Performance Of Prototype Research Articles

First experimental measurements with the Segmented Inverted-coaxial GerMAnium (SIGMA) detector

The SIGMA project aims to develop a p-type segmented inverted coaxial point contact germanium detector for gamma-ray tracking and imaging. The performance of the first prototype of this type of detector is reported. The measurements performed verified the size and shape of the crystal and determined the location of the complex active volumes of the detector segments. The latter determines the charge collection times that are related to the position of interaction. Good agreement is found between the results and the specified crystal design. The energy resolution of the point contact has been measured to be 0.84 keV and 2.21 keV at 122 keV and 1332 keV, respectively.

Performance of a prototype bakelite RPC at GIF++ using self-triggered electronics for the CBM experiment at FAIR

The Muon Chamber (MuCh) is a sub-system of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment for the detection of low-mass-vector mesons produced in high energy heavy ion collisions at beam energies ranging from 2 AGeV to 11 AGeV and decaying in the di-muon channel. MuCh consists of a segmented absorber and four detector triplet stations sandwiched between the absorber segments. At the 3rd and 4th stations of MuCh, Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) have been conceived for muon tracking. We have tested the performance of a low resistivity bakelite RPC prototype equipped with self-triggered front end electronics (MuCh-XYTER) for the CBM Muon Chamber. A systematic study on the muon detection efficiency and time resolution has been carried out in a high-rate photon background at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) at CERN. The details of the measurement setup and the results are presented here.

Life cycle assessment of animal-based foods and plant-based protein-rich alternatives: a socio-economic perspective.

BACKGROUNDExtensive research shows that replacing animal protein with plant‐based protein in the diet would strongly alleviate the environmental impact of the food system. However, much less attention has been given to the socio‐economic considerations of dietary transitions. This study analyses the socio‐economic performance of innovative legume‐based food prototypes, developed in the Protein2Food research project, and conventional animal‐based products (chicken meat and dairy milk). We implement a social life cycle assessment (sLCA) to quantify and compare their potential socio‐economic impacts along the entire life cycle.RESULTSFindings from this analysis show that legume‐based prototypes and their respective animal‐based counterparts have, overall, a comparable socio‐economic performance. Looking at the disaggregated life cycle stages, socio‐economic hotspots (points of most negative impacts) were mainly identified at the production stage in legume‐based products. Farm‐level net margin and profitability are low when compared with their animal equivalents. However, at the processing stage, there are socio‐economic gains for plant‐based products regarding lower unemployment rates. Finally, at the consumption stage, there are mixed results. Plant‐based products show worse protein affordability but better nutritional contents (lower saturated fat and cholesterol) than their animal counterparts.CONCLUSIONSTo improve socio‐economic performance of legume‐based foods, greater emphasis should be placed upon developing improved processing technologies and supply chains. This would broaden the supply of sustainable protein‐rich food options and make these products more economically attractive. The research illustrates that policies should be targeted to the different stages of the food value chain to optimize the development of innovative plant‐based foods. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

FPGA Design for On‐Board Measurement of Intermittency From In‐Situ Satellite Data

AbstractIntermittency is a fundamental property of space plasma dynamics, characterizing turbulent dynamical variables as well as passive scalars. Its qualitative and quantitative description from in‐situ data requires an accurate estimation of the probability density functions (PDFs) of fluctuations and their moments, particularly the flatness, a normalized fourth order moment of the PDF. Such a statistical description needs a sufficiently large number of samples for the computation to be meaningful. Due to inherent technological limitations (e.g., limited telemetry bandwidth) not all samples collected on‐board can be sent to the ground for further analysis. Therefore, a technology designed to process on‐board the data and to compute the flatness is useful to fully exploit the capabilities of scientific instruments installed on robotic platforms, including nanosatellites. We designed, built, and tested in laboratory such a technology based on Field Programable Gate Arrays (FPGA). The building principle is the classical estimation of PDFs and their moments, based on normalized histograms of a measure. The technical design uses the FloPoCo (Floating‐Point Cores) framework with customized arithmetic operators; the computation block is a pipelined architecture, which computes a new value of the flatness in each clock cycle. The design and implementation achieve optimization directives of the FPGA resources relevant for operation in space, like area, energy efficiency, and precision. The technology was tested in laboratory using Xilinx SRL16 or SRLC32 macros and provides correct results validated with test time series provided by magnetic field data collected in the solar wind by ULYSSES spacecraft. The characteristics and performance of the laboratory prototype pave the way for a space qualified version of the laboratory design.

Biological Potentiality to Remove Organic Solvents From Exhausted Air Emissions

The performance of an industrial prototype of a biological system was investigated during more than two years, for the treatment of exhaust gas from air emission of wooden painting activities. Two different type of VOCs mixture were treated at different weather conditions. Removal efficiencies were sufficiently high to maintain the outlet emissions within the legal thresholds. Particularly low costs for management were experienced, confirming the biofiltration a sustainable technology.

Incipient motion of Armorflex articulating concrete blocks on steep slopes

Armorflex is an articulating concrete block erosion protection measure that has been used as an alternative to riprap for many years. Even though extensive research and hydraulic testing have been conducted on Armorflex, the principal constraint on the use of concrete blocks has been the lack of information on prototype performance. Furthermore, there are no standards for Armorflex or articulating concrete block revetments in the South African National Standards, and design guidelines from Armorflex manufacturers are insufficient. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the critical flow conditions under which Armorflex blocks are lifted and removed by flowing water in open channel flow applications. Scaled laboratory tests were conducted on Armorflex 140 and Armorflex 180 blocks. Liu's theory of 1957 is applied in an attempt to define the point where block movement is initiated.

A Latent Heat Storage System for Low-Temperature Applications: From Materials Selection to Prototype Performances

The industrial sector is increasingly obliged to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions to contribute to the world organizations’ targets in energy transition. An energy efficiency solution lies in the development of thermal energy storage systems, which are notably lacking in the low-temperature range (50–85 °C), for applications such as district heating or low-temperature waste heat recovery. This work aims to bring a latent heat storage solution from material selection to prototype evaluation. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the characterization and aging of a phase change material selected from a screening of the literature (fatty acid mixture mainly composed by stearic and palmitic acid). Then, this material is encapsulated and tested in a prototype whose performances are evaluated under various operating conditions. Finally, a numerical model validated by the experimental results is used to explore the influence of a wider range of operating conditions, dimensioning choices, and material conductivity improvements.

Control Strategy of Pipeline Robot

The detection of pipeline in service is very important, but the existing manual detection has blind spots, long cycle, high risk, low precision and high cost. Therefore, it is very important to develop a mobile detection robot to replace manual inspection. This paper mainly introduces the control strategy of pipeline robot. In this paper, the overall control structure of the pipeline robot system is built, including the design of hardware framework and the design of software implementation process. Hardware design includes the selection design of microcontroller ARM, sensor, motor driver and so on. The software design is mainly the process design of action realization and the frame design of man-machine interactive operation panel structure. After the system construction is completed, the motion control experiment of the pipeline robot control system is carried out to test the walking performance of the pipeline robot prototype in the vertical variable diameter pipeline, and the motion control experiment is carried out to verify the rationality of the mechanical structure of the pipeline robot and the practicability of the control system.

Utilization of Electronic Waste for Energy-saving Lamp Circuits

Indonesia is one of the largest electronic consumer countries in the world. The negative impact unless the increase in the use of electrical energy, there is also an increase in electronic waste or e-waste. If electronic waste (e-waste) is not managed properly, it will cause its own problems, especially environmental health problems. One alternative to overcome these problems is the use of e-waste as a raw material for a series of Waste-Based Energy Saving Lamps, abbreviated as SLHE BBL. This study aims to develop SLHE BBL prototypes base on electric and electronics waste, and test the performance of SLHE BBL prototypes. The SLHE BBL method developed by research and development adapted from Borg & Gall with the following stages: First, needs analysis and product planning; Second: Initial product development, validation and initial product revision. Third: Product development, testing, product revision. Fourth: Finalization dan Dissemination. The research instrument consisted of an observation sheet, luxmeter, voltmeter, ammeter, multimeter, watt meter. The collected data was then analyzed quantitatively and descriptively. The results of the research are as follows: 1) waste that can be recycled into raw materials for SLHE BBL include: resistors, capacitors, LED lights on computer mice or electronic component indicators, used goods casings, adapters, diodes, cables, TV’s control remote; 2) Electrical and mechanical design of SLHE BBL can be assembled into prototype of SLHE BBL; 3) The performance of the SLHE BBL prototype is that the lamp can be adjusted in colour and light intensity; the measured electrical parameters are within the range in accordance with the provisions of electrical standards such as Perasyaratan Umum Instalasi Lstrik (PUIL), International Electrical Commisionin (IEC), or National Electrical Code (NEC)

Performance analysis of a high-efficiency multi-bed active magnetic regenerator device

• A magnetocaloric device with a parallel flow system was tested by DTU. • The device produced a maximum cooling power of 815 W over a 5.6 K-span at 1.2 Hz. • A maximum second-law efficiency of 20.5% was achieved. • The device offers great freedom to adjust the cold and hot blow fractions. We present the performance of an active magnetic regenerator prototype with a multi-bed concept and parallel flow circuit. The prototype applies a two-pole permanent magnet (maximum magnetic flux density of 1.44 T) that rotates over 13 tapered regenerator beds mounted on a laminated iron yoke ring. Each bed is filled with about 262 g of spherical particles, distributed in layers of ten alloys of La(Fe,Mn,Si) 13 H y (CALORIVAC HS) with different Curie temperatures. Other important features are the solenoid valves, the monitoring of the temperatures exiting each bed at the cold side, and a torque meter used to measure the magnetic power required to drive the cycle. The opening behavior of the solenoid valves (i.e., the blow fraction) could be adjusted to correct flow imbalances in each bed. The device provided a maximum cooling power of about 815 W at a cycle frequency of 1.2 Hz, a utilization of 0.36, and a hot reservoir temperature of 295 K while maintaining a 5.6 K-temperature span with a coefficient of performance of 6.0. In this case, the second-law efficiency was 11.6%. The maximum second-law efficiency of 20.5%, which represents one of the largest for a magnetocaloric device, was obtained at a cycle frequency of 0.5 Hz, a utilization of 0.34, and a hot reservoir temperature of 295 K at a temperature span of 10.3 K. Under these conditions, the device absorbed a cooling load of 288 W with a coefficient of performance of 5.7. It was also shown that an unbalanced flow due to different hydraulic resistance through the beds can cause cold side outlet temperature variations, which reduce the system performance, demonstrating the importance of a well-functioning, balanced flow system.

SIMULATION OF EGNOS SATELLITE NAVIGATION SIGNAL USAGE FOR AIRCRAFT LPV PRECISION INSTRUMENT APPROACH

Satellite navigation has become a very important topic in the air transport industry along with its application in instrument approach procedures. Recently, extracted statistical characteristics of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) satellite signal have been made available from real measurements in the Czech Republic. The numerical modeling approach is taken for a feasibility study of automatic aircraft control during the Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) precision approach based on such navigation data. The model incorporates Kalman filtering of the stochastic navigation signal, feed-back control of L-410 aircraft dynamics and the calculation of approach progress along the predefined procedure. Evaluation of the performance of the system prototype is performed using the scenarios developed with a strong interest in altitude control. The specific scenario is focused on a curved approach which offers a huge advantage of the approaches based on the Satellite-based Augmentation System (SBAS) compared to ones with the Instrument Landing System (ILS). Outputs of simulation executions are statistically analyzed and assessed against predefined navigation performance goals equivalent to ILS categories with a positive outcome.

Pengaruh Variasi Insulator Saluran Chilled Water Terhadap Performansi Prototype Mini Water Chiller

The high heat transfer rate from the environment to the chilled water pipe will affect the performance of the mini water chiller prototype, so it is necessary to insulate the chilled water pipe using the right insulator to optimize the performance of the mini water chiller prototype. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of the chilled water pipe insulator variations: nitrile rubber expanded and polyurethane foam on the optimal temperature and cooling rate of the mini water chiller prototype cabin. The method used in this study is an experimental method with a variation of the insulator as independent variables and the optimal temperature also cooling rate of the mini water chiller prototype cabin as the dependent variables. The testing process was carried out 20 times repetition of data collection on each variation using a stopwatch, thermo gun, thermostat, ampere pliers, a bulb, and a water heating element as a tool in research. In addition, it expanded nitrile rubber and polyurethane foam spray as research material. The results obtained from this study showed that the average optimal temperature achievement of the mini water chiller prototype with polyurethane foam insulator was 11.242◦C, and with the nitrile rubber expanded insulator was 11.250◦C. Otherwise, the average cooling rate of the mini water chiller prototype cabin with polyurethane foam insulator variation was 0.001421◦C, while in the variation of nitrile rubber expanded it was 0.001032◦C, which indicates that there is an effect of chilled water pipe insulator variations on the performance of the mini water chiller prototype.

Pengaruh Variasi Lilitan Pipa Kapiler pada Line Suction terhadap Laju Pendinginan dan Capaian Suhu Optimal Ruangan Prototype Trainer Lemari Pendingin

This study aims to find the effect of variations in the capillary tube winding on the suction line on achieving optimal temperature and room cooling rate. This study uses three variations: the capillary tube without being wrapped around the suction line, the capillary tube wrapped in half on the suction line, and the capillary tube fully wound on the suction line. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of variations in the capillary tube wrapped around the suction line, which led to efforts to maintain the performance of the refrigerator trainer prototype. The method used in this study uses an experimental method where the data collection process is carried out through observation and documentation. The data analysis technique used in this study uses quantitative descriptive research techniques where the research data will be tabulated and displayed in the form of tables and graphs, and data analysis is carried out to find out how much influence the achievement of the optimal room temperature and the cooling rate of the prototype trainer refrigerator room itself. From the research that has been carried out, it is obtained that the highest optimal room temperature achievement occurs in the variation of the capillary tube fully wound on the suction line, where there is an increase in the optimal room temperature achievement of 16.17% when compared to the room cooling rate using standard variations or without being wrapped. And the result in the form of the highest room cooling rate is the variation of the capillary pipe fully wound on the suction line.

Dataset on a Small-Scale Film-Coating Process Developed for Self-Expanding 4D Printed Drug Delivery Devices

Film-coating is widely applied in pharmaceutics to enhance aspect/taste and mechanical properties of dosage forms, to protect them from the environment and to modify their release performance. In this respect, a film-coating process was recently involved in the development of 4D printed prolonged-release systems intended for organ retention. During coating processes, liquid formulations are sprayed onto moving cores, whose shape, weight and surface characteristics are essential to attain a homogeneous film. Devices of complex shapes, composed of smart materials and fabricated by hot-processing techniques, such as extrusion and fused deposition modeling 3D printing, might be poorly compatible with the requirements of traditional coating methods, e.g., need for spherical substrates with smooth surface and stable under process temperatures. This work was aimed at evaluating, at a small scale level, the feasibility of a versatile equipment for film-coating of rod-shaped extruded and printed prototypes with different section. Equipment design and set up of process parameters were performed starting from polymeric solutions and suspensions and selecting as cores 50 mm-long rod-shaped samples based on shape memory poly(vinyl alcohol). Integrity and thickness of the applied layer and its impact on shape memory and release performance of prototypes were investigated.

Using Shallow and Deep Learning to Automatically Detect Hate Motivated by Gender and Sexual Orientation on Twitter in Spanish

The increasing phenomenon of “cyberhate” is concerning because of the potential social implications of this form of verbal violence, which is aimed at already-stigmatized social groups. According to information collected by the Ministry of the Interior of Spain, the category of sexual orientation and gender identity is subject to the third-highest number of registered hate crimes, ranking behind racism/xenophobia and ideology. However, most of the existing computational approaches to online hate detection simultaneously attempt to address all types of discrimination, leading to weaker prototype performances. These approaches focus on other reasons for hate—primarily racism and xenophobia—and usually focus on English messages. Furthermore, few detection models have used manually generated databases as a training corpus. Using supervised machine learning techniques, the present research sought to overcome these limitations by developing and evaluating an automatic detector of hate speech motivated by gender and sexual orientation. The focus was Spanish-language posts on Twitter. For this purpose, eight predictive models were developed from an ad hoc generated training corpus, using shallow modeling and deep learning. The evaluation metrics showed that the deep learning algorithm performed significantly better than the shallow modeling algorithms, and logistic regression yielded the best performance of the shallow algorithms.

Deploying and scaling distributed parallel deep neural networks on the Tianhe-3 prototype system

Due to the increase in computing power, it is possible to improve the feature extraction and data fitting capabilities of DNN networks by increasing their depth and model complexity. However, the big data and complex models greatly increase the training overhead of DNN, so accelerating their training process becomes a key task. The Tianhe-3 peak speed is designed to target E-class, and the huge computing power provides a potential opportunity for DNN training. We implement and extend LeNet, AlexNet, VGG, and ResNet model training for a single MT-2000+ and FT-2000+ compute nodes, as well as extended multi-node clusters, and propose an improved gradient synchronization process for Dynamic Allreduce communication optimization strategy for the gradient synchronization process base on the ARM architecture features of the Tianhe-3 prototype, providing experimental data and theoretical basis for further enhancing and improving the performance of the Tianhe-3 prototype in large-scale distributed training of neural networks.

The CaloCube calorimeter for high-energy cosmic-ray measurements in space: performance of a large-scale prototype

The direct observation of high-energy cosmic rays, up to the PeV energy region, will increasingly rely on highly performing calorimeters, and the physics performance will be primarily determined by their geometrical acceptance and energy resolution. Thus, it is extremely important to optimize their geometrical design, granularity and absorption depth, with respect to the total mass of the apparatus, which is amongst the most important constraints for a space mission. CaloCube is an homogeneous calorimeter whose basic geometry is cubic and isotropic, obtained by filling the cubic volume with small cubic scintillating crystals. In this way it is possible to detect particles arriving from every direction in space, thus maximizing the acceptance. This design summarizes a three-year R&D activity, aiming to both optimize and study the full-scale performance of the calorimeter, in the perspective of a cosmic-ray space mission, and investigate a viable technical design by means of the construction of several sizable prototypes. A large scale prototype, made of a mesh of 5 × 5 × 18 CsI(Tl) crystals, has been constructed and tested on high-energy particle beams at CERN SPS accelerator. In this paper we describe the CaloCube design and present the results relative to the response of the large scale prototype to electrons.

Developing migrants prototypes performance through bottom-up construction method

Abstract Natural and man-made disasters are vital issues that led to the increasing number of migrants, many of them stayed displaced for decades this requires more permanent dwellings. The main aim of the study is to investigate the impact of the bottom-up construction method on developing migrant’s shelters energy and thermal comfort performance. Dynamic simulation tool Indoor Climate and Energy (IDA ICE 4.8) has been used to assess nine different scenarios. The results quantified that the annually delivered energy and thermal comfort accepted hours of proposed scenario nine (S9) is better compared to base-case scenario one (S1) by 63% kWh and 4,215 h respectively. Methodologies and results of this paper can be adopted and applied for various places of the world affected by migration issue.

Performance Characterization of ESA's Tropospheric Delay Calibration System for Advanced Radio Science Experiments

AbstractMedia propagation noises are amongst the main error sources of radiometric observables for deep space missions, with fluctuations of the tropospheric excess path length representing a relevant contributor to the Doppler noise budget. Microwave radiometers currently represent the most accurate instruments for the estimation of the tropospheric delay and delay rate along a slant direction. A prototype of a tropospheric delay calibration system (TDCS), using a 14 channel Ka/V band microwave radiometer, has been developed under a European Space Agency contract and installed at the deep space ground station in Malargüe, Argentina, in February 2019. After its commissioning, the TDCS has been involved in an extensive testbed campaign by recording a total of 44 tracking passes of the Gaia spacecraft, which were used to perform an orbit determination analysis. This work presents the first statistical characterization of the end‐to‐end performance of the TDCS prototype in an operational scenario. The results show that using TDCS‐based calibrations instead of the standard GNSS‐based calibrations leads to a significant reduction of the residual Doppler noise and instability.

MANUFACTURE OF TOMATOES HALVING PROTOTYPE FOR NATURAL DRYING PROCESS

Tomatoes are an important component of the human diet but possess a very short post-harvest shelf-life which makes them highly perishable. This causes a problem in the transportation and handling of tomato fruits. The open natural sun drying of tomatoes in Upper Egypt is the best solution to this problem. Most processes of halving cutting tomatoes are manual, this process is a cumbersome, time-consuming, and labor-intensive job. So, this research aims to develop, fabricated, and evaluated the performance of halving cutting tomatoes prototype made with local materials, suitable for three cultivars (Nesma, Masa, and 2020) costumed for sun drying. The major components of the machine include the frame, the conveyor belt, cutting sow blade (smooth edge, inclined and straight teeth), electric motor, and power transmission system. The factors for evaluating performance of prototype included estimating the appropriate feeding rate, percentage of damage rate, cutting efficiency and productivity and calculating initial operating costs compared to manual halving costs. The results of the prototype performance evaluation showed that increasing the linear speed of the conveyor belt leads to decrease in productivity while decrease in cutting efficiency of the fruits. The best average productivity was achieved of highest cutting efficiency and least damage percentage at lowest linear speed of conveyor for three cultivars. The results also showed lower operating costs of the prototype at lowest linear speed of conveyor belt compared to manual cutting. Recommended that developing of this prototype to clean, dry and grade the fruits before halving.