The effect of climate change on water and environmental resources in the Kvarken Archipelago area

The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is a choice that all should follow to combat climate change. Climate change causes problems such as global warming and meetings on these problems conclude that nations must integrate the Kyoto protocol commitments along with a reduction in greenhouse gases. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of climate change on water and environmental resources for the Kvarken Archipelago area. In the region, the sea level rise and river water runoff increase cause flooding and erosion. Measures such as dams and wetlands have to be installed for controlling these effects. Moreover, the use of renewable energy to replace non-renewable energy sources is one-step forward to combatting climate change. ‘Demonstrative energy’ is an important way of showing the usage of renewable energy. The Merten Talo or Havets Hus which is a part of the archipelago and Nature 2000 area will be a research site for the University of Vaasa. Paradoxically, climate change effects could even be used to our advantage, where for example, warm water could be used as a heat source, offering benefit to all sides by combatting and adapting to climate change. A microclimate is a set of meteorological parameters that characterize a localized area. The microclimates found in the Merten Talo area could be used as a tool to study climate change effects. The other area addressed was the land uplift. Land uplift is faster than the sea level inclination in the site, and in the Vaasa region, land uplift is on average 8.77±0.30 mm/yr. All in all, promoting sustainability and adapting to the effects of climate change is important, not only generally, but for the area in particular.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Identifications of renewable energy risks and risk management review

This report describes the basis of risk analyses of renewable energy and climate change risk to renewable energy. The report gives a background on risk analysis and management in connection with climate change and renewable energy. It identifies all aspects of renewable energy risks and risks due to climate change. Contributions give precise current types of risks of renewable energy. This report’s novelty is the identification of renewable energy risks due to climate change. It is a background review report. This report concludes that even though the risks of renewable energy to the environment and/or risks of climate change to renewable energy are small compared to fossil fuels, they cannot be ignored. In addition, safeguarding renewable energy deployment is important. This can be achieved through analysing its risks, understanding energy laws and applying energy laws to renewable energy solutions throughout their lifetime. This report is a starting point and contribution to regional renewable energy development and future in-depth risk analyses of renewable energy by combining multidisciplinary fields.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Self-healing of fiber reinforced polymer compoistes [sic]

The study of self-healing materials is inspired by biological systems in which damage triggers an autonomous healing response. In recent years, this concept of autonomic healing material, where initiation of repair is integral to the material, is being considered for engineering applications. The concept offers the designer an ability to incorporate secondary functional ability of counteracting service degradation in addition to achieving the primary, usually structural integrity, requirement. Self-healing materials also have the benefit of offering lighter and optimized structures as well as reduced maintenance cost. Previous works on polymer matrix composites have shown that significant fractions of mechanical properties can be restored through self-healing in damaged materials. The self-healing composite material developed in this study is a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite. The study has three major categories of self-healing composite systems. In the initial study, a single fiber polymer matrix self-healing composite system is developed and analyzed. In the latter stage of the study, multiple commercial glass fibers are used as a reinforcing material in the self-healing system. The inclusion of functionalized carbon nanotubes in the healing medium to further enhance the healing process is considered at the final stage of the study. The self-healing approach utilizes a releasable healing agent contained in a hollow fiber that is embedded in a resin system. Specimens are produced using a hollow glass fiber and epoxy resin. In addition, in the case of multiple fibers test, e-glass fibers are incorporated in the composite. When a crack is initiated and propagates through the composite breaking the hollow fiber, a liquid healing agent comes out and fills the crack gap. Polymerization of the monomer healing agent is facilitated when it contacts a catalyst that is pre-coated on the outside surface of the hollow glass fiber. Healed, damaged and virgin specimens are tested in tension for all the different sets of composites investigated. The results demonstrate that a considerable portion of the tensile strength is recovered by the self-healing functionality of both the single fiber and fiber-reinforced polymer composites. A major advantage of this research is the fact that the healing is found to be localized allowing further multiple healing of the composite in the presence of several cracks. Incorporation of functionalized carbon nanotubes in the healing medium has provided additional efficiency in the composites compared to those without carbon nanotubes

Security analysis of finance and healthcare android applications

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityAndroid is a major mobile operating system pre-installed and shipped with more than 60% of smart-phones in the market. The open source nature of android en- courages developers to innovate wide-range of applications. Meantime, the sweeping android acceptance with individuals and industries caught the attention of malicious software writers, which led to a sharp increase of security threats. Such threats raise a deeper concern in financial and healthcare applications that are inherently bound to handle private and sensitive information. The research provides a deeper analysis on security vulnerabilities of android applications in finance and healthcare category, from official Google app store. It is proposed and implemented a security analysis framework that takes account of a wide range of vulnerability metrics to provide unified and quantified method of measuring android applications vulnerability. The framework implementation automated the process of crawling google's app store, downloading applications package to a repository and conducting vulnerability analysis. It automatically extracts security parameters, measures vulnerability metrics and generates vulnerability report. The security parameters were extracted from manifest, de-compiled source code and app store meta-data. The analysis, on the top 632 free apps from finance and medical category revealed that on average financial apps found to be more vulnerable than medical apps. Medical apps have the maximum value for all types of vulnerabilities. Furthermore, a descriptive statistical analysis on the vulnerability metrics revealed that there is a linear relationship between implicitly open components and the number of times they access sensitive android resources

Tuning Trap Level with in the Band Gap of :* Phosphor Powder

The variable heating rate (VHR) method of thermoluminescence (TL) has been employed to investigate how the trap (defect) level changes its position with in the band gap of KY-F/0:Ho-*commercial phosphor powder after thermal annealing. Thermal annealing alters the structure of glow curves of some TL materials. The effect of annealing on TL glow curves of KY-F/0: Ho-*commercial phosphorwas analyzed and the result was compared with that of un annealed one. The sample powder was annealed at different temperatures of 400oC, 500oC and 600oC. The trap depth of the phosphor powder after being annealed at each temperature was calculated using variable heating rate method (VHR). It is found that the trap level can be tuned within the band gap of KY-F/0:Ho-*by annealing it at different temperatures. The higher the annealing temperature, the closer the trap level to the conduction band edge. The annealing process also shifts the peak temperatures of the glow curves to higher temperature region. PACS numbers: 81.40.Wx, 61.80.Ba, 82.50.H

A theoretical formulation for flexoelectric membranes

textFlexoelectricity is electric polarization induced by a strain gradient. This phenomenon has been observed in different types of materials. It has been studied and documented that biological membranes possess this flexoelectric property. Research by Brownell et al. has shown that the inner-ear hair cells elongate or shrink as a result of external stimuli. This shrinking and elongation of the cells is due to the wrinkling and flattening of the cell membrane surrounding the hair cells. To study this biomechanical response, a soft, elastomeric membrane under loading by in-plane forces, moments and voltage across the membrane is considered. This membrane is assumed to have the flexoelectric property. Using a thermodynamic approach, a set of constitutive equations are derived that relate the physical quantities (forces, moments, voltage) to the state variables (strains, curvatures, electric displacement). The accuracy of these equations is tested by using them to estimate the flexoelectric coefficient of certain materials following a procedure established by Cross et al. Additionally, a critical membrane thickness is found which ensures a positive-definite Helmholtz free energy for the membrane, guaranteeing a stable system. Finally, a model for the wrinkling and flattening of the cell membrane surrounding the inner-ear outer hair cells is developed using the derived constitutive equations.Engineering Mechanic

Seaside Renewable Energy Resources Literature Review

This review paper describes seaside renewable energy resources. The motivation and need behind this work are to give background literature on the use of climate change effects as a resource support for shallow geothermal-energy (seaside energy solutions) production. This leads to combating and mitigating climate change by using its effect to our advantage. As a part of my literature review as a report series, this report gives some background about seaside energy solutions relating to water quality and climate change. This review paper addresses all aspects of renewable energy. The methodology implemented in this review paper and other series was a systematic literature review process. After searching and collecting articles from three databases, they were evaluated by title, abstract and whole article then synthesized into the literature review. The key conclusion is that seaside renewable energy is mainly shallow geothermal-energy and most of the methods use climate change effects to their advantage such as sediment heat energy production. The main recommendation is to use the effects of climate change to combat and mitigate its causes and further consequences. The overall conclusions are built on the relationships between different aspects of the topics. The paper contributes a precise current review of renewable energy. It is the last part of a series of four review papers on climate change, land uplift, water resources, and these seaside energy solutions.© 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Soaking and drying of cassava roots reduced cyanogenic potential of three cassava varieties at Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia

Detoxification of three cassava varieties (NR-44/72, NW-45/72 and NW-44/72) by traditional methods of processing to produce cassava flour was investigated at the college of agriculture, Jimma University during February to May, 2007. The total hydrogen cyanide (HCN) quantitative determination in cassava flour was carried out using a simple enzymatic picrate paper method. Results show that varieties, soaking time and their interactions highly significantly reduced (P<0.01) total HCN content (ppm) in the flour. Soaking of cassava chips in water for about 24 h prior to sun drying reduced the HCN from 108.37 to 10.83 ppm (reduced by 90%), from 66.45 to 13.33 ppm (reduced by 79.94%) and from 58.63 to 15.0 (reduced by 74.42%) for varieties NW-44/72, NR-44/72 and NW-45/72, respectively. It was noted that total HCN content in cassava flour can be substantially eliminated (by more than 80%) by soaking of cassava chips in water. This study highlighted the importance of soaking of cassava chips for at least 24 h prior to sun drying for a safe level of HCN in the flour. However, it is also important to develop new and improved processing techniques to reduce HCN substantially.Key words: Cassava flour, soaking, total hydrogen cyanide

Review of Maternal Death in Jimma University specialized Hospital

No abstract - Available on PD