Online visualization of German power plants and their production

Maps are used for centuries to visualize geographical or topological information and nowadays, with modern technology, we can create interactive maps that allow us to display and access additional information. Some of them have even become part of our daily life, such as, almost real-time traffic information. Furthermore, maps are often used to display data of population densities, temperatures and spatial distribution of geographical phenomenon. Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy ISE decided to build an interactive map that shows the locations of all power plants listed on the European Energy Exchange (EEX). Since July 2014, the Fraunhofer ISE has been providing interactive charts on electricity production and other related information about electricity and power generation in Germany. These charts became very popular and widely used by people from different professions, namely scientists, politicians, journalists as well as online/printed media. Due to the high popularity of these interactive energy charts, an interactive map has been added to the Energy Charts data visualization portal to make the framework more informative and interesting for users. The map has several search options and levels of detail for searching different power plant locations, technical data, and connectivity to the high voltage transmission lines. Furthermore, this new visualization framework is interconnected with the existing energy charts. The dynamic linking, brushing and filtering technique in both map and energy charts have enhanced the framework by an additional layer providing more visibility and information on the selected power plants

Socio-economic Status of Transferred and Non-transferred Urban Slums: A Case Study from Faisalabad

The rapid urbanisation has become a burning challenge across the developing countries of the world for the last four decades. The population pressure on the cities has caused many problems like environmental pollution, sanitation, education, health, traffic level and housing etc. In this context, housing is one of the most important issues related to urbanisation. Slums are reflected as the carbuncle in cities and looked extemporaneously and arbitrarily [Shafqaat, et al. (2013). The share of world urban population was 32 percent in 1950, it rose up to 39 percent in 1980 and 48 percent in 2000, which reflects that 3 out of 10 people were living in cities in 1950. In 2011, about half of the world population was living in the big cities and at the end of the third decade of this century; that make up the formation as 6 out of 10 people [World Bank (1999)]. Pakistan‘s town populace is fixed to become identical to its rural population in the year 2030. This needs for an effective urban planning instrument to confirm universal distribution of simple municipal amenities, regulator of the spread of slums, reducing of effluence and the control of crime and political might [Khan, et al. (2012)

Polymer Stabilized Metal Nanoparticles for Catalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue in Water

Methylene blue is highly toxic and releases from various industries. It must be transformed into less toxic compounds. The Core-Shell microgels p (Pst core), Pstcore-NIPMamm-MAa and Ag in Pst-p NIPMamm-MAa have been synthesized using the Core-Shell hybrid micro gelling NIPMamm-MAa emulsion polymerization process. The 0.086mM, MB 6.2mM NaBH4 and 0.2916 mg / mL catalysts in the cuvette were measured using UV-visible spectrophotometers. Spectrums were measured at a one-minute interval. The peak at 600 nm steadily decreased over time and was completely eliminated after 11 minutes. Without the catalyst, MB decreases with NaBH4 which showed that the reaction decreases were slow and MB very high within 120 minutes. The Psty core of FT-IR core microgels, pNIpmam-MMAA, and Ag-pNIpmam-MAA core microgels are hybrids. At 2955 and 2845 cm−1 FT-IR spectra, Psty NiPMaM – MaA and Ag-p NiPMaM – MaA were used for core shell microgels, with C-H vibrations expanding the aromatic ring. In this study degradation of Methylene were carried out with Ag- Nanocomposites at different interval of time to check the degradation at minimum time. The degradation of MB dye were carried out with Ag- Nano composites at different interval of time to check the degradation at minimum time

Outcome of Minimally Invasive Percutaneous Plate Osteosynthesis Technique for Management of Extra Articular Distal Tibial Fractures

Objective: To assess the outcome of the minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis (MIPPO) method applied for the management of extra-articular distal tibial fractures.Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Total 57 patients have included extra-articular type A distal tibial fracture, duration of injury <1 week, and competent neurological and vascular status of the fractured site. All the patients were treated with MIPPO Technique by using the distal tibial medial locking plate and the outcome of all patients was assessed radiologically in terms of union and functionally by using the Ovadia-Beals clinical scoring system. Data were analysed by using SPSS v. 21. Results: As per sample size calculation, 57 patients were included with a mean age of 37.19 ± 9.22 years. There were 45 (78.94%) male patients and 12 (21.05%) female patients. According to AO classification; the most common type was 43A1 with 31 patients (54.38%) whereas 18 (31.57%) were in Type 43A2 and 8 (14.03%) in Type 43A3. In our study, fracture union was achieved in a mean duration of 19.6 ± 3.45 weeks. When the functional outcome was analyzed, 41 (71.92%) patients had excellent outcome, 8 (14.03%) had good results, 5 (8.77%) had fair and 3 (5.26%) had poor outcome based on the subjective result and 44 (77.19%) patients had excellent, 7 (12.28%) had good, 3 (5.26%) had fair and 3 (5.26%) had poor result based on an objective result of Ovadia-Beals clinical scoring system. Conclusion: Thus MIPPO can be highly successful in achieving good to excellent outcomes in the maximum number of patients presented with a distal tibia fracture. So in the future, we can rely on this technique for such types of fractures. &nbsp

Antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist potential of marrubiin, a labdane type diterpene from Phlomis bracteosa

A tricyclic labdane type diterpene was isolated for the first time from ethyl acetate soluble part of Phlomis bracteosa. Its structure was confirmed by x-ray which was found to be marrubiin. When studied in isolated rabbit jejunum, marrubiin caused concentration-dependent relaxation of spontaneous and high K+ (80 mM)-induced contractions, like that caused by verapamil, indicating that marrubiin exhibits spasmolytic activity, possibly mediated through Ca++ channel blocking action

Efficient Leading Zero Count (LZC) Implementations for Xilinx FPGAs

Leading zero count (LZC) is a fundamental building block in floating-point arithmetic and data sketches. These applications are increasingly being implemented on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), however, existing architectures for LZC target application-specific integrated circuits and to the best of our knowledge specific LZC implementations tailored to FPGA structures have not been presented. In this letter, the implementation of LZC on Xilinx FPGA is considered and it is shown that by carefully adapting the LZC design to the FPGA structure, more efficient implementations can be obtained. In more detail, LZC designs for different bit widths are presented and evaluated. The results show that significant reductions in the FPGA resources needed are obtained that reach 33% lookup tables (LUTs) saving for 32-bit vectors and 20% LUTs saving for 64-bit vectors.The work of Pedro Reviriego was supported in part by the ACHILLES Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grant PID2019-104207RB-I00; and in part by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) through the Multiannual Agreement with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in the line of Excellence of University Professors under Grant EPUC3M21 in the Context of the V Plan Regional de Investigación Científica e Innovación Tecnológica (V PRICIT).Publicad

Effect of Fluxing Additive on Sintering Temperature, Microstructure and Properties of BaTiO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e

Various fluxing materials are added to technical ceramics in an attempt to lower their sintering temperatures and make their processing economical. The effect of 0·3wt% Li2CO3 addition on the phase, microstructure, phase transition temperatures and dielectric properties of BaTiO3 was investigated in the present study. The addition of 0·3wt% Li2CO3 was observed to lower the optimum sintering temperature by ∼200◦C with no second phase formation and cause a five-fold reduction in grain size. Rhombohedral-to-orthorhombic and tetragonal-to-cubic phase transitions at the expected temperatures were evident from the Raman spectra, but the orthorhombic-totetragonal phase transition was not clearly discernible. The persistence of various phase(s) at higher temperatures in the flux-added materials indicated that the phase transitions occurred relatively slowly. A decrease in dielectric constant of Li2O-added BaTiO3 in comparison to pure BaTiO3 may be due to the diminished dielectric polarizability of Li+ in comparison to Ba2+

Somatotrophs and lactotrophs: an immunohistochemical study of Gallus domesticus pituitary gland at different stages of induced moult

The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of somatotrophs and lactotrophs and conduct a morphometrical analysis of immunoreactive somatotrophs and lactotrophs in the pituitary glands of White Leghorn Hens (Gallus domesticus) during the period of induced moult. We divided the periods of induced moulting into three phases viz. 7, 14 and 21 days. The labeled alkalinephsphatase method with anti-GH (growth hormone) and anti-PRL (prolactin) as a primary antibody was used to detect somatotrophs and lactotrophs, in the midsagital sections of chicken adenohypophysis. Immunohistochemistry showed that somatotrophs are not only confined to the cephalo-caudal axis but can also be found in the caudal lobe; while lactotrophs were distributed in both lobes of the anterior pituitary gland at all stages of moulting (7, 14 and 21 days). Lactotrophs were of different shapes but somatotrophs were oval to round in morphology. At the given stages of induced moulting, some hypertrophied lactotrophs were also present after 7 days of induced moult in the anterior pituitary gland. However, there were moulting-related changes: from 7 to 21 days of induced moulting the immunoreactive-PRL cell population decreased, while the mean lactotroph size was more than that of somatotrophs. Basic quantitative and morphological information relating to somatotrophs and lactotrophs during the period of induced moult in laying hens is reported here and the changes brought about by induced moulting are restricted to PRL positive cells rather than GH positive cells

Mechanism of Corrosion and Erosion Resistance of Plasma‐ Sprayed Nanostructured Coatings

There has been a dramatic increase in recent years in a demand for tough, wear‐resistant, abrasion, erosion, and corrosion‐resistant coatings for petroleum, chemical, aerospace industry, and processes encountering harsh environments such as paper and pulp equipment (the ball valve for high‐pressure leaching). Whereas sufficient information on mechanical properties, such as abrasion, wear, and fatigue, has been gathered over the years, work on the resistance of these coatings to erosion and corrosion is seriously lacking. In the work reported, it has been shown that nanostructured TiO2 coatings offer superior physical and mechanical properties compared to conventional TiO2 coatings. Three different types of plasma‐sprayed titanium dioxide coated samples on mild steel substrate were employed for investigation. The feedstocks used were Sulzer Metco nanopowders designated as AE 9340, AE 9342, and AE 9309. Powder 9340 was a precursor. The corrosion resistance of nanostructured TiO2 coating was dictated largely by surface structure and morphology. The distribution and geometry of splat lamellae, contents of unmelted nanoparticles, and magnitude of porosity are the important factors that affect corrosion resistance. TiO2 showed excellent resistance to corrosion in 3% NaCl. The maximum corrosion rate was observed to be 4 mils per year as shown by polarization potential and weight loss studies. The erosion‐corrosion resistance of the plasma‐sprayed nanostructured titanium dioxide coatings depends largely upon the characteristics of feed powder and its reconstitution. Dense, uniform, and evenly dispersed nanostructured constituents provide a high coating integrity, which offers high resistance to erosion‐corrosion. A mechanism of erosion‐corrosion is explained in the chapter with a schematic diagram. The findings show that the nanostructured TiO2 coatings offer superior resistance to corrosion, erosion, and environmental degradation