarks, there is no contradiction between creating global understanding and at the same time achieving benefit to the local community. However, there is a range of obstacles facing promoting such type of tourism in Egypt. Keywords: Culture heritage tourism, community, Egypt, Islamic civilization

Proposed business plan for pilot farmer organizations: Extended project on Farmer Managed Irrigated Agriculture in LBOD Project Area of Sindh Province

Farmers' associations / Farmer managed irrigation systems / Irrigation programs / Irrigation management / Drainage / Economic aspects / Income / Operating costs / Maintenance costs / Conflict

Optimized bio-inspired kernels with twin support vector machine using low identity sequences to solve imbalance multiclass classification

The function of enzymes is performed differently depending on their bio-chemical mechanisms and important to the prediction of protein structure and function. In order to overcome the weaknesses of imbalance data distribution in subclasses prediction we proposed Bio-Twin Support Vector Machine (Bio–TWSVM). The TWSVM approach as also allow for kernel optimization where in this study we have introduced the bio-inspired kernels such as the Fisher, spectrum and mismatch kernels which at the same time incorporate the biological information regarding the protein evolution in the classification process