Time-resolved fuel injector flow characterisation based on 3D laser Doppler vibrometry

In order to enable investigations of the fuel flow inside unmodified injectors, we have developed a new experimental approach to measure time-resolved vibration spectra of diesel nozzles using a three dimensional laser vibrometer. The technique we propose is based on the triangulation of the vibrometer and fuel pressure transducer signals, and enables the quantitative characterisation of quasi-cyclic internal flows without requiring modifications to the injector, the working fluid, or limiting the fuel injection pressure. The vibrometer, which uses the Doppler effect to measure the velocity of a vibrating object, was used to scan injector nozzle tips during the injection event. The data were processed using a discrete Fourier transform to provide time-resolved spectra for valve-closed-orifice, minisac and microsac nozzle geometries, and injection pressures ranging from 60 to 160MPa, hence offering unprecedented insight into cyclic cavitation and internal mechanical dynamic processes. A peak was consistently found in the spectrograms between 6 and 7.5kHz for all nozzles and injection pressures. Further evidence of a similar spectral peak was obtained from the fuel pressure transducer and a needle lift sensor mounted into the injector body. Evidence of propagation of the nozzle oscillations to the liquid sprays was obtained by recording high-speed videos of the near-nozzle diesel jet, and computing the fast Fourier transform for a number of pixel locations at the interface of the jets. This 6-7.5kHz frequency peak is proposed to be the natural frequency for the injector's main internal fuel line. Other spectral peaks were found between 35 and 45kHz for certain nozzle geometries, suggesting that these particular frequencies may be linked to nozzle dependent cavitation phenomena.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Hypoxia enhances the tissue protective effect of erythropoietin and its analogues in an endothelial cell injury model

PO has tissue protective activities in ischemic disease but also has prothrombotic, erythropoietic effects. Carbamylated EPO (CEPO) retains the protective actions without the erythropoietic effects. To assess the potential of these molecules in atherosclerosis (an ischemic heart disease), we investigated EPO and CEPO in an in vitro model of injury using bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) in hypoxia and normoxia.. BAECs were grown to confluence in 10% FBS in 12 well culture plates. They were then cultured under normoxia (21% oxygen) or hypoxia (5% oxygen) 24 h prior to their use in an injury model using the ‘scratch assay.’ The effects of EPO and CEPO on endothelial closure were assessed using a range of concentrations (0-10 ng/mL). In separate experiments, the effects of EPO and CEPO on BAEC proliferation and chemotaxis were also assessed under similar hypoxic conditions. Gene expression of the receptors that may be involved in their protective pathway [EPOR and the β common chain receptor (βCR)] were assessed using quantitative PCR. The effects of both EPO and CEPO were enhanced under hypoxic conditions (13 ± 2.6 %, and 10 ± 1.69 %, p0.05). Whilst, the expression of EPOR gene increased by 2.1 ± 0.8 folds (p<0.05) In hypoxia, βCR expression was not affected by the change in oxygen tension. The effects of EPO and CEPO in the scratch assay appeared to be mediated by enhancing cell proliferation and migration of BAECs (p<0.05). In conclusion, the enhanced effects of EPO and CEPO on endothelial cells under hypoxia requires further investigation in processes in which hypoxia may play a role, e.gfor example. in atherogenesis and re-stensosis following angioplasty

Modeling and optimization of remanufacturing operations of spent products for sustainability

In last century, the world has witnessed a great deal of technological and industrial progress. Branded products manufacturers have been competing in introducing new versions of their products frequently. Retailers and banks have been developing relaxed paying systems to fund the purchase of these new products. Exchanging strategies have been initiated by companies for customers to exchange their old version product for the latest versions. Such exchanging strategies are famous for vehicles, mobiles, and electrical appliances. Hence, a huge amount of unused or spent products are generated every day. Many researchers have been developing different models for dealing with the decisions related to remanufacturing operations. However, there is no decision making system the manufacturers could use for cost / benefit assessment of disassembling and recovering these products that considers the following points: (1) evaluating the value of recovering the whole product versus value associated with recovering its disassembled items , (2) using Multi-Objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) to assign spent products and their items to various recovery alternatives considering their received physical conditions, (3) selection of operations for items is not limited by a fixed regular production-hour capacity for each operation, (4) model assumptions, constraints, and formulation that satisfy the three aspects of sustainability, which are economic, social responsibility, and environmental aspects in one step model , (5) considering other vital dimensions which are the quality of recovered products and the minimum batch size for vending recycled materials, (6) utilizing the recycling operation in the optimum way that increases revenue from vending isolated materials. The thesis addresses these points using mathematical modeling and optimization for the remanufacturing operations of spent products. The aim of this study is achieved through modeling the problem using a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming technique with two objective functions considering net profit maximization and total disposal weight minimization. Maximizing the net profit over specified planning periods satisfies the economic aspect of sustainability. Minimizing the total weight at all items assigned to disposal over specified planning periods satisfies the environmental aspect of sustainability. Initiating fair refunding system for spent products satisfies social responsibility aspect of sustainability. The optimum solutions of the model provides: optimal disassembly sequence of items, number of each item assigned to various recovery operations of the remanufacturing unit, specification of the required total regular production hours, total needed number of workers, and specification of the number of workers hired and fired. For verifying the proposed model and its LINGO code, the data of a simplified version of the trailer case study was used to display the model and tracking the displayed model to assure that the generated code exactly matches the model formulation, and to discover and correct any logical error. Then, the model was run several times to assure the accuracy of the model and to test the functionality of all the model mathematical equations. Its target was to assure that the integration of the model constraints exactly matched the logic of solving the problem, and the mathematical equation succeeded in expressing the model goals. A case study that involves a numerical real- life critical problem in Egypt is solved considering only the first objective function, which is targeting feasible solutions for the collected trailers that are prohibited to move on the Egyptian roads. The results show that the remanufacturing of semi-trailers from the collected trailers is the most profitable solution for the good-condition trailers, while applying the cannibalization operation on the bad conditions trailers is the most profitable solution for the case. The remanufacture unit would make a net profit of L.E 8,878,800 for applying this solution at the end of the three planning periods. In case the remanufacture unit decided to restrict its recovery activities to the good condition trailers, the net profit of scenario 2 is L.E 20,499,100 at the end of the three planning periods, which is associated with an increase of L.E 11,620,300 in profit compared to recovering different conditions trailers. A professional sensitivity analysis is implemented using the factorial design to accurately decide the significant input parameters that impact the net profit and total disposal weight at the end of the three planning periods for the trailers numerical problem. This factorial sensitivity analysis is designed to test 3 factors for 5 levels. Therefore, 53=125 runs are conducted of all possible combination of these factors (input parameters), and the determination of output responses corresponding to each combination. Hence, the significant input parameters that impact the decisions were concluded. The input parameters that were selected are: selling prices, refund costs, and direct labor processing costs. The output responses that were selected are the net profit and the total disposal weight. It was discovered that changing the selling prices of the output products from the recovery operations which are refurbishing, repairing, remanufacturing, and cannibalization, and the selling prices of the recycled materials has the most influential impact on the net profit , and has the only significant impact on the total disposal weight at the end of the three planning periods. The refund costs paid to the end users for compensating them of getting their products is the second significant factor on the net profit at the end of the three planning periods. Hence, it is crucial to specify these selling prices and refund costs wisely. Two approaches are used to solve the multiple objectives of the modified trailer case study, and to create a set of non-dominating solutions for the referred case which are: Minimax weighting method and constrained method. The most profitable and worst environmental non-dominated solution happened when the referred case was solved using the constrained method at bounding the disposal to 14870.3 kg, where the net profit value reaches its maximum of L.E 8,183,012, when the total weight of the items assigned to disposal reaches its peak of 14835.3 kg. This first best environmental non-dominating solution happened when the case was solved using the constrained method at bounding the disposal to 0 kg, where the net profit value reaches its minimum of L.E 7, 425,400. Solving the referred case using Minimax weighting methods is resulted in balancing solution of two competing objectives. The generated set of non-dominated solutions demonstrated the multi-objective nature of the proposed model

Cache Timing Attacks on Public Key Encryption

The rise of cloud computing has made it a lot easier for attackers to be able to run code on the same processors as their target. This has made many attacks more viable. This thesis discusses a cache timing attack targeting the LibTomMath library. LibTom-Math is a mathematical library for computations using large integers. The library is used in some cryptographic libraries such the commercial solution WolfCrypt. The attack mainly focuses on the modular exponentiation function of LibTom-Math which is a major part of RSA implementations. The aim of the attack is to use cache timing in order to extract the long term private key used by the server for encrypting communications. Recovering the private key, gives the attacker access to past and future communications secured using this key, which usually has a lifespan of at least one year. The attack only requires that it shares a processor with the victim and works even if the attack process and the victim process are running on different Virtual Machines. The thesis includes a description of the RSA cipher as well as the various optimizations that are used in a lot of cryptographic libraries. Next, it describes how to use cache timing to exploit some of those optimizations in order to gain information about the secret exponent based on the memory access patterns of the target code. Finally, it discusses the limitations of the attack as well as how cloud service providers, cryptographic library developers, as well as processor manufacturers, may be able to mitigate this class of attacks

IMPLEMENTASI KONSEP “The Three Circle Framework of Ecopreneurship” SEBAGAI WUJUD KETERLIBATAN INDIVIDU UNTUK AGENDA SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2030

Sustainable Development Goals 2030 merupakan capaian yang di cita-citakan oleh seluruh Negara melakui Perserikatan Bangsa Bangsa sebagai upaya untuk meciptakan lingkungan hidup yang sehat, bentuk keterlibatan Indonesia penerapan Sustainable Development Goals 2030 sudah direncanakan berdasarkan Prerpres no 59 tahun 2019. Dalam duina usaha terdapat pelaku usaha yang muncul akibat rusaknyanya lingkungan yang di namakan ecopreneur, mengenai teori dalam ecopreneur sendiri adalah The Three Circle Framework of Ecopreneurship Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui implementasi konsep The Three Circle Framework of Ecopreneurship pada pelaku usaha ramah lingkungan, serta memberikan gambaran jika pelaku usaha Ecopreneur terlibat dalam terwujudnya Sustainable Development Goals 2030 dengan fokus pada tujuan dari Sustainable Development nomor 4 dengan point 4.4 Metode dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi kualitatif dimana data yang diperoleh merupakan hasil dari wawancara semi-terstruktur dan analisis yang digunakan adalah verbatim dengan teknik pengambilan sample yaitu purposhing sampling pada pelaku usaha dan komunitas antara lain Yayasan Tunas Nusa, Hayu Hejo Kota Baru Parahyangan, Komunitas Hayu Hejo, Haiqal’ Garden, CeuMeta.com ramah lingkungan di bidang jasa. Kontribusi dalam penelitian ini adalah salah satu tujuan dari Sustainable development goals yaitu pada nomor 4 dapat di capai melalui pendidikan dengan indikator entrepreneurship, pada poin 4.4 sehingga dengan penelitian ini diharapkan bisa menjadi bahan pertimbangan untuk pembentukan suatu sustainable development goals centre di universitas. Kata Kunci : Entrepreneurship Ecopreneurship, Sustainable Development Goals 2030, The Three ircle Framework of Ecopreneur, Sustainable Development Centr

UTP e-Summon @nywhere

This paper covers the development of the UTP e-Summon @nywhere as a mobile application. The report consists of FIVE (5) major topics. First, Chapter 1 Introduction explains background of the study, problem statement, system objectives and scope, the relevancy of the project, and the feasibility of the project within the scope and time frame. Second, Chapter 2 Literature Review discusses the literature review from journals, books, magazines, and the Internet as the major references for the project. Third, Chapter 3 System Approach describes the approach to be implemented to develop the project including the system development methodology and requirements-gathering techniques. Fourth, Chapter 4 Result and Discussion explains the findings of the project including the database design, graphical user interfaces, and security measures ofthe system. Finally, Chapter 5 Conclusion entails the overall development of the system including the system future enhancements and the future usage ofthe system. The methodology that will be implemented for system development is phased development-based methodology and to elicit the system information requirements, several methodologies will be adopted including one-toone interview with the security guards, observations, and document analyses. The results explain on the interfaces and the output of the system. As a conclusion, UTP e-Summon @nywhere is developed as a mobile summon application in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS as part ofthe existing computerized summon applicatio

The Intention to Pay Zakat Commercial: An Application of Revised Theory of Planned Behavior

Several researches have been carried out to predict the intention to pay zakat using the factors introduced by the Theory of Planned Behavior – developed by Ajzen & Fishbein (1980). Meanwhile, an addition of predicting past behavior factor on the intention to pay zakat has not been found in previous researches. The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and past behavior towards the intention of traders in the Lhokseumawe city to pay zakat commercial. The revised Theory of Planned Behavior was used in the research. This study aims to predict the intention of zakat payers. A total of 2,432 traders as the population of the research was identified and 150 of them were chosen as respondents determined using the purposive sampling technique. Using multiple linear regression models, it has found that the subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and past behavior partially have positive and significant influence towards the intention to pay zakat commercial. It also finds that past behavior variable has the most dominant impact towards the intention of zakat payers, while attitude has the least impact towards the intention. Finally, there is a simultaneously positive and significant influence towards the intention to pay zakat commercial

INVESTIGATING THE FEASIBILITY OF CREATING A DISEASE REGISTRY IN EGYPT: A CASE STUDY OF DEMENTIA

The increased interest in evidence-based medicine led to the emergence of disease registries worldwide to help tackle the impact of chronic diseases by providing accurate data on several aspects of the disease care process. Age-associated diseases, particularly dementia, are growing worldwide with several implications and increased economic burden, especially in lower-income countries. In Egypt, there is a lack of accurate dementia prevalence and statistics data which hinders the establishment of appropriate disease management and care strategies. A national dementia registry would provide a massive valuable source of patient data that will significantly advance the disease management strategies and quality of patient care and impact health policy and decision-making. This study investigates the feasibility of creating a disease registry for dementia in Egypt by interviewing 24 relevant national and international experts to evaluate their perceptions, knowledge, and opinions, then provide recommendations for the most appropriate registry model to be developed in Egypt. Several core themes emerged from the analysis of experts’ interviews discussing many points that should direct the creation of any registry in Egypt. Learning from other successful registries, comparing their experiences, and applying them to Egyptian culture imposes an excellent opportunity for the registry establishment. The findings clearly provided the proposed best practices to be followed while initiating a national registry in Egypt in terms of functionality, planning, comprehension, governance, ethics, and challenges to avoid. The initiating process should start with a leading institution that brings together the potential stakeholders and defines the clear purpose and objectives of the registry to direct the planning and design. A research registry that focuses on collecting both clinical and demographic patients’ data, as well as diagnostic tests, is the most recommended in Egypt. A primary piloting phase should be the first step to test the functionality and effectiveness of the process then expansion of data and coverage can be a second step. To start collecting data for the first pilot, a few sites from the leading institution’s network can be included as the primary participants to ensure their involvement. A minimum data set is then developed to identify the data elements to be collected in the registry. The registry administrators should regularly monitor the data collected to ensure its integrity and develop a clear plan for providing access to users. Taken together, developing such a dataset is beneficial to the Egyptian healthcare system, which makes the investment worthwhile. Support and collaborative work from all stakeholders, along with suitable funding, are essential elements of the proper implementation of the project. Yet, it might seem to be an opportune time for initiating this kind of registry to address the needs and, at the same time, benefit from the strategic opportunities

Anti-angiogenic effects of chemotherapeutic agents and their enhancement with OT-515 and S-NACH

Chemotherapeutic agents have been used for the treatment of numerous types of tumors with great success. Cisplatin and Doxorubicin are among the well-known chemotherapeutic drugs that showed efficacy against various types of cancers. However, cell resistance and major side effects like chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) are limiting factors in using these compounds. Using a combination or adjuvant compounds with anti-angiogenic effects is one of the strategies suggested to decrease resistance or ameliorate chemotherapeutic toxicity. The present study investigated the anti-angiogenic effects of Cisplatin and Doxorubicin alone and combined with Sulfated non-anticoagulant heparin (S-NACH), a low molecular weight heparin LMWH that has anti-angiogenic and anti-tumor properties, or OT-515, a tempol congener-derived molecule that might act on inhibiting tumor proliferation and angiogenesis. The compounds\u27 ability to enhance the effects of chemotherapeutic agents and decrease the doses used was tested in-vitro and in-vivo through using a chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model, in the presence and absence, of tumor cells. To elucidate the mechanism of anti-angiogenic effect of the compounds, their impact on endothelial cells was studied by performing cytotoxicity assays using HUVEC and mouse endothelial cells. The results showed that combinations of Cisplatin and Doxorubicin with S-NACH or OT-515 had enhanced anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic effects than individual treatments. This suggests that OT-515 and S-NACH provide promising adjuvant therapy to reduce doses of traditional chemotherapeutic agents and ameliorate their adverse effects