Combustion and Society: A Fire-Centred History of Energy Use

Fire is a force that links everyday human activities to some of the most powerful energetic movements of the Earth. Drawing together the energy-centred social theory of Georges Bataille, the fire-centred environmental history of Stephen Pyne, and the work of a number of ‘pyrotechnology’ scholars, the paper proposes that the generalized study of combustion is a key to contextualizing human energetic practices within a broader ‘economy’ of terrestrial and cosmic energy flows. We examine the relatively recent turn towards fossil-fuelled ‘internal combustion’ in the light of a much longer human history of ‘broadcast’ burning of vegetation and of artisanal pyrotechnologies – the use of heat to transform diverse materials. A combustion-centred analysis, it is argued, brings human collective life into closer contact with the geochemical and geologic conditions of earthly existence, while also pointing to the significance of explorative, experimental and even playful dispositions towards energy and matter. © 2014, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved

Multiwavelength fiber laser based on bidirectional lyot filter in conjunction with intensity dependent loss mechanism

We experimentally demonstrate a multiwavelength fiber laser (MWFL) based on bidirectional Lyot filter. A semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is used as the gain medium, while its combination with polarization controllers (PCs) and polarization beam combiner (PBC) induces intensity dependent loss (IDL) mechanism. The IDL mechanism acts as an intensity equalizer to flatten the multiwavelength spectrum, which can be obtained at a certain polarization state. Using different ratio of optical splitter has affected to multiwavelength flatness degradation. Subsequently, when we removed a polarizer in the setup, the extinction ratio (ER) is decreased. Ultimately, with two segments of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF), two channel spacings can be achieved due to splicing shift of 0° and 90°

Simulation of sub-drains performance using visual MODFLOW for slope water seepage Problem

Numerical simulation technique was used for investigating water seepage problem at the Botanic Park Kuala Lumpur. A proposed sub-drains installation in problematic site location was simulated using Modular Three-Dimensional Finite Difference Groundwater Flow (MODFLOW) software. The results of simulation heads during transient condition showed that heads in between 43 m (water seepage occurred at level 2) until 45 m (water seepage occurred at level 4) which heads measurement are referred to mean sea level. However, elevations measurements for level 2 showed the values between 41 to 42 m from mean sea level and elevations for level 4 between 42 to 45 m from mean sea level. These results indicated an increase in heads for level 2 and level 4 between 1 to 2 m when compared to elevations slope at the level 2 and level 4. The head increases surpass the elevation level of the slope area that causing water seepage at level 2 and level 4. In order to overcome this problems, the heads level need to be decrease to 1 until 2 m by using two options of sub-drain dimension size. Sub-drain with the dimension of 0.0750 m (diameter), 0.10 m (length) and using 4.90 m spacing was the best method to use as it was able to decrease the heads to the required levels of 1 to 2 m

Simulation of sub-drains performance using visual MODFLOW for slope water seepage Problem

Numerical simulation technique was used for investigating water seepage problem at the Botanic Park Kuala Lumpur. A proposed sub-drains installation in problematic site location was simulated using Modular Three-Dimensional Finite Difference Groundwater Flow (MODFLOW) software. The results of simulation heads during transient condition showed that heads in between 43 m (water seepage occurred at level 2) until 45 m (water seepage occurred at level 4) which heads measurement are referred to mean sea level. However, elevations measurements for level 2 showed the values between 41 to 42 m from mean sea level and elevations for level 4 between 42 to 45 m from mean sea level. These results indicated an increase in heads for level 2 and level 4 between 1 to 2 m when compared to elevations slope at the level 2 and level 4. The head increases surpass the elevation level of the slope area that causing water seepage at level 2 and level 4. In order to overcome this problems, the heads level need to be decrease to 1 until 2 m by using two options of sub-drain dimension size. Sub-drain with the dimension of 0.0750 m (diameter), 0.10 m (length) and using 4.90 m spacing was the best method to use as it was able to decrease the heads to the required levels of 1 to 2 m

Performance Investigation of Dual Wavelength Fiber Laser using different SOAs

We investigated the performance of a dual wavelength fiber laser (DWFL) using different types of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) utilizing fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as comb filter. The lasing performances of linear SOA (LSOA), nonlinear SOA (NLSOA) and booster optical amplifier (BOA) at different current setting were observed. LSOA produced the flattest spectrum based on its peak power difference at only 4.5 dB as compared to 66.4 dB using BOA. BOA has the worst flatness because its polarization sensitivity is the highest as compared to LSOA and NLSOA. Overall, the best lasing performance is when LSOA is used due to the lowest peak power difference with high peak power at -17.6 dBm

Impact of Teaching Cohesive Devices on L2 Students\u27 Language Accuracy in Written Production

A well-written text is not only grammatical, but also cohesive and coherent. Cohesive devices play the most basic role in cohesion of a text and should be taken into consideration in teaching writing. This paper reports on a study investigating the impact of teaching academic text cohesive devices on L2 students\u27 language accuracy in written production. The main objective of the study is to find out if teaching cohesive devices would enhance students\u27 prior knowledge and subsequently result in increased written language accuracy. Based on a pre-post-test research design, 40 students enrolled in English for Academic Purposes course at a university in Malaysia were engaged as participants. A note-taking test was conducted prior to and post intervention. The intervention consisted of lessons on academic text cohesive devices. The data was then analysed and reported using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test. From the findings, it is clear that there is an increase in the minimum and maximum scores as well as in the mean scores between the pre- and post-test. More importantly, there is evidently a significant improvement in the participants\u27 post-test language accuracy as evaluated through number of error-free t-units. In sum, the teaching of academic text cohesive devices does have a significant impact on language accuracy in written production. Hence, this study recommends L2 learners\u27 prior knowledge activation to enhance written language accuracy

An Electronically Reconfigurable Patch Antenna Design for Polarization Diversity with Fixed Resonant Frequency

In this paper, an electronically polarization reconfigurable circular patch antenna with fixed resonant frequency operating at Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) frequency band (2.4-2.48 GHz) is presented. The structure of the proposed design consists of a circular patch as a radiating element fed by coaxial probe, cooperated with four equal-length slits etched on the edge along x-axis and y-axis. A total of four switches was used and embedded across the slits at specific locations, thus controlled the length of the slits. By activating and deactivating the switches (ON and OFF) across the slits, the current on the patch is changed, thus modifying the electric field and polarization of the antenna. Consequently, the polarization excited by the proposed antenna can be switched into three types, either linear polarization, left-hand circular polarization or right-hand circular polarization. This paper proposes a simple approach that able to switch the polarizations and excited at the same operating frequency. Simulated and measured results of ideal case (using copper strip switches) and real case (using PIN diode switches) are compared and presented to demonstrate the performance of the antenna

Cosmos caudatus Kunth. extract reduced number of microflora in oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Nowadays consumer is more demand on natural foodstuff instead of synthetic product due to their concern on health. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of C. caudatus extract on the number of microflora in oyster mushroom at different concentration of C. caudatus extract and exposure time using dilution method. The results showed that the number of microorganisms (Log10 CFU/g) in oyster mushroom in term of Total Plate Count (TPC), Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 6.13 ± 0.04, 6.15 ± 0.09, 5.97 ± 0.04, and 6.46 ± 0.00, respectively. The effect of C. caudatus extract on microflora in oyster mushroom at concentrations of 0.00%, 0.05%, 0.5%, and 5.0% with exposure time of 0, 5, 10, and 15 min demonstrated that the reduction number of microflora in oyster mushroom was dependent on the concentration of C. caudatus extract and exposure times. The number of TPC (Log10 CFU/g) in oyster mushroom was significantly reduced after treated with C. caudatus extract at concentration of 0.05% for 15 min; 6.13 ± 0.04 reduced to 2.62 ± 0.07. Moreover, B. cereus (Log10 CFU/g) in oyster mushroom was significantly reduced by treatment of C. caudatus extract at concentration of 0.05% for 5 min; 6.15 ± 0.09 reduced to 3.77 ± 0.15. Meanwhile, the number of E. coli (Log10 CFU/g) in oyster mushroom was significantly reduced at concentration of 0.05% for 10 min; 5.97 ± 0.04 reduced to 3.21 ± 0.13. Lastly, the survival number of S. aureus in oyster mushroom was significantly reduced after treated with C. caudatus extract at concentration of 0.05% for 15 min; 6.46 ± 0.00 reduced to 4.83 ± 0.07. In conclusion, C. caudatus extract has potentiality to be developed as natural sanitizer for rinsing raw food materials such as oyster mushroom