Comparative analysis between MERRA and updated MEPDG climate database in the state of Tennessee

The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) addresses climate effects on pavement design in a comprehensive way, which allows for investigating the effect of climate inputs on pavement performance. However, it requires detailed climate inputs, which might not be available for most of the state DOT. The Updated AASHTOWare climate database encompasses twelve stations in the state of Tennessee, which might not well represent all climatic regions in the state of Tennessee. This study compares and evaluates the performance of pavements in Tennessee using Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and the updated AASHTOWare databases as a source of MEPDG climate data inputs. A comparative analysis between these two climate data sources using eight LTPP sites in Tennessee was conducted. It was found that using MERRA as a climate data source for the state of Tennessee will offer better geographic coverage and therefore more precise distress predictions are expected

Developing A High-performance Liquid Chromatography Method for Simultaneous Determination of Loratadine and its Metabolite Desloratadine in Human Plasma

Background: Allergic diseases are considered as the major burden on public health with increased prevalence globally. Histamine H1-receptor antagonists are the foremost commonly used drugs in the treatment of allergic disorders. The target drug in this study, loratadine, belongs to this class of drugs and its biometabolite desloratadine which is also a non-sedating H1 receptor antagonist with anti-histaminic activity being 2.5 to 4 times greater than loratadine. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel isocratic Reversed-phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for rapid and simultaneous separation and determination of loratadine and its metabolite, desloratadine in human plasma. Methods: The drug extraction method from plasma was based on protein precipitation technique. The separation was carried out on a Thermo Scientific BDS Hypersil C18 column (5μm, 250 x 4.60 mm) in a mobile phase of MeOH: 0.025M KH2PO4 adjusted to pH 3.50 using orthophosphoric acid (85: 15, v/v) at an ambient temperature. The flow rate was maintained at 1 mL/min and maximum absorption was measured using the PDA detector at 248 nm. Results: The retention times of loratadine and desloratadine in plasma samples were recorded to be 4.10 and 5.08 minutes, respectively, indicating a short analysis time. Limits of detection were found to be 1.80 and 1.97 ng/mL for loratadine and desloratadine, respectively, showing a high degree of sensitivity of the method. The method was then validated according to FDA guidelines for the determination of the two analytes in human plasma. Conclusion: The results obtained indicate that the proposed method is rapid, sensitive in the nanogram range, accurate, selective, robust and reproducible compared to other reported methods

Estimating Egyptsat -1 Radiometric Coefficient using Cross Calibration with Spot4 and Spot5

The pre-processing of satellite data is a vital step in harnessing the full potential of remote sensing pictures. EgyptSat-1, Egypt\u27s first satellite for observing the Earth from a distance, encountered a major obstacle as a considerable amount of the images it captured could not be used since the necessary radiometric coefficients were missing. This study utilises a cross-calibration methodology, taking advantage of the spectral similarity between Spot 4 and Spot 5 as reference satellites, in order to retrieve these difficult-to-obtain coefficients. The analysis demonstrates that the selection of window size in the cross-calibration process is crucial in determining the outcomes. In general, smaller window sizes tend to produce better results. However, there are certain cases when larger windows are more successful, such as in the scenario of EgyptSat-1\u27s band 3 and its cross-calibration with Spot 5. In contrast to a previous study, the new methodology produces much diminished uncertainty factors, indicating a remarkable enhancement in accuracy. The cross-calibration results highlight the significance of selecting the appropriate window size and satellite for accurate calibration, especially for the Near-Infrared (NIR) band, which is highly responsive to these parameters. Moreover, there are differences in the computations of offset and gain between Spot 4 and Spot 5, which further highlight the intricacies involved in radiometric calibration. The results of this study lead to the determination of improved calibration coefficients for EgyptSat -1, with the specific aim of maximising the accuracy of the results and minimising any errors

Healthcare Associated Infections: A Benchmark Study

When it comes to hospital-acquired infections, whether the hospital has implemented best-practice infection control measures, whether it has introduced best practice infection control measures, or whether it will be held vicariously liable for negligent or intentional failures by staff to follow the infection control measures in place, is the determining factor. If a hospital and its administrators fail to develop or implement best practice infection control methods, resulting in patient harm, they may be held directly liable. Patients may be held vicariously liable if hospital employees fail to comply with infection control measures implemented by the hospital during the course and scope of their employment (McQuoid-Mason, 2012)

STUDI PENGARUH GAS FLOW RATE TERHADAP KEKUATAN TARIK, KEKERASAN DAN CACAT PADA PENGELASAN MAG BAJA ASTM A 53

The selection of the type of welding is determined based on the type of steel, the tensile strength which is influenced by the carbon content, and the shielding gas used to minimize the occurrence of welding defects. The effect of large/small gas flowrate on Metal Active Gas (MAG) welding has an effect on the quality of welding results and welding defects. This study aims to determine the effect of gas flow rate MAG welding on tensile strength, hardness and welding defects in ASTM A53 steel. This research is a laboratory experimental study of variations in gas flow rate of MAG welding and then tested for tensile strength with a tensile tester, testing for hardness with a Rockwell harness test, testing for welding defects using a liquid penetrant test. Welding tensile strength based on the average value of the highest modulus of elasticity (E) is the specimen with MAG welding treatment with a gas flow rate variation of 25 liters/minute, which is 22.04 N/. The hardness value of the weld metal shows the highest average HRB value in MAG welding with a gas flow rate variation of 25 liters/minute which has an average value of 86.06 HRB. The metal hardness value in the Heat Affected Zone shows the highest average HRB value in MAG welding with a gas flow rate variation of 25 liters/minute which has an average value of 84.65 HRB, the hardness value in the base metal area shows the highest average value in MAG welding with a gas flow rate variation of 25 liters/minute which has an average value -average 82.92 HRB. The results of the welding defect test show that for all variations of the types of welding defects that arise are porosity, undercut, lack of penetration and spatte

Ferroelectric Glass-Ceramic Systems for Energy Storage Applications

An overview of ferroelectric glass ceramics, some literature review and some of the important previous studies were focused in this chapter. Nanocrystalline glass–ceramics containing ferroelectric perovskite-structured phases have been included. All modified glasses having ferroelectric ceramics which prepared by different methods are discussed, that producing nanocrystalline glass–ceramics. Then particular tested to their use as dielectric energy storage materials. These materials exhibit promising dielectric properties, indicating good potential for high energy density capacitors as a result of their nanocrystalline microstructures. The results of the analysis are summarised in this chapter to provide an overview of the energy storage characteristics of the different materials produced during the study

L'architettura dell'et\ue0 del Ferro a Mishrifeh, Siria centrale

Lo scopo della ricerca sul complesso architettonico dell'Area O, ubicato ai piedi dell'acropoli del sito di Mishrifeh, \ue8 quello di inserire questo complesso nel contesto urbanistico del sito di Mishrifeh e della Siria centrale durante l'et\ue0 del Ferro, al fine di arrivare alla comprensione di questo complesso specifico e di definire meglio il carattere dell'occupazione a Mishrifeh e il suo ruolo come sito centrale nello scenario storico della Siria durante i secoli IX e VIII a.C

A Framework for Arabic Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis using SenticNet

Arabic Sentiment analysis research field has been progressing in a slow pace compared to English and other languages. In addition to that most of the contributions are based on using supervised machine learning algorithms while comparing the performance of different classifiers with different selected stylistic and syntactic features. In this paper, we presented a novel framework for using the Concept-level sentiment analysis approach which classifies text based on their semantics rather than syntactic features. Moreover, we provided a lexicon dataset of around 69 k unique concepts that covers multi-domain reviews collected from the internet. We also tested the lexicon on a test sample from the dataset it was collected from and obtained an accuracy of 70%. The lexicon has been made publicly available for scientific purposes

Equity and Exclusion Issues in Cashless fare payment systems for public transportation

Many transit agencies in the United States plan to automate their fare collection and limit–or even eliminate–the use of cash fares, with the goals of expediting boarding, collecting data, and lowering costs. Yet about 10% of US adults lack a bank account or credit card, and many rely on restrictive cellphone data plans or do not have access to the internet or a smartphone. These riders will find it difficult to access transit in the future. This paper examines transit users’ experiences with fare technologies using a survey of riders in three cities. Our analysis reveals which riders are most at risk of being excluded, and how mitigation strategies could work to overcome barriers to cash-less transit. We find that a significant number of riders (∼30%) currently use cash on-board buses. If on-board cash fares were to be removed, a significant share of these riders appear able to switch to other options, though many imagine they will continue to use cash in some way (e.g. at retail or ticket vending machines); a small number claim they would no longer be able to ride transit if on-board cash fares were removed. Older and lower-income riders are more at risk of exclusion as they often lack access to smartphones or the internet. A significant number rely on less dependable internet sources, such as public Wi-Fi, potentially inhibiting some from using smartphone and internet-based payment systems. Findings suggest approaches to reduce the number of riders excluded from transit during fare technology adoption

Analysis of Wind Turbine Driven Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator under Different Loading Conditions

This paper proposes the configuration of a Wind Turbine generating system equipped with Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG). There are different types of synchronous generators, but the PMSG is chosen which has better performance due to higher efficiency and less maintenance. Since it can be used without a gearbox also implies a reduction of the weight of the nacelle and a reduction of costs. The model includes a wind turbine model, drive train model and PMSG model. The equations that explain their behavior have been introduced. The generator model is established in the d-q synchronous rotating reference frame. The proposed Wind Turbine Generator System (WTGS) has been implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The PMSG is operating in stand-alone which is loaded with different types of loads. The simulation results indicate the ability of wind driven PMSG to operate over wide range of operating conditions at different loading conditions and show effect of different load types in operation. Keywords: Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG), Wind Turbine, Wind Energy and WTGS MATLAB/SIMULINK