Challenges of Internet of Things and Big Data Integration

The Internet of Things anticipates the conjunction of physical gadgets to the In-ternet and their access to wireless sensor data which makes it expedient to restrain the physical world. Big Data convergence has put multifarious new opportunities ahead of business ventures to get into a new market or enhance their operations in the current market. considering the existing techniques and technologies, it is probably safe to say that the best solution is to use big data tools to provide an analytical solution to the Internet of Things. Based on the current technology deployment and adoption trends, it is envisioned that the Internet of Things is the technology of the future, while to-day's real-world devices can provide real and valuable analytics, and people in the real world use many IoT devices. Despite all the advertisements that companies offer in connection with the Internet of Things, you as a liable consumer, have the right to be suspicious about IoT advertise-ments. The primary question is: What is the promise of the Internet of things con-cerning reality and what are the prospects for the future.Comment: Proceedings of the International Conference on International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Computing 2018 (iCETiC '18), 23rd -24th August, 2018, at London Metropolitan University, London, UK, Published by Springer-Verla

Effects of Heme Oxygenase 1 Inducer, t-BHQ on Growth of Multiple Myeloma Cell Lines, and on Osteoblast and Osteoclast Differention

Expansion of plasma cells within the bone marrow constitutes the onset of multiple myeloma (MM). This disease manifests clinically primarily through the formation of osteolytic bone lesions that can lead to osteoporosis. The reason for the development of such lesions is the disruption of the equilibrium between bone resorption and bone formation as a result of proliferation of osteoclasts and reduction in the number of osteoblasts in the process of differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The maintenance of bone architecture is critically dependent on osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the activity of which is underpinned by a range of soluble factors. The present study sought to reduce cellular genotoxicity by using t-BHQ to target the major antioxidant gene heme-oxygenase 1 (HMOX1). This study provides a detailed investigation of the function of osteoclasts, osteoblasts MSCs and reactive oxygen species ROS in MM, especially with regards to disease progression. Since MM is associated with downregulation of HMOX1 expression, this study postulates that t-BHQ could be used to pharmacologically upregulate the expression of HMOX1. This pharmacological agent t-BHQ can trigger apoptosis in MM, confer cell protection against oxidative damage by upregulating HEME OXYGENASE 1, prevent osteoclasts from forming and ultimately avoid bone deterioration. Student’s two-tailed t-test was conducted to determine how the different types of cells (MM cell lines, MSCs, osteoblasts and osteoclasts) responded to t-BHQ. The P-value was less than 0.05, signifying that the results were of statistical significance

Surface Engineering of Zirconium for Tribological Properties Enhancement

Zirconium and its alloys have found increasing applications in several industrial sectors including the nuclear power generation, the chemical processing and the biomedical industries, mainly due to the combination properties of neutron transparency, excellent corrosion resistance and good biocompatibility. However, with a base hardness of about 200 HV, zirconium and its alloys have poor tribological properties and find limited applications in other fields of engineering. Efforts have been made in this work to develop surface engineering techniques to enhance the tribological properties of commercially pure zirconium (CP-Zr) and to characterise the structures and properties of surface engineered CP-Zr. It can be stated that there is limitation in the current research, no sufficient information on thermal oxidation and carburising of Zr has been released in open literature. In this research better wear resistances have been achieved for surface engineered zirconium using Thermal Oxidation (TO) and Pack Carburising (PC) treatments. Two surface engineering techniques have been investigated in this work. One is thermal oxidation (TO) and another is pack carburising (PC). Both processes have been investigated under a wide range of processing conditions, including processing temperature, time, surface roughness and compositions. The structures and compositions of the resultant surface and subsurface layers have been characterised using a variety of analytical and experimental techniques, including metallography, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, glow discharge spectrometer and ball-cratering. The properties of the surface engineered CP-Zr have been characterised by microhardness testing, scratch testing, and tribological testing under both dry, unlubricated and simulated body fluids (Ringer’s solution) conditions. The results show that TO is a very effective surface engineering technique to enhance the tribological properties of CP-Zr. TO produces a hard ZrO2 oxide layer (OL) of 5 to 12 microns on the surface and an oxygen diffusion zone (ODZ) of a few microns in the subsurface. The OL offers good wear resistance while the ODZ provides load bearing capacity. Thus, the combination of the OL and ODZ offers CP-Zr excellent tribological properties under high contact loads. However, the performance of TO CP-Zr depends on the TO process conditions and the surface roughness of the TO surface. This work investigated the effect of TO temperature, time, initial surface toughness and roughness after TO, on the tribological performance. It has been determined that the optimum TO temperature is 650oC and optimum time is 6 h. Too high a temperature and too long a TO time can lead to the formation of pores and cracks in the OL, leading to deterioration in tribological properties. This happens due to the fact that the created OL using those conditions can be poor, damaged and flakes off easily. It has also been found that a slightly rough surface before and/or after TO is beneficial in delaying crack formation in the OL during sliding and enhancing the load bearing capacity of TO CP-Zr. This happens because there is minimal contact between the alumina ball and surface of the sample during friction and wear testing. A further investigation has been conducted to compare TO Zr with TO Ti. Both Zr and Ti are important biometals used in medical implants. But they show very different TO characteristics in terms of OL growth kinetics and mechanical properties. This investigation has shown that TO produces a much thicker OL on Zr than on Ti and the OL on Zr is very adherent to the substrate. As a result, the TO Zr performs much better during sliding tests under dry conditions and in Ringer’s solution. Another surface engineering technique investigated is pack carburising (PC). Although very few work has been reported on carburising of zirconium, there have been some reports on pack carburising of titanium. It is thus necessary to investigate the feasibility of pack carburising CP-Zr in this work. PC was conducted at various temperatures (825 − 980oC) and for various duration (3-40 h) and with different pack compositions. The results show that CP-Zr can be effectively carburised at temperatures higher than 900oC for sufficiently long duration (more than 10 h). Low temperatures and short duration favour oxidation rather than carburisation. Successfully carburised CP-Zr comprises a ZrC carbide layer of a few microns on the surface, followed by a thick diffusion zone (200 microns) containing oxygen and carbon in the subsurface. The carburised CP-Zr offers enhanced tribological properties, but is not as effective as thermal oxidised CP-Zr

Investigation of post-acid stimulation impacts on well performance using fracture modeling and reservoir simulation in a Jurassic carbonate reservoir

Well stimulation (well fracturing) became an essential tool in the Oil and Gas industry to unlock the potential of unconventional reservoirs all over the world and especially in the Middle East. In Kuwait, well stimulation is obligatory when dealing with deep Jurassic carbonate reservoirs. Thus, the well fracture designing process plays a very critical role in determining the success of the stimulation job and the improvement of the recovery. Several wells stimulated with 20% HCL have shown wide variations in both short and long term well production performance. The research aims to investigate and identify the possible reasons causing these variations by creating an integrated workflow comprised of two modeling sections using actual field data. Fracture Modeling; to assess the fracturing operation and obtain the fracture geometry and conductivity using StimPlan software. Reservoir Simulation; to test the fracture design by the performance of the well using Petrel and Eclipse software. The iterative process in the workflow also gives the ability to tailor the design to reach the maximum potential of the well. Three major reasons are suspected to be behind the underperformance of the investigated well. First, human errors in planning and gathering the required data for the stimulation job. Second, the stress contrast between the layers allows the fracture to propagate vertically giving more fracture height than length. Third, the fracture orientation, which has a great effect on the long-term performance by allowing the induced fracture to intersect with the formation and the natural fractures --Abstract, page iii